What's cooking?

But I know of a lot of women in the position where their job, homeschooling and home management has just hit a critical level, and frankly something is going to break. Helen Richards can definitely sympathise, she has a young son, Louis and a business to run: Helen originally set up Delicioso twelve years ago and it has become a well known name on the island for outside catering for weddings and events, as well as delivering food to yachts in Palma. But it has also seen a new purpose since the beginning of lockdown, that of supporting families (or, let’s cut to the chase, mums) with the delivery of good value, freshly prepared ready to eat food to their doors.

“We have been able to stay working, with a smaller staff team since the beginning of the quarantine because we were already licensed to do it, we aren’t a restaurant which has suddenly had to become a takeaway, we’ve always worked like this”, Helen tells me on the phone. “But we’ve added in more services and options for people who can’t or don’t want to leave their houses at the moment. We’ve delivered quite a lot of birthday cakes, and some nice gift baskets as well. We’ve spent a lot of time making sure the food we are able to deliver is affordable for the customers, we are very conscious of that. Our frozen menu includes very generous sized portions of fifteen different dishes with a choice of accompaniments including classics like Cottage Pie, Fish Pie, and Lasagne. Many people tell us that one of our portions easily provides two meals by simply adding an easy side dish like frozen peas.” There is a 10% discount until May 10th on any meal orders. Mention the Majorca Daily Bulletin when you order. In addition to delivering meals you can also get Delicisoso to do your shopping for you as they also supply groceries, drinks, water, and cleaning products.

Does the current situation feel a little bit like when you set up the business twelve years ago, I ask. “Yes!” Helen says, “It is. When I began it was just me and a chef and a lot of ideas. And the lockdown has stimulated a lot of new possible directions for Delicioso. We´ve had to go back to the kitchen table as it were, and relook at everything we do. For example,as soon as we are allowed to gather in groups of up to ten I can imagine you might want to see close friends or family or neighbours but instead of spending all of your relaxation time cooking you could order in one of our new BBQ boxes which will have a great selection of meat, seafood or vegetarian BBQ options with rubs, marinades, salads and dressing starting at €18 per box.

There will be everything in there for you to have a nice time without all the shopping, prepping and stress. Now the weather has improved I hope they will prove to be popular. Or you may want to order a full roast dinner to be delivered to your house, or a mezze platter. And we’re working on a cocktail kit which you could get delivered with your mezze buffet, so all you have to do is relax and meet up. It will be like having a restaurant come to your home. And as soon as we are allowed to cook at home for our clients, or set up a bar on their terrace then we will if there is a demand.”

In addition to helping out families Delicioso announced this week that they will be supporting both the members of the Age Concern and Cancer Support Mallorca charities with food deliveries. “We are offering an ongoing discount of 20% off our prices and there is not a minimum order requirement for any of these people. We wanted to help from the outset but it has taken some time to get the agreements in place. The charities both told me that many people had approached them offering to cook meals for the vulnerable but that they had to turn these good hearted people down because even the slightest hint of putting someone at risk by offering them meals cooked in an unknown home kitchen and then transported unrefrigerated in a car, with the best will in the world, could put some of these people at even more risk. But at Delicioso we run a Sanidad inspected kitchen, and we have to follow extremely strict rules around health and safety for everyone. We have to frequently sterilise all surfaces, our delivery drivers wear masks, gloves and aprons and the food is transported in a refrigerated van. Our delivery crates are sanitised before and after each delivery. No payment can be done at delivery and can be done by credit card over the telephone beforehand. So we have made an agreement with these two important charity groups who represent some of the most vulnerable people among our community. I wanted very much to be able to help out, and give back as much as our business could. Everyone is having a difficult time and we wanted to ease that if we could.”

How has Helen personally been coping during lockdown? “I’ve done a lot of things with my son which I would not have had the chance to do with him otherwise so from that perspective it has been great! My parents are in the UK and I know they wish they were over here with us, and I hope we will see each other again soon. I hope everyone can enjoy their time getting together with friends and family and let us deliver delicious food and drinks so they can relax and enjoy themselves, let’s celebrate (a little at least) that we´ve reached a big milestone and we can hopefully take it a little easier but still continue in the right direction to the other side!”

You can see all of the available delivery menus at www.deli-delicioso.com or contact via email if you have any questions catering@deli-delicioso.com or telephone 675 966 318.
Age Concern Mallorca: Tel:971 231 520 Email:acmallorca@ageconcern-espana.org
Cancer Support Group: Tel: 659 887 455 Email: info@cancersupportmallorca.com