Upscale takeaway meets on-site cooking school

Over the years we’ve written about several companies that have specialized in the preparation and delivery of high-end meals that are ready to be cooked in the consumer’s home. Now a London startup is offering a new twist on the concept with meal prep and on-site instruction by a Michelin star chef for food consumers then cook at home. Launched this summer, The Kitchen calls itself a cross between a cookery school, high-end takeaway, bakery and wine shop. To book a session, consumers first log on to the Kitchen’s website and decide which of eight to 12 monthly dishes they want to make. September’s offerings include fish cakes made from organic salmon and smoked haddock served with homemade ketchup, for example, as well as free range Thai green chicken curry. (With a focus on food provenance and traceability, The Kitchen hand-picks all its suppliers, preferring small independents with strong ethics and high-quality ingredients.) When it’s time for their appointment, customers arrive at the shop and are given a dedicated work station that’s laden with everything they need to make their chosen dishes, all chopped and prepared for them. Spared of the preliminaries, they are free to shape their fish cakes or assemble their lasagne, for example–following The Kitchen’s step-by-step instructions–before packaging it up to bring home for cooking. It takes about an hour to assemble five meals, The Kitchen says, and expert chefs including Michelin star awardee Thierry Laborde are on hand for assistance as needed. Each meal costs about GBP 5 per portion, and for the kitchen-averse, fully assembled meals are also available. By adding status skills and an element of experience to the insperiences provided by traditional pre-cooking meal-preparation services, The Kitchen is boosting the concept up another notch. Reportedly, its founders hope to expand–one to partner with in a time-pressed community near you? (Related: Meal prep goes uptown — Dining insperiences, Parisian style.) Spotted by: Charles Norbert-Munns