As seen in The Independent on 20 May 2021
Sean Russell and his housemate had a One Fine Dine food box at home and found that perhaps this could be the answer to bad food at dinner parties – why not have a luxury, professionally cooked meal instead?
The late AA Gill once wrote: “Let’s face it: dinner parties are social events and the company is the main thing.” He bemoans the food served at dinner parties and doesn’t understand why so often it must be bad. I broadly agree with him. Is it too much to ask to go to a restaurant? The food is much better, there’s less fuss, you can spend more time with your guests, and you’re not all just dressed up, sat around someone’s under-sized dinner table while you eye the host’s cat purring around the kitchen surfaces. When hosting a dinner party, or perhaps even a date night, why shouldn’t the food be excellent?
While going to restaurants hasn’t been an option for much of the last year chefs have adapted by bringing the food to us at home as we desperately clung onto any thread of normality. If we closed our eyes, we could almost pretend that we were in a restaurant, and that the pandemic wasn’t real, almost... Food boxes – professionally cooked food that you simply heat up and serve at home – entered something of a golden age, playing to this idea of bringing restaurant-quality food to you at a much higher standard than a takeaway. But as we ease out of lockdown and with restaurants now open inside and out, what place is there for home delivery food boxes?
Last week, my housemate and I tried a One Fine Dine food box at home. A sturdy cardboard box of packaged food, professionally cooked, was delivered straight to my door with a smile. But this service is more than about food, this is about seeking a “luxury experience”. The box is packaged exactly as you might want from a high-end service; touches of tissue paper, and card menus with hints of gold for each of the guests to see. It felt like an event, not just a meal.
I had opted for the vegetarian options from the May menu: whipped Ashlynn goats’ cheese with a heritage beetroot salad to start; tamarind roasted aubergine with barbecued tender stem broccoli, pak choi and satay sauce, for main; and for dessert an elderflower creme with champagne poached strawberries, and a meringue and oat crunch. My housemate had the chicken terrine to start, Gressingham duck breast for main, and roasted white chocolate cheesecake with salted caramel to finish.