Photo by Meg Ryan
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Fans of Chefs’ Haven in Hockessin should be pleasantly surprised this month.
The speciality foods and cooking class establishment, located at 1304 Old Lancaster Pike, recently finished renovations. Along with physical changes, chef and owner Mark Eastman is aiming to offer his customers more with an expanded selection of prepared foods and specialty items.
Eastman has been operating Chefs’ Haven for 11 years and knew it was time to offer customers something different. “It was time for a change,” he said.
The shop reopened at the end of January with a soft opening to welcome customers back in and let everyone adjust to the new setup. “[I want to] expand more and more as I find out what people are interested in,” Eastman said.
The front part of the store is reorganized and the entire space was freshly painted.
Eastman put a commercial kitchen into Chefs’ Haven over the summer. This now allows him to make prepared foods like artisan breads, fermented veggies, mustards, pasta sauces, salad dressings, barbecue sauces and soups, and sell them to customers to take home and make dinnertime quicker, but still delicious.
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The commercial kitchen will also help with cooking classes. Eastman will now be able to sell ingredients like sauces, breads and vegetables if customers want to recreate dishes from the class at home. It also allows for cross promotion, he said, offering discounts on certain items during the classes.
The cooking class calendar and signup process can be found on the Chefs’ Haven website.
Eastman plans to use the Blue Zones food diets to drive some of his cooking classes menus. Blue Zones are regions of the world made famous by author Dan Buettner, who states that people live much longer than average in those areas due to their diets.
Chefs’ Haven will also be able to order special meat cuts upon request, along with marinated and dry-rubbed meats.
Other items like locally-made chocolates and Stumptown Coffee will be items customers keep coming back for. Chefs’ Haven will also continue Savory Saturdays and Sweet Sundays, Eastman said.
As customers return, Eastman said he plans to listen to the feedback and adjust as he sees fit.
“It’s catering more to what the people have been asking for,” he said.
Chefs’ Haven, 1304 Old Lancaster Pike in Hockessin, 234-2040, chefshavende.com
