We Tried Sous

A journal of our first company offsite — and the best meal I've had in a long time.

There's something uncomfortable about being a founder who's never fully used his own product.

I built Sous to help families eat better. We've booked hundreds of chefs. We've talked to hundreds of clients. But until a few weeks ago, I had never sat down at my own table with a Sous chef cooking in my kitchen.

That changed at our first company offsite.

Picking a Chef

Browsing chefs on Sous.

We decided to do something different for our first ever company offsite. We were going to book a chef through our own platform, invite our team — and our families — and have dinner together at my house.

We opened the app and started browsing. That part was surreal. I've watched hundreds of people do this. Now I was doing it myself, scrolling through chef profiles like any other customer would.

We landed on Chef Carson Timmerman. Michelin-trained, great instincts, and — critically — she could do something seasonal and special. That mattered to us. We always tell clients that our chefs don't just cook food, they tell a story through it. I wanted to see that firsthand.

We had one more thing to figure out before we confirmed: the menu.

Building the Menu Together

This is the part of Sous I talk about most in customer calls. The collaboration. The back and forth. The moment a chef becomes your chef.

We came into it with real constraints. Our co-founder Ali is a picky eater. Justin's wife Kelly is pregnant. We wanted something that worked for everyone — and still felt like a real dining experience.

We told Carson to make it seasonal and intentional. And please, don't make it boring just because we have dietary considerations.

Also Ali wanted steak.

She came back with a Winter Tasting Menu:

Cracker Spread — gluten-free seeded bread and carta di musica with cheeses, honey, and butter
Winter Salad — winter citrus, charred radicchio, caper vinaigrette, and apple cider farro
Celery Root Almond Bisque
Filet — with black bean sauce, green garbanzo beans, and a chicken fried mushroom
Chef's Choice Dessert

We approved it immediately.

*Our team and our families. Incredible meal.*

The Night Of

Carson arrived with her sous chef (and boyfriend) Duke. They came in, got oriented, and took over the kitchen with a quiet, professional confidence.

We had music going. The kids were running around. Justin's son Max and my son Caiden — two toddlers — were doing their thing, completely unbothered by the fact that something kind of extraordinary was happening around them.

That's the thing about Sous that I sometimes struggle to explain: you can't do this at a restaurant. You can't bring your toddler to a Michelin-level dinner and just... let him run. You can't pause between courses to put a kid to bed and come back to the table. The meal bends to your life. Not the other way around.

The bisque came out first. Silky, elegant, with a bright herb oil on top that made the whole bowl feel alive.

Then the salad — charred radicchio with citrus and farro — acidic and bitter in the best way, like something you'd find at a restaurant where you can't get a reservation.

*Winter salad: charred radicchio, citrus, caper vinaigrette, apple cider farro.*

Then the filet. Carson and Duke had plated every single dish individually in the kitchen and brought them out together.

*Filet with black bean sauce, green garbanzo beans, and chicken fried mushroom.*

Pink, rested, perfect. Chicken-fried mushroom sitting on top like a little crown.

I watched my co-founder Ali — a notoriously picky eater — clean his plate. That told me everything.

My wife Anyea was feeding Caiden between bites of her own food, and I remember just looking around the table thinking: this is what we built this for.

Then came dessert. Chef Carson pulled out a torch and started finishing the meringue one by one.

*Chef Carson finishing the dessert course.*

The Moment That Got Me

At some point during the meal, Kelly — Justin's wife, who is pregnant — leaned over and said it was the best meal of her life.

I've heard versions of this from clients before. But hearing it from someone I care about, at a dinner I was part of, after building this company for two years — it hit differently.

We launched Sous right after our sons were born. The idea came from that newborn fog — delivery food stacking up, craving something home-cooked, realizing that the people who need a personal chef most aren't the ones throwing parties. They're the families just trying to get through the week.

Kelly saying that in our living room, with Max and Caiden crawling around, felt like a full-circle moment I didn't know I was waiting for.

A look at the full evening. Watch the service on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWU4IY-EfE7/

What I Took Away

Using your own product changes you a little bit.

I knew the flow. I knew what Carson would do before she did it. But experiencing it as a customer — feeling the nerves of "is this going to be great?" and then watching it become great — made me understand our clients better than any feedback survey ever could.

A few things I'll carry with me:

The menu-planning process is magic. That conversation between us and Carson shaped the whole evening. The constraints (picky eater, pregnant guest, seasonal preference) didn't limit the meal — they made it personal.

The feeling in the room is the product. The food was incredible. But what I'll remember most is my cofounders at my dinner table, my son playing on the floor, and a chef making something beautiful in my kitchen. That's not something you can order on an app. Except now, you kind of can.

Ready to try it yourself? Book a chef

— Craig Silver, CEO & Co-founder, Sous