Catering right to your door
Founded in 2000, west-London caterers Alistair Hugo have long been cooking up a storm for offices and events across the capital, but as the story so often goes at the moment, the impact of coronavirus has meant a big alteration to its business model.
With a lot of food delivery services, you have to choose between fresh or frozen, but the new Alistair Hugo at Home offering does both; boxes of fabulous fresh produce from their catering suppliers can now be delivered to your door, along with other store cupboard essentials, ranging from pasta and coffee to granola, teabags, olives, booze and more.
On top of this, the catering kings have also created a selection of frozen dishes to feed the family, ready to eat lunchtime bites for working at home and chef-prepared meals, so that you can ‘eat out at home’. Essentially, it’s a one-stop-shop for fuss-free deliciousness.
I was immediately impressed by the contents of my delivery – so often it’s really tricky to make pre-prepared food look appealing in a box, but Alistair Hugo has achieved this with aplomb, the attention to detail that had gone in presenting each dish was clear. And all in compostable packaging too.
The Thai-glazed salmon was a generous-sized fillet sitting on top of a riot of colour; black venus rice, mango, mixed peppers, shredded carrot, cucumber, spring onion, ginger, coriander and baby gem lettuce, as well as toasted peanuts, lime and a delicious soy and ginger dressing.
It tasted as good as it looked, the delicious salmon was well-cooked, and the salad underneath was filled with punchy, zingy flavours and more-ish, fresh crunch.
It was a deeply satisfying, nourishing dish that I could happily eat every day without getting bored.
Next, I turned to the vegan feast platter which, despite careful arrangement on a bed of rocket leaves, couldn’t help but look a bit beige.
I wasn’t terribly excited to eat it, but wow! Never judge a vegan feast platter by its cover.
The flavours blew me away – I was so impressed.
Two well-seasoned veggie spring rolls really hit the spot, the jackfruit empanada had a lovely barbeque flavour and tasted as close to pulled pork as you can get as a vegetarian.
The pea and potato samosa was perfectly spiced and packed some serious heat, and again the butternut bhaji had a delicious amount of flavour and spice and a pleasing texture too.
The dips - mango and lime chutney and sriracha sauce were also both completely delicious – they tasted fresh and homemade, not filled with sugar and preservatives.
The sweet potato, lentil and mixed bean chilli that followed was a ‘ready to heat’ meal – so not a freezer meal, but a homecooked dish ready to quickly reheat at home.
Again, it was well spiced and tasted very good – the lime and coriander quinoa reheated remarkably well, and I loved the little pot of smashed avocado and chilli that came with.
My only criticism was that the portion size felt a little small here, but having said that, it would have left me with no room for the very delectable-looking sweet treats that had also been delivered…
There was a selection of beautiful cookies; chocolate chip, double chocolate, oat and raisin, jam drop and chocolate shortbread, all of which were well-baked (i.e. still soft and just a bit doughy in the middle) and tasted delicious.
I also discovered a little box of cupcakes which looked and tasted divine.
Everything I tried, all made with seasonal ingredients, tasted fresh and flavoursome and reassuringly homemade – the menu won’t blow your mind in terms of inventiveness, but sometimes you just want a comforting curry, a tasty piece of fish with some veg, a lovely cold platter to pick at, or a fresh and tasty salad that is reliably good and easy to dish up.
There are no gimmicks here, just delicious restaurant-style food delivered to your door.
All meals are prepared fresh to order so allow two working days notice for delivery. Minimum order spend is £40. Home delivery is available to homes within 11 miles of the Alistair Hugo kitchen in north Chiswick (as far as Kingston, Hampton Court and Wimbledon). Free delivery within 5 miles and £7 there onwards alistair-hugo.com
