I follow chef Tom Aikens on Instagram, which is how I learned that he was starting make-away deliveries, under the brand name Musette by Tom Aikens. On my first order the meal was prepared in the kitchens of Tom’s one star restaurant Muse in London, and posted out from there. Subsequent orders were prepped, handled by, and delivered from Finish & Feast, a company set up to deliver make-aways across the UK.

Each element of the meal’s three courses was sealed up and labelled; the photo above shows the seabass starter labelled SB.

Written instructions guided me on how to plate the starter of Seabass ceviche. No cooking was involved, so it was pretty easy to serve up a (close to) restaurant quality dish.

I felt the portion size was good, the fish tasted fresh and had an al dente texture. The citrus sauce was refreshing, but I think it could have been enhanced with a little chilli. As you can see from the photo above, the disappointing factor was that the avocado puree had oxidised a little, making it turn black.

For the main course we had to oven heat the chicken breasts for 15 minutes, and boil vegetables for 5 minutes.

The main course was Shio Koji Marinated Chicken Breast, with barley, broccoli and French beans.  Shio Koji is a fermented rice marinade from Japan, but this wasn’t by any means a Japanese dish. The chicken was very moist and tender, suggesting it had been brined.  The beans and broccoli were al dente and nicely livened up with chilli.  I was not, however, a fan of the barley’s flavour, though it was cleverly enhanced with a sorrel oil.

Dessert was a simple to bake apple tarte tatin with vanilla clotted cream.  It was a good tarte without any soggy pastry, the apples had good texture and the cream was beautifully balanced.

Overall I was excited to receive this first make-away box, and pleased with my efforts to finish the dishes off.  But I couldn’t shake off my disappointment with the barley in the main course, and overall I wouldn’t regard this as a memorable meal. 6.5/10