The Scoop: Since 2012, Haven’s Kitchen has encouraged people to come together and experience the joys of cooking at home. Its women-led team churns out fresh sauces that can bring extra spice and flavor to just about any home-cooked meal, and the pouch packaging makes it easy to pour and store. Haven’s Kitchen has perfected six sauces that couples can use to experiment with international flavors and have a great time cooking on their next dinner date.
began offering beginner-friendly cooking classes in New York City in 2012, and it was a big hit with couples. Some came on first dates, while others celebrated birthdays or anniversaries at the cooking classes, and everyone savored the experience of trying something new in the kitchen.
As its reputation grew in the community, Haven’s Kitchen expanded to accommodate requests to host team-building activities, book parties, and even weddings in its upstairs events space. It hosted 50 weddings and 200 events in one year.
As the Founder and CEO of Haven’s Kitchen, Alison Cayne saw firsthand the positive impact the cooking classes had on people’s lives, and she decided to do more to support home chefs beyond New York City. A few years ago, Alison shifted gears away from cooking events and ventured on a saucy endeavor to bring more flavors to the average kitchen.
Haven’s Kitchen offers original sauces to spice up date nights at home.
Alison used her culinary experience to create a line of sauces that will stay fresh on the grocery store shelf and give home chefs a shortcut to a delicious, savory meal. The sauces even come in recyclable pouches to make it easy to squeeze and pour the right amount.
Haven’s Kitchen may no longer host weddings or cooking classes, but it can still inspire a lot of romance at home with its smooth and delectable sauces.
“Cooking is good for you and good for the planet, so our mission is to make it more fun and less stressful,” Alison said. “Our sauces are good for you, use fresh ingredients, and taste like they were made at home.”
An Easy Way to Upgrade Your Favorite Dishes
Haven’s Kitchen produces fresh, colorful, and globally inspired sauces that add zest to home-cooked meals. These sauces can be indispensable to couples who are tired of their typical dinner date routine and want to try something new.
The culinary team has cooked up six sauces so far and has an online store where they are easily accessible to home chefs in the U.S. All sauces are gluten-free, and each pouch has enough sauce for about five meals.
The Herby Chimichurri is a zesty green sauce made from finely chopped parsley and oregano.
Haven’s Kitchen offers a variety of flavor profiles from all over the world. Its Gingery Miso Sauce provides the classic Japanese umami that pairs perfectly with rice or pork, while the Golden Turmeric Tahini is a bright yellow Mediterranean sauce that makes vegetable dishes pop.
Alison said she has endeavored to create sauces that incorporate well with just about any type of savory dish and provide an easy way to upgrade a meal. Haven’s Kitchen offers a library of recipes to give home cooks the inspiration and confidence they need to put their best dish forward on a date night or family dinner.
“We have a beautiful rainbow of colors in our sauces,” Alison said. “They all represent different regions of the world and really add to any dish. Whether it’s steak or tofu, everything is better with a little sauce.”
Can’t choose your favorite sauce? Then you can get a sampler six-pack for $69 plus shipping and taste everything Haven’s Kitchen has to offer. Couples can take their taste buds on a culinary tour of the world by adding these sauces to their date nights.
The kitchen provides an intimate setting to build upon a relationship. Alison said cooking at home can be a wonderful date activity because it gives two people something they can talk about and enjoy together.
“It’s an opportunity to get to know that person on a totally different level,” she said. “It’s a really nice way to see who someone is and take the pressure off your conversations.”
A Tight-Knit Team Seeks Exciting Flavor Combinations
Alison founded Haven’s Kitchen to show people how fun and easy making dinner at home could be. In 2017, she compiled her knowledge into a beginner-friendly cookbook full of cooking hacks and recipes that could give people more confidence in the kitchen.
The chapter on sauces inspired Alison to make and sell delicious sauces that can save people the time of making a sauce from scratch.
Alison Cayne provides recipes and sauces to inspire home cooks to experiment.
“We put the sauces in pouches because it’s fun — like painting — and you can have a more creative experience,” Alison said. “It’s all part of our mission to make cooking more fun and a lot easier.”
Today, Haven’s Kitchen continues to evolve thanks to the creativity and passion of five women. The team is based in New York and has been working from home for several months now. Alison said the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t stopped the team from collaborating on new ideas and working closely together through email, text, live chat, and video calls.
“It’s an incredible bunch of women,” Alison said. “We’re learning as we go. It’s all brand new. The world has changed in the last several months, and we’re all just trying to support each other.”
Haven’s Kitchen caters to home cooks who want to change up their dinner routine and add something new to their weekly menu. Its array of sauces provide a simple way for people to create more complex and flavorful dishes on their own.
Whether you’re aiming to impress a date or foster a healthier lifestyle, Haven’s Kitchen can give you the key ingredient you need to bring your home cooking adventure to another level.
“We’re eating and cooking at home a lot these days,” Alison said. “All of a sudden, people have these new skills in the kitchen, and they realize it’s a lot healthier — and if you’re buying local and organic, it’s a good choice for the environment too.”
Enjoy a Saucy Date Night With the Help of Haven’s Kitchen
In 2012, Haven’s Kitchen created a buzz in New York City’s dating scene with its cooking classes, weddings, and events, and now its sauces have become a cooking staple in kitchens across the country.
During the pandemic, many couples and families have focused more on cooking at home rather than going out to eat, and that has given Haven’s Kitchen the opportunity to expand and get its sauces into more pantries than ever before. Alison told us the company’s sales have quintupled over the last year, and its sauces are now available in the online store as well as at select Whole Foods, Target, and Kroger locations.
Couples can bring more flavor to the table by pouring Haven’s Kitchen sauces on their favorite dishes and trying new recipes from its chef-inspired catalog.
“The goal is to keep spreading awareness and get our sauces out in the world,” Alison said. “We want to get people excited about making dinner and take the dread out of it. There’s enough going on in the world to worry about — dinner shouldn’t be one of those things.”
