Just tried first Hello Fresh...I don’t get it....

[GiraffeNecked]

So a potato some mince, a carrot, a glove of garlic and some mince arrives. All stuff I have in the house already ..... you still have to chop, cut, cook and it was nice, but no nicer than something I’d have come up with by myself.

Yep positives - new recipe ideas, meal planning convenience
Negs - packaging, dubious provenance, repetition

I can cook pretty well but I work in quite a full-on job. I like it because, as someone else said, it saves a lot of time on planning and shopping. It also suits us as there’s just the 2 of us, so the way things are portioned works well. For me £50 is a bargain for the time it saves me on shopping and planning. I often think people undervalue their own time. For me, I am more than happy to suck up the additional cost for the couple of hours that I would otherwise spend on shopping and meal-planning that I can spend on something more enjoyable. On the weeks I get a box I’m also much less likely to reach for a takeaway menu after a long day.

If you already had all that stuff in the house, why did you choose that one?

Who the fuck would choose mince and tatties off a menu?!

@AnotherFriday

I think its aimed at people who don't know how to cook.

🤣🤣 no, I’m a trained chef but I buy them for convenience and so I don’t have to have so much rubbish in my cupboards (my kitchens tiny). I consider myself a good cook but I am lazy when it comes to meal planning and buying ingredients.

I’m a capable cook, and tend to be quite competent going by eye and intuition re seasoning, quantities, timings, etc, as well as following a recipe.

I still loved hello fresh as it meant I didn’t need to be buying all kinds of random bits and bobs at the supermarket and I felt so much more compelled to actually get up and cook the recipe (rather than let the supermarket ingredients go bad in my fridge because I’d decided to go for a takeaway), some really delicious recipes and generous portions.

Occasionally got a bit of a tatty vegetable, but always had really good customer service when I raised it with them and a significant credit back to my account.

Also, my partner isn’t a very confident cook, but has really taken to cooking our hello fresh meals, which he has enjoyed and and has built his confidence in the kitchen loads.

Whether it be Hello Fresh or one of the other brands, they make life easier - what’s to criticise.

If you don’t want to shop and cook that way, don’t buy them.

My neighbour always has tones of their boxes out for recycling. They appear well off. A fool and her money are soon parted..

We've used it a few times. I do it to get me out of a rut with cooking and keep the recipe cards to reuse.

I was hoping for something to make cooking quicker, but I think it’s more aimed at those who struggle to plan and shop.

I buy Gousto once every two weeks because I hate meal planning and cooking in general. It’s a much less effort task to have it all ready portioned and just get going.

Even I don’t get things like the cottage pie and pasta bake though, I still choose things that are different to my normal.

@ivykaty44

Its a way of making ready prepared, chopped food even more expensive - put it in parcels, delivered to your door for you just too open and cook.

Incorrect, none of it comes chopped or pre prepared.

I loved Hello Fresh. I’m terrible at planning and end up with food waste. With Hello Fresh/Gousto it was so simple. I would never chose a mince and potatoes meal though
They can be expensive but I always bought using discount codes so never paid the full price. I agree with the too much packaging, maybe little paper bags would be better for the spices.

So why choose that recipe then? Why not choose something that you didn’t already have access to the ingredients for? I used to use gousto and would intentionally pick the recipes that I wouldn’t usually have the ingredients for rather than lasagne, pasta bake etc etc.

It’s absolutely offensive on the packaging front. Saying it’s all recyclable doesn’t mean that it will be recycled and there’s a vast amount of energy going into the recycling of totally pointless thimble sized containers. Had to stop because of that.
@GiraffeNecked - their spice supplier is (was) The Spice Shop in Notting hill. Spend £50 with them on their fajitas mix, pounder de Colombo and powdered chermoula, maybe jerk seasoning and you can do 90% of their recipes with a cheap cut of meat.
The business is (naturally) a subscription model and the food element is pretty secondary- they need to make things have as few / small ingredients as possible and there are certain things that they can’t use simply because of transport issues but your dinner is being dictated by an algorithm- you’re almost better off doing a random recipe generator from an app (does that exist? If not let’s invent it now, with links to all major supermarket online shops for ease of ordering and special link to smart enabled fridges which can tell is you already have a knobble of ginger etc)

