Jessica Fortin prepares for the next day’s meals in her Great Falls Delivery Cafe kitchen in Lewiston. The Cafe specializes in delivered meals only.

Jessica Fortin has started a lunch delivery business, where customers can order healthy hand-crafted meals, delivered to their door, in Lewiston and Auburn.

LEWISTON — When Jessica Fortin left a stressful corporate job in insurance a year ago, her boyfriend asked, what did she really want to do?

She told him, “‘I want to feed people.’ He’s like, well, let’s do it.'”

Fortin’s Great Falls Delivery Cafe launched in February, serving one meal a day, delivered to your door, anywhere in Lewiston-Auburn.

Five days a week, she’s in the kitchen by 7 a.m. Then she’s on the road for three hours with an average 30 to 70 meals. And she’s back by 1 p.m. to get a jump on the next day’s prep.

“Sometimes I’m like, oh my gosh, I’ve been working for 14 hours today …” said Fortin, 36.

Seven months in, it’s been worth it.

“I love cooking and tasting all the delicious things, kind of figuring out what smells, what tastes go together,” she said. “I enjoy it much more than anything I’ve done.”

Fortin, who grew up in Auburn and lives in Lewiston, didn’t grow up hanging out in the kitchen as a kid.

But, once out on her own, “I decided Oodles of Noodles was not going to cut it for me,” she said. “I slowly started teaching myself how to cook. I love playing with food, any type of food. I eat a lot of weird things myself. I’ll go to the farm and I’ll make cow tongue tacos and ox tail soup.”

Cow tongue tacos?

“They’re actually so, so good,” said Fortin, laughing. “You’d never know about the tongue once you get it all prepared. But I haven’t put it on my menu because I can’t imagine I’d get any orders.”

On a recent week’s menu for Great Falls Delivery Cafe: Barbecue chicken, Italian stuffed zucchini with creamy Parmesan risotto, chicken Cobb salad and roasted pork loin.

She offers one main course a day, frequently with a vegetarian option, along with a soup and salad side for $7, delivered. Orders come in by noon the day before by call, text or Facebook.

“All of our food is geared toward being reheated as opposed to being served hot,” Fortin said. “You’re not going to find things like puff pastry or something that’s going to get soggy and weird in the microwave.

“Everything is made from scratch, all of our sauces, everything except for our dressings,” she said. “I have not mastered dressings. I’m working on it.”

Produce, beef and seafood are all sourced locally. She tries to keep the options low-sodium, including salt and pepper packs for customers to flavor to taste.

Fortin, who also caters events, delivers to homes and offices. She’s already got a nice flow of regulars.

“I have a few people that just like to be surprised — they don’t ever look or see a menu,” she said. “(One customer’s) like, ‘It’s the best thing that happens to me all day when I open the lunch box and see what’s for lunch.'”

Fortin is Great Falls’ only full-time employee. Two college students helped with deliveries this summer and friends help out in the kitchen as needed. 

To pull it all off, it took time to find the right space, she said. The small retail location at 76 Sabattus St. worked for its central location after she installed a kitchen. Her lease runs for three years.

“I knew it was going to start really small, I knew it was going to be just me and I wanted to be focused on the cooking not focused on waiting tables,” Fortin said. “I just wanted to show people that eating healthy is doable and affordable and it’s accessible — that it’s brought right to you means you just have to walk down to your lunch room and put it in the microwave.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com