Daily Mail (print)
Saturday 26 June 2021
By: Mark Palmer
Escape: Report
Holidaying in the UK? Here’s how you can add special treats that will…
Turn your staycation into a sensation
One Fine Dine has been cooking up a storm during the pandemic. Which means that its founder and CEO, Daniel Hulme, 40, should have a smile on his face. And he does.
‘Demand has gone through the roof and we’ve been very fortunate,’ he says, as he carries various boxes of goodies into our rented house at Mawgan Porth on the North Cornwall coast.
Fortune favours the brave. Daniel’s main business was providing gourmet food for private jets (the Beckhams are clients) but with no one flying e was forced to diversify – and One Fine Dine is the result.
It works like this. You order your three-course lunch or diner online, giving the address where you want the food to be delivered. Everything is then cooked in a central Surrey kitchen, where some 22 chefs prepare a feast before it’s dispatched by special courier anywhere in the country.
The joy of it is that you can order individually. We were given a choice of three starters, three main courses, and three desserts.
There are two ways to go about it. Either you follow the instructions and heat up the meal, or you request a chef to come and prepare everything for you. The latter option is more expensive but also more of an event, with the chef, wearing his whites, explaining the dishes, serving up the food and clearing up everything afterwards.
People really appreciate sitting around a table with no one having to be stranded in the kitchen – and the instructions are simple, similar to what a flight attendant on a private jet would do,’ says Daniel.
We threw in some canapes , as well, and had a proper culinary knees-up. Everything tasted wonderfully fresh. My filet of beef was superb and the fancy Eton Mess was a triumph.
The whole experience worked out at around £120 a head. A considerable sum, but what a treat not having to lift a finger and savouring the dishes of the highest calibre. I would recommend it for a special occasion – and a special occasion, surely, is getting together with friends and family this summer after being cooped up for so long.
My one surprise was that CEO Daniel turned up. Long way from Surrey. But, then, I got it. At 8am the next morning I spotted him with his surfboard in the sea – and he seemed to be bubbling over with happiness.
DETAILS: Three course meal from £65 per head. Private chef starts from £495 (one can cater for up to 10 people), onefinedine.com, 020 3733 2303