• Courtesy
• Pappardelle with beef ragu and bone marrow butter from Kitchen-ette

Chef Adam Longworth and his partner, Lorien Wroten, offered their first menu of prepared meals and meal kits from Kitchen-ette in the last week of January. The couple's new business is located at 5197 Main Street in Waitsfield. In addition to selling weekly meals such as baked cod oreganata and lasagna Bolognese, Longworth has created restaurant-inspired meal kits featuring his freshly made pasta.

In 2011, Longworth and Wroten returned from their high-powered New York City restaurant careers to Longworth's home state to become the final co-owners of the Common Man, a Mad River Valley institution. Founded in 1972, the Warren restaurant was closed by the couple and their business partners in 2018.

Since then, Longworth and Wroten have brought their respective cooking and front-of-house expertise to the Pitcher Inn in Warren and the Inn at Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield.

In 2019, Longworth returned to New York City to consult on a new restaurant belonging to his mentor, chef Alfred Portale. "Being in New York during COVID ended any vacillation about going back there for good," Wroten said. "It confirmed our decision to re-root in Vermont."

Longworth and Wroten considered different options for their new venture, keeping pandemic and industry staffing challenges in mind. "Right now, it's just the two of us," Wroten said.

They settled on "food service that was not a traditional restaurant," she continued. "This prepared-foods situation seems to be hitting the mark."

The week of February 21, Kitchen-ette will take a brief break to focus on private catering events. The next menu, to be released on February 28 for preorders, will have expanded frozen-meal options.

The couple likes that the Kitchen-ette business model "gives us the ability to flex," Wroten said. "You could see pop-up dinners in the future."