When your Ladoo Fusion Kitchen order arrives at your doorstep, what you’re receiving is the culmination of a week-long process of planning, sourcing, cooking, and careful delivery. As a homemade food business in York, we believe that transparency builds trust, which is why we’re pulling back the curtain to show you exactly how your favorite fusion dishes come to life each week. From the first spark of inspiration to the moment we hand over your food, every step is guided by our commitment to quality, creativity, and culinary integrity.
Weekly Menu Planning: From Idea to Execution
The Creative Process
Our menu planning begins almost as soon as the previous week’s deliveries are complete. We start with a brainstorming session where we consider:
- Seasonal ingredients available locally
- Customer feedback and requests
- Balancing returning favorites with new creations
- Ensuring diverse options (vegetarian, meat-based, spice levels)
- Creating cohesive flavor profiles across the menu
Each menu tells a story, whether it’s celebrating a particular region of India or moreover cuisines around the world showcasing a seasonal ingredient, or exploring a specific fusion concept. We map out potential dishes on a whiteboard, sketching flavor combinations and techniques until we have a menu that excites us.
Testing and Refinement
No dish appears on our menu without rigorous testing. Our development process typically includes:
- Initial concept testing with small batches
- Adjustments to spice levels, cooking methods, and accompaniments
- “Friends and family” taste tests for honest feedback
- Final tweaks to ensure each dish travels well and maintains quality
Only when a dish passes all these stages does it earn a spot on the weekly menu. Some of our most popular items have gone through 5-6 iterations before making their debut!
Sourcing Ingredients: Local Meets Authentic
Yorkshire Producers
We take pride in working with local Yorkshire producers whenever possible. These relationships allow us to support our local economy while ensuring the freshest ingredients for our dishes. There’s something special about knowing exactly where your food comes from, the farmer who grew your vegetables or the butcher who prepared your meat.
Authentic Indian Ingredients
For specialized Indian ingredients, we work with trusted suppliers:
- Spices from a family-run Indian grocer in ____who imports directly from different regions of India
- Hard-to-find produce like curry leaves, fresh turmeric, and specialty chilies from specialist importers
- Specialty flours and pulses from bulk suppliers who focus on quality
We believe that authentic ingredients are non-negotiable for creating genuine flavors. While fusion cuisine allows for creative interpretation, the foundation must be built on respect for traditional ingredients and techniques.
Cooking & Preparation: The Heart of Our Operation
Kitchen Timeline
Our weekly cooking schedule follows a carefully orchestrated timeline:
Wednesday:
- Final menu confirmation
- Ingredient prep (washing, chopping, marinating)
- Base sauces preparation
- Slow-cooked items started
Thursday:
- Main cooking day for Friday delivery items
- Assembly of complex dishes
- First round of dessert preparation
- Quality checks and tasting
Friday:
- Final touches on Friday delivery items
- Packaging and labeling
- Delivery route planning
- First delivery day
Saturday-Sunday:
- Ingredient prep for Monday dishes
- Slow-cooked items started
- Base preparation for complex dishes
Monday:
- Final cooking for Monday delivery items
- Packaging and labeling
- Second delivery day
This staggered approach ensures everything is freshly prepared as close to delivery as possible.
Food Safety and Hygiene
As a registered food business, we maintain strict food safety protocols:
- Regular temperature monitoring of refrigerated and cooked items
- Separate preparation areas for different food types
- Comprehensive cleaning schedule before, during, and after production
- Proper storage practices to prevent cross-contamination
- Regular training and updates on food safety guidelines
Our kitchen may be home-based, but our standards are professional-grade. We’ve worked closely with local environmental health officers to ensure our setup exceeds requirements.
Packaging & Delivery: The Final Touch
Sustainable Packaging Solutions
Finding packaging that balances environmental concerns with food safety has been one of our biggest challenges. Our current solution includes:
- Biodegradable containers for most hot foods
- Recyclable aluminum trays for items requiring reheating
- Paper-based bags and minimal plastic
- Clear reheating/storage instructions on every package
We continuously research better options as sustainable packaging technology improves.
Delivery Logistics
Delivery days are carefully orchestrated to ensure your food arrives in perfect condition:
- Orders are grouped by location to create efficient delivery routes
- Hot items are packaged last and placed in insulated delivery bags
- Cold items are kept separately with appropriate temperature control
- Estimated delivery times are communicated to customers
- GPS routing helps us optimize delivery efficiency
For customers outside our,……..
Why Only Two Delivery Days? Quality Over Quantity
One question we’re frequently asked is why we limit ourselves to just two delivery days per week. The answer is simple: quality.
By consolidating our production and delivery, we can:
- Ensure every dish receives the attention it deserves during preparation
- Maintain freshness of ingredients without wastage
- Prevent cook fatigue that might impact quality
- Dedicate proper time to menu development and testing
- Maintain work-life balance as a small family business
This approach allows us to operate at a sustainable pace while maintaining the high standards we’ve become known for. Rather than rushing to fulfill daily orders, we can focus on creating memorable culinary experiences twice a week.
The People Behind the Food
Behind every Ladoo Fusion Kitchen dish are the two of us an Indian-British couple who believe food is the most beautiful expression of cultural exchange. Our different culinary backgrounds allow us to approach fusion cooking from a place of authenticity and respect.
On busy preparation days, you’ll find us both in the kitchen:
- One focusing on spice blending and authentic Indian techniques
- The other handling European cooking methods and presentation
- Both collaborating on flavor testing and quality control
What began as cooking for friends has evolved into a business, but our approach remains the same: we cook each dish as if we were serving it at our own dinner table.
FAQ
How far in advance do you plan your menus?
We typically have a rough plan for 3-4 weeks ahead, but finalize specific dishes about 10 days before delivery to accommodate seasonal ingredients.
Do you accommodate dietary restrictions?
Yes! We offer vegetarian options every week and can modify many dishes for specific allergies or preferences when requested in advance.
How long does it take to prepare an average week’s menu?
Approximately 30-35 hours of active preparation time, spread across 5 days.
What’s the most challenging dish you’ve created?
Our 48-hour Dal Makhani with smoked butter requires the longest preparation time, but dishes with multiple components like our Deconstructed Samosa Chaat are the most technically challenging.
How do you ensure consistency week after week?
We maintain detailed recipe documentation, weigh ingredients precisely, and taste-test at multiple stages during preparation.
Conclusion
From the initial spark of inspiration to the moment your food arrives at your door, creating each Ladoo Fusion Kitchen menu is a labor of love. The behind-the-scenes process, the sourcing, preparation, cooking, and delivery, may be invisible to our customers, but it’s these unseen steps that define the quality and character of our food.
We believe that knowing how your food is made enhances the experience of eating it. There’s a story behind every dish we create, and we’re grateful to share not just our food, but the journey that brings it to your table.
Want to experience the results of this process yourself? Order from our current menu by Wednesday for Friday delivery or by Saturday for Monday delivery through our Square page or Instagram!
