Martha Stewart gets into meal kit business with Marley Spoon

NEW YORK — Cooking like Martha Stewart is about to get easier.

The home goods mogul and cookbook author is getting into the meal kit business. Subscribers will get a box shipped to their door with Stewart’s recipes and all the ingredients needed to cook up the dishes at home, including pre-measured raw meat, fish, vegetables and spices.

“It is, I think, the way to cook for the future,” Stewart said.

The new venture is a licensing deal with meal kit company Marley Spoon and brand management company Sequential Brands Group Inc. Financial details of the new partnership were not disclosed.

Marley Spoon will be renamed Martha & Marley Spoon in the U.S. and will tap Stewart’s library of thousands of recipes.

Ready-to-cook meal kits have proliferated in recent years and have been popular with city folk who want to skip the supermarket and still whip up a meal at home. People around the world spent $1.5 billion on meal kits last year, with less than half of that coming from the U.S., according to research group Technomic. The U.S. market is expected to grow to as much as $6 billion in the next four years, Technomic said.

Stewart joins other famous names in the space. TV chef Jamie Oliver appears in commercials for rival HelloFresh and cookbook author Mark Bittman joined vegan meal kit company Purple Carrot.

Stewart said she tried all the rivals but was “hooked” on Marley Spoon. She began talks with Marley Spoon about a deal eight months ago.

The kits may show up on Stewart’s social media accounts, her magazines and TV shows.

“We have many ways to promote it,” said Stewart, who is a chief creative officer at Sequential.

Martha & Marley Spoon kits start at $48 a week for two meals for two people and up to $140 a week for four meals for a family. Prep and cook time is less than 40 minutes, the company said.