Why are some posters taking offence because the OP has said she doesn’t get get it? She’s allowed to not get something and be underwhelmed you know, it doesn’t reflect on your own choices 🙄

I didn't like Hello Fresh but I loved Gousto. I don't really get any boxes anymore as I have 3 folders full of recipes from Gousto and they haven't really brought much out in the way of new recipes recently. But I use the recipes I have every week.

The only mince and potato meal I can find is cheeseburgers with potato wedges and slaw - is that what you ordered OP?

What did you think it was when you ordered it? I don’t get it when people order something from a very clear website and then are confused by what shows up. Did you think it included a genie to make it for you too?

We can both cook, but it's a way of making our lives easier. No need to plan, shop, portion out and occasionally try new things. We don't get it all the time but it's great when we do.

It's also great for having a tiny amount of a random spice or whatever. You don't need to buy a whole spice jar, use it once, let it languish in your cupboard for 3 years and then throw it away. That's worth it!

Agree on the packaging but they are working towards trying to be greener. We re-use a lot of the wee tubs and things for crafts etc so it's just the plastic wraps that go in the bin.

I had so many problems with it ... off chicken ( yes I opened it to let it breathe .... it was green) missing items... rotten veg.
I ended up in credit that I never want to use
I have used gousto a few times and so much better quality.
I'm not a fan of halal meat and hello fresh chicken is halal.

A bit off topic, but one thing that turned me off was SO much packaging. A little plastic pot for everything.

Yep. It's awful for the environment and expensive. I can't comprehend how anyone has so much money that it's worth it just to not pick a recipe.

I'd just spend the cash on a cleaner and enjoy the time cooking.

My partner used to be a chef, and he's a lactose intolerant vegetarian. If I cook for him, using my own skills (meat based), he covers it in tabasco and just about manages to eat it. Hello Fresh (and mindful chef in the past), made it possible for me to cook nice food for my partner.

I often add some meat to my portion, taking out some of the carbs, but I like it for ease. No having to think on a week night when it's my turn to cook. He's WFH too, so he can spend ages on cooking during the day, whereas I have 45 minutes when I get home from work/before child goes to bed.

I look at the non veggie options on there and probably wouldn't do it just for me.

Yes, the cost compared to the actual ingrediants is ridiculous. One thing - Make sure you cancel!!! I used a half price voucher thing one month to try it out, and the next month they took money out of my bank account and sent another set of meals. So I phoned them up, I admit this was my fault for not reading the (extremely) small print. Anyway I cancelled it but then a few months later they took more money out and sent another set of meals - it turns out you can only "cancel" for a few moths and then you have to re-do your cancellation or they reinstate the order or some such bollocks. This was a few years ago, and in a different country, but just thought Id warn you to be very careful with the small print. Im not complaining exactly, because I admit I am partly at fault for not checking, but the WHOLE point of it was to make life easier. aaargh.

It's also great for having a tiny amount of a random spice or whatever. You don't need to buy a whole spice jar, use it once, let it languish in your cupboard for 3 years and then throw it away. That's worth it

I'm not even sure that it's worth it for that. You could set yourself up with a comprehensive set of spices for £5-10 if you buy the large packs of Asian brands or even supermarket own brands, that would make a few months worth of meals. Spice availability has exploded over the past few years and there's not much that's niche and expensive any more.

It would be interesting to take a sample of their meals and compare with what it would cost in the supermarket. Although I'm sure some recipes are better value than others.

What you're paying for is to not have to do the ingredients > shopping list > go buy/pick and order online plus management of leftovers etc thought process and while I'm sure it's worth it to some, it's an expensive way of doing it if you have the time and instinct to do this sort of thing easily yourself.