Chef Michael Bowling is partnering with Alternative Chef NC to launch a meal delivery service. Photo by Peter Taylor

Chef Michael Bowling, one of the founders of Soul Food Sessions, is planning for a busy 2019. He’ll continue to help run the non-profit dinner series, which aims to increase the visibility of black chefs, as well his own private catering company. Starting this week, he’s also partnering with chef Hannah Riley and Alternative Chef N.C. to launch a prepared meal service and host cooking classes — ideas he had been mulling over on his own.

“Hannah called and she was already doing some of this, and she wanted me to do a class, then she wanted to expand her meal prep operation and her private chef operation,” Bowling says. “She wanted a partner and when she called it was just perfect timing. It was a perfect storm.”

Bowling is also hosting a collaborative dinner series, with a different guest chef each event, and location kept secret until the day of the dinner. The first will take place on March 9 with Phillip Platoni of Southminster, with at least six courses and beverages. Tickets are $100 (gratuity included) and can be purchased on Eventbrite. He has two other dinners planned as well, including one with Chris Young, his sous chef on Bowling’s former food truck The Hot Box, in early April.

As for the partnership with Alternative Chef N.C., Riley and Bowling quietly launched their meal delivery service this week. Customers can log on the Alternative Chef website and browse the week’s menu, which is released each Saturday. Dishes range from $16 to $24, and are ordered per person with a minimum order of $35. Delivery takes place Wednesdays and Fridays.

“We’re trying to make life easier for people — single parents or really busy families where they can just order a couple meals for the week so mom or dad doesn’t have to cook every day, so that way everybody can grab what they want, put it in the microwave, sit down, have dinner, and it saves everybody a little bit of work,” Bowling says.

The meals are made from scratch out of Bleu Barn Bistro’s commissary kitchen, then blast chilled and placed into a microwavable or oven-friendly container, per the customer’s preference. This week’s menu, for example, includes braised beef tips over mashed potatoes and roasted garlic green beans and a pistachio-crusted North Carolina trout served with black-eyed pea succotash and jasmine rice.

They’re also offering a custom meal planning and delivery service for diners with special dietary restrictions for a weekly chef’s fee and grocery costs.

Bowling’s next cooking class will take place at Carolina Commercial Kitchen on March 14. Called “Cook Like A Boss,” the class focuses on teaching men who are more comfortable using a grill how to cook a three-course meal.

“I like to stay busy,” Bowling says. Clearly! —Kristen Wile