Here's what comes in the bag - the instructions are all there too (and very easy to follow) or you can scan a barcode to see a vid of its creation.
What can you tell us about Simon Rogan at Home?
Put very simply, it's Simon Rogan's meals delivered. With his restaurants closed (or at low capacity when actually open) Simon Rogan has turned, like much of the rest of the UK's restaurants right now, to delivery. if you're unfamiliar with Rogan, his main restaurant is L'Enclume in Cartmel which is held up by many to be one of the best restaurants in the UK. He also launched the (now closed) Fera restaurant at Claridge's.
And how does Aulis fit into this?
Simon Rogan's Roganic closed earlier this year so Aulis in Soho is, for now, his sole London restaurant with executive chef Oli Marlow and head chef Charlie Tayler in charge. Modelled after the original Aulis in Cartmel, it's a small chef's table affair and, as such, something that's very hard to pull off in the current restrictions even when they're allowed to open. For their deliveries, they're focusing on a regularly changing finish-at-home menu.
What am I going to need for this?
A pot for the soup, oven turned on, and a frying pan.
So what kind of menu can I expect?
It's a finish-at-home affair. So that means that everything is delivered ready for you to construct and create a three-course menu (with a bread course). It's perhaps a little less involved than some of the more intricate meal-kits we've tried - it's really a case of warming and plating and the dessert needed no work at all. You end up with a quite unique meal where someone else has put in most of the hard work.
Here's what we had for our meal, with an idea of what was needed to create it:
Irish soda bread with cultured brown butter. This just needs a few minutes in the oven - and while we'd perhaps challenge the description of soda bread, these were by far one of the nicest bread rolls we've had sent to us yet. We want the recipe.
Mushroom soup with pickled Shemiji, roasted maitake and truffle croutons. A soup that takes mushroom as a flavour and continues to enhance to make it as mushroomy as hell. So you have a pleasingly thick mushroom soup as a base (just needs warming through) and you add to that the roasted maitake mushrooms and truffle croutons (they just need five minutes in the oven). Before adding - the croutons are rolled in cep powder before finishing off with chive oil. It's an excellent soup, perfectly wintry.
Another very simple assembly, this is a roasted chicken breast with potato and chicken confit terrine, roasted carrots and cider chicken sauce. The chicken and sauce just need warming up in a pan and then in the oven, while the terrine and carrots are browned in the pan. That chicken terrine is like confit potatoes with a chicken filling - yes, that's a good thing.
Rhubarb and custard trifle. Already complete, just eat it from the packet (or just as easy to put on a plate). And just LOOK at the rhubarb!
And finally - finishing off with orange and white chocolate cookies.
Anything else?
While that was more than enough for us, there are some added extras - at the time of writing, you could also order a truffle pudding served with black garlic emulsion, which does sound rather good...
What else can you get from Simon Rogan?
There's also the main 3-course menu from Rogan himself. which delivers nationwide. And we rather like the idea of the "Blini add-on" where they will send you caviar and blinis. Not a bad idea if you're celebrating a lockdown birthday (as many of us have by now).
Overall thoughts
Aulis deliver a generous three-course menu that's both easy to put together and very likely to be considerably elevated from something you prepare yourself. They're also one of the few meal-kit providers that deliver early in the week, which is worth remembering. The ever-changing menu means you should keep an eye on them to see if there's a menu that's ideal for you. We very much enjoyed our dinner, so it's an easy one to recommend.
Hot Dinners received the Aulis At Home me meal courtesy of the restaurant.
More about Aulis at Home
Where do they deliver? London Zones 1-3, deliveries Tuesday-Saturday.
How to book: On their website
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @aulissimonrogan.
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