Hosting guests is hard — all that shopping, cooking and cleaning. I don’t know how my parents did it so often for so many years.
It’s also not so easy when you keep kosher to eat a range of the more interesting cuisines on offer. Admittedly those of us that live in London have been gifted with a range of kosher Israeli, Asian and American-style restaurants; but often the price is high, and the menu limited compared to the range of options outside the hechsher circle. If you fancied an upmarket kosher barbeque, vegan or Mexican meal at an everyday budget – you’d have to make it yourself.
So, when YHangry offered to send someone to cook in my (kosher) home, I was in. No work for me, and if the food went wrong or something was set on fire, I wouldn’t be to blame. Hooray!
YHangry is a British business that hit the headlines after it received an £100,000 injection on business show Dragon’s Den. The private dining business, set up by two former female traders, is designed to bring private catering to the masses, by making it more affordable with meals starting at just £17 per guest.
Hosts log on to their website, pick the date, cuisine and specific menu which is cooked in their kitchen by a trained chef. Ingredients are ordered at company HQ and delivered to the host’s home the day before the event. If you opt for a meaty menu, kosher options are available for an extra £4 per diner. Or you can source your own. Better still, there’s an option for the chef to serve up each course and clean up.
It was a working mum’s dream, and we wouldn’t need to book a babysitter, nor, during these turbulent times, visit a crowded restaurant.
Dominique
Dominique hard at work
We picked a three-course Mexican menu to feed six of us. We selected a range of vegetarian dishes including spicy mini tostadas with an aubergine puree; loaded nachos with guacamole and salsa; sweetcorn fritters with tomato salsa; a chilli with Mexican red rice; roasted cauliflower tacos and, for dessert, chocolate mousse with fresh berries. All made from scratch in my kitchen.
The day before dinner, we received a hefty Ocado order. Reassuring to know exactly what ingredients every dish would have - something which cannot be said of restaurant dining.
The next day, all I had to do was let our lovely chef, Dominique, into our home. Dressed in her chef whites she got straight to work, using our pots, pans and serving dishes. Within two hours, the most beautiful aromas were wafting across our home.
Instead of checking on the oven, I had a glass of wine with our diners before the food was served. Dominique talked us through each dish, providing separate options for guests with allergies. Individual personalised menus, had been posted first-class to our home ahead of the evening.
It was all delicious; Dominique left my kitchen spotless and my husband and I happily lived on the leftovers for the next few days.
Menu prices for a Mexican meal start at £27.95 per person (our dining experience ended up costing around £250 for the night).
