I tried luxury Valentine's meal kit - it was a homemade dream without the hassle
If you’re looking to make a nice meal at home for Valentine’s day then this easy kit may be the one for you, finds Rosalind Erskine.
With Valentine’s Day falling over this weekend, you might be looking for a last minute restaurant reservation or thinking about what to cook at home. I’ve always been one to mark this occasion with a supermarket meal deal, often for myself or flatmates when I was in my twenties and now as a treat for myself and my partner.
These days I find myself looking more and more at pre-packaged food labels as I try to cut down on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in a bid to be healthier as I’ve gotten older.
I’m not the only one as, according to data from 2025 from food consultancy firm Levercliff, an estimated 19 million UK adults (roughly 37% of the adult population) were actively cutting back on UPFs. Ultra processed foods contain additives and extracts not found in whole foods and are often there to extend shelf life. To avoid these, it’s always better to cook from scratch, but that’s not easy when we all have busy lives.
Therefore, ahead of this Valentine’s Day, I found myself wondering if the usual supermarket meal deal was the best choice, even with the basically free bottle of wine and chocolates that some have offered in the past. I then found myself checking out COOK, a company that provides homemade, frozen ready-meals that are made from scratch in their kitchens. I’d first come across the company after a friend ordered a number of their pasta dishes for a pre-wedding feast for the bridal party, and was impressed with the quality of dishes.
With a COOK shop down the road from me in Glasgow, I decided this year to try their Luxury Valentine’s dinner for two, which at £52.50 is double the price of the most expensive supermarket deal (Waitrose’s this year is £25 for starters, main, side, dessert and drink for two).
Inside the box, which was delivered to my flat, you’ll find: three cheese fondant souffles, a trio of greens, dauphinoise potatoes, braised red cabbage, a beef wellington and a sticky toffee pudding for dessert - all which feeds two people.
All this was easy to cook from frozen, with the wellington, potatoes and sticky toffee pudding needing time in the oven (55 minutes for the wellington and from 15 minutes for souffles and 25 for the potatoes) and the veg just a few minutes in the microwave.
It also was all very well made and tasted good, like a much better version of a meal cooked at home. My only negative would be that the cabbage and greens needed a bit more seasoning (luckily this is easy to remedy).
Yes this is more expensive than the supermarkets, but it is home cooked with real ingredients and no UPFs, which, for me, is worth that extra.
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