“For me, cooking is all about sharing,” says Manuel Martinez Infante (pictured above). This is the philosophy that underpins his business, Cuisine Box, which he set up with his partner Fiona Metcalfe (pictured above).
Cuisine Box sells cooking kits to customers who want to host friends or family and enjoy a new recipe together. There are cooking kits for making sushi, ravioli, paella and tacos, all sold online. Standard kits serve four or two twice.
“So many food boxes are focused on efficiency and spending as little time as possible on cooking. Whereas, we enjoy the process of cooking and making an event out of it,” says Fiona. Cuisine Box, a London-based company, is a Starling business customer.
A recipe for success
“Growing up in my family home, we loved to host dinner parties and celebrations for family and friends. I had a couple of friends who would be dropped off or collected and the taxi drivers would describe our house as ‘the party house’. We’d do things for birthdays and at Christmas and we’d always have home-cooked food,” says Fiona, 29.
“Our families are similar in that respect,” adds Manuel, 32. “Even when I was a teenager, I would invite my friends over and cook for them. When I left school, I trained to be a chef and then went into hotel management. Cooking and hosting and sharing has always been part of our lives. And that’s what our company is about.”