Easier--and cheaper--to cook it yourself

God knows there are many days when I don't feel like cooking, but spending two hours assembling a meal made from canned cream of chicken soup to the tune of $3.50 a serving is just plain stupid. Especially when you consider that you still have to go home to cook it.

This chain seems to be making its bones by adding "inconvenient" to the "expensive, fattening and boring" equation. Also, my objection to this business is not a question of insisting that parents ("Moms" as the Times call them) travel to Brittany to harvest their own fleur de sel, or generally spend more time making meals, and eschew this kind of shortcut -- these meal assembly centers seem distinctly less convenient than making a meal at home, never mind the risk of getting cream of broccoli all over the interior of your Nissan Quest.

In 30 minutes you can toss a salad, make spaghetti carbonara--with fresh eggs, bacon and cheese--and clean up the kitchen before these women have even gotten home from the "meal assembly center."