Cooking your own dinner with the help of  the experts from Gousto was a suprisingly satisfying experience for KATHERINE MACALISTER

The best way to describe Gousto is the antithesis of the Christmas cookbook, which you leaf through, think ‘ooh that looks nice’, put down and never do anything about, let alone use.

Gousto not only makes you cook dishes you wouldn’t ordinarily consider, but then brings the ingredients directly to your door so you can’t even change your mind.

Because let’s face it, It’s a strange concept paying to cook your own dinner, and a bit of a hassle. But it does mean that once you’ve made the effort, like some bad form of American therapy, you do feel better about yourself afterwards.

It also means that instead of beans on toast, Mr Greedy returned home to a feast and, as we had a houseguest, he left the next day under the false impression that we dined like kings every day.

This is all thanks to Oxford’s Timo Schmidt and his business partner James Carter who started up Gousto, a home delivery dining service, where an exciting cardboard box is delivered to your doorstep, consisting of a pre-ordered, pre-chosen meal, all ready measured and waiting. They got bored of having to go to specialist shops to buy everything they needed to cook dinner so decided to do it themselves apparently.

And all you have to do is cook it, I say all.....the Gousto box comes with great colourful instructions, showing you the way, but is still a fairly monumental undertaking and not for the faint-hearted. In fact, it was like Ready, Steady, Cook in our house as we took the three different dishes out (each feeds two), accumulated the right ingredients for the right meal, which took a degree in microbiology, and pressed on. An hour later, still panting, we presented our feast.

Marscarpone cauliflower with rice, courgette latkes with beetroot and spinach salad, and keralan cabbage and paneer thoran. Stuff we’d never even heard of, let alone cooked. We went vegetarian for the night for our guest, but there’s a wide variety of fish and meat dishes as well on-line to choose from.

And the result? Unexpected, unpredictable, bizarre, ambituous, satisfying and delicious. If you want shepherd’s pie you’ll need to go elsewhere but anyone with culinary aspirations will enjoy this. So while it’s a strange time to start up a business for the cash rich/time poor, you can see why Gousto is doing great shakes; having to take on new staff and move to a bigger premises already.

But it’s the details that count: unlike other companies, you get to choose what meals you want first online and the recipes rotate so there is always something new to pick.

The produce is local and organic where possible, and as importantly, great quality, something Gousto is very keen on. The packaging is biodegradable and there’s no waste.

Plus the cooking ability levels are clearly displayed and range from something simple like the wild boar pasta or Pad Thai to the more complex tamarind, prawn and edamame sauce with rice noodles.

Either way it’s a fun, entertaining and exotic way to spend a night and beats a microwave meal anyday. Because I don’t think it’s time we are lacking as much as inspiration and motivation and Gousto has got these, well in boxes.

Three meals for two people costs around £42 a week. The vegetarian version is £39 a week.

  • Gousto is offering Oxford Mail readers 25 per cent off their first delivery when they enter this code: OxfordMail.
  • Go to gousto.co.uk or call 0208 7434187 for more details.