The background
Simon Rogan needs little introduction as one of Britain’s most successful and innovative chefs. It is fitting that Rogan was quick to start delivering restaurant-quality meals to homes across the UK, and has been incredibly successful at it. So successful, in fact, that Simon Rogan at home is expanding for 2021 to deliver more than 700 meals a week from the Lake District to kitchens everywhere. The Michelin-star chef’s home restaurant service delivers three-course menus to be enjoyed at home to anyone in the UK. The meals are all created and prepped from Rogan’s Cartmel kitchen in the Lake District and change on a weekly basis based on what’s seasonal and available from the chef’s organic farm in the Cartmel Valley.

The meal kit
The menu changes every week and is delivered to homes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Simon Rogan at home is always a three-course meal including starter, with bread and butter, a main and a pudding. There is a choice of a meat, or vegetarian option each week. Brummell opted for the vegetarian menu, which included celeriac in a comté sauce, vegetable hotpot and Eton mess for dessert. A number of indulgent add-ons are available to order alongside your meal, including a wine flight for two, caviar, or a Blini Package of a bottle of Exton Park Simon Rogan sparkling rosé with caviar and blinis.

How many does it feed?
One or two people depending on the size of the box you order.

Packaging
Everything is neatly packed in a box and divided into a collection of carefully packed and labelled pots and pouches in a set of boxes divided by course. The box is insulated with recycled wool liners.

Prep
The Simon Rogan at home box comes with careful prep instructions including a QR code to scan for extra instructions. Many of the ingredients are heated in their pouch in a pan of water, placed in the oven or quickly fried in a pan. No chopping was required and nothing took longer than five minutes to cook.

The food
The food is what you’d expect from Simon Rogan: imaginative, surprising and more than anything: delicious. The salt-baked celeriac in buttermilk sauce was rich and indulgent but perfectly balanced with the salty freshness of dulse seaweed and cress. The vegetarian hotpot tasted like everything fantastic about English cuisine: moreish with deep umami flavours balanced with green herbs, sweet carrot and buttery mushrooms as well as an irresistible cep sauce. To finish, the Eton mess with pear and chestnut was a wonderfully wintery version of a summery dessert. The menu has been so carefully developed to give diners the easiest route possible to enjoying Michelin-quality food at home. It really works and feels like an incredible treat.

The price
£45 per person for three courses, a wine flight add on is £40 for two.

The verdict
Simon Rogan has created one of the finest finish-at-home restaurant deliveries, and has done it with incredible thought and care. It feels incredibly special to dine on ingredients sourced directly from his farm. The food is easy to prepare, looks fantastic and tastes even better. The perfect lockdown treat.

Simon Rogan’s London restaurant Aulis is also offering at home three-course menus to anyone living in zones one to three, or for pick up from the Soho eatery; simonroganathome.co.uk