Review: Indulge Dining delivery service now available in Cambridge
Indulge is a fine dining meal-kit delivery service set up by professional chef Andy Bowler during the first lockdown, after he was furloughed and later made redundant.
Andy has worked in the senior team of Michelin star restaurants over the last 10 years. His most recent role was sous chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus and prior to that, he was sous chef at two of Simon Rogan’s restaurants, Roganic and Fera at Claridges. He started his career working for Michel Roux Jr.
Indulge began by covering only east London, but the business has grown and is now available in Cambridge. What makes these meal-kits unique is the restaurant level of detail on each dish. Not only are the necessary elements expertly packaged up, but there are also extra special touches like shoots and flowers to garnish (and eat).
Photographs are included showing how the dishes would be laid out in a Michelin star restaurant, making this a fun dining experience. Feel a sense of pride as you try to successfully recreate the professional layout and presentation of the food, or experiment and create your own.
We began our three-course meal with mixed seed wholegrain rolls, which came with a gorgeous horseradish and chive butter. This was followed by a Jerusalem artichoke, spelt and king oyster mushroom broth, which came complete with mushroom discs, shoots and flowers, and thyme oil.
As I'm not a fan of mushrooms, the fact that everything comes separately packaged up meant that I could give those to my wife (she loves them) and enjoy this fabulous broth mushroom-free. The ingredient that I felt really gave it that extra special 'kick' was the thyme oil, something I'd never really eaten much of before.
The main course was a delicious lamb shoulder accompanied by cauliflower and parsnips (which I'm not too fond of either, but again no problem due to the separate packaging), with further pickled cauliflower florets and a parsnip crumb.
Sauce-wise, it came with an exquisite caramelised cauliflower purée, black garlic mayonnaise, and lamb sauce - plus shoots to garnish. It has to be said that the sauces really are divine and add that perfect finishing touch.
Attempting to follow the picture was tremendously exciting as I squeezed out the black garlic mayonnaise trying to create dots around the food and feeling like a top chef in the process. I then tried to serve the lamb sauce and purée without making them overlap too much (as shown in the picture). You can see from the photograph below how I got on...
The pudding was a lovely hazelnut cake with pear slices on top, and again I tried to make dots with the delightful hazelnut purée. The dish was topped off with a vanilla cremé, hazelnuts, and flower petals. I gave the whole thing my best shot, as far as preparation and presentation was concerned, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a chef... Milk chocolate and peanut truffles rounded off the proceedings.
Initially, when faced with all the ingredients, I felt a slight sense of foreboding that it might take a long time to prepare and eat everything. That was not the case, however, as we managed to make all the dishes - and eat the rolls and chocolate truffles - within the hour.
Fancy dishes, expert presentation and a quick preparation time makes Indulge Dining a culinary avenue well worth exploring. For more information, go to indulgedining.co.uk.
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