In February 2020 the country went into lockdown and my restaurant had to close its doors. The same week, the produce arrived. Vegetables pulled from the ground a day earlier. Meat from farmers we had spent years getting to know. Real paddock to plate, and suddenly nowhere to serve it.

We did the only thing that made sense. The team and I cooked all of it, the way we cook for the restaurant, then sealed and snap froze every portion so none of it would go to waste.

I will be honest with you. I was sceptical. Thirty years of chef training tells you frozen food is a compromise. So before I sold a single tray I heated one up, sat down at the pass and ate it. It was surprisingly good. Not good for frozen. Good.

That sent me down a food science rabbit hole I have never really come out of. Freeze food fast enough, soon enough after it is cooked, and you lock the flavour and the nutrients where they are. Nothing keeps wilting in the back of a chiller. Nothing gets tired on a truck. It is the same meal on the night you eat it as it was the night we cooked it.

We became chefs who got hooked on the food science of frozen meals. Frozen, done properly, is the new fresh.

Most ready meals in this country are proud of being chilled. I understand why it sounds better. But think about what that tray has been through before it reaches your fridge, and how few days you have left to eat it. Ours leave our kitchen frozen solid, travel overnight, and arrive frozen. Then they wait, for as long as you need them to.

Why these six

Every winter I pick six meals from the menu that I would want myself on a cold Tuesday when I cannot be bothered. A beef cheek that has been in the oven long enough to fall apart with a fork. Silverside with a proper mustard sauce. Moroccan lamb on kumara mash. Pork we roast slowly overnight, with a pumpkin gravy. Our Texan wagyu sausages. And a teriyaki chicken, because nobody wants stew every night of the week.

I have put a Sticky Date Pudding in as well. Not a taster. The full one, with the salted caramel we make in the kitchen, because a winter dinner should finish properly.

The honest bit about price

Bought one at a time, the six meals come to about $111. As a box they are $99, and the pudding is on us. If you do not love them, tell us and we will give you your money back. That is not a marketing line. It is how we have run the restaurant for thirty years.

Stay healthy, eat well.

Jay

Founder and Head Chef, Fresh Chef NZ