An entrepreneur on a mission to spice up your life - and make millions

“When I looked at fresh food delivery services, the feedback was that if you don’t use your whole box, it starts costing you a lot of money,” says Ashness. “Our goods don’t perish, so it’s up to you when you use them. You’re not having to cook every night of the week if you suddenly don’t have time.”

According to consumers canvassed by Ashness, the majority wanted to cook more meals but were put off by the time involved and the expense of buying all the ingredients.

“A lot of celebrity chefs say that their meals take 15 or 30 minutes but they never do,” says Ashness. “You have to spend about an hour chopping and spend £50 buying spices that you might never use again.”

Simply Cook’s meals take an average of 20 minutes to prepare and there are currently 45 different recipe options from around the world, including Malaysian laksa, and unusual fare such as Asian “firecracker chicken” and pork with “shichimi togarashi”, which means “seven spices” in Japanese.

There are up to 18 ingredients in each kit and each recipe has been devised in partnership with fully-trained in-house chefs.

“I had to try 250 recipes to get down to the ones we have now,” says Ashness. “I wanted to make sure that every customer would make the meal and think, 'Wow. I couldn’t have cooked that on my own.’ ”

The company will have 80 recipes by the end of next year but will constantly refresh the range depending on customer feedback and seasonal favourites.

All the ingredients are “natural”, says Ashness and do not contain additives or preservatives.

Each box feeds two people to appeal to the time-poor, “young professional” demographic. However, a family box and a vegetarian option is currently in development.

The start-up was tested in May 2013 but had its official launch in January this year. Ashness spent £100,000 developing the initial products, honing the recipes and building the website.

Ensuring the pots didn’t explode in the post was tougher than Ashness anticipated. “You wouldn’t believe the pressure that these boxes come under in the mail,” he says.

The start-up capital came from Ashness’ savings as well as money raised through friends and family. “I sold my house to fund my business,” he says.

Simply Cook has attracted “several thousand” consumers in the past six months and is heading towards a monthly turnover of between £100,000 and £180,000 by the end of the year.

“We’ll have a run rate of £1m a year soon,” says Ashness.

The company employs five full-time staff and two part-timers. Social media has been crucial to growth.

“We can acquire customers for very little on Twitter and Facebook,” says Ashness.

“The best channel by far has been paid advertising on Facebook. We can target all of Delia Smith’s followers in one go and it’s cheaper than trying to pay for celebrity endorsement.”

Unlike recipe boxes, which contain fresh meat and vegetables, Simply Cook isn’t trying to go head to head with the supermarkets.

“We sit alongside that spend,” says Ashness. “Supermarkets have a stranglehold on 80pc of shopping budgets so if you try and build a subscription business that eats into that you’ll struggle. But, equally, if our customers want to go to farmers’ markets and local producers they have that flexibility. We’re still making their meals more affordable.”

A month’s worth of Simply Cook deliveries costs £10 for four boxes.

Each meal requires between four and six basic ingredients, taking the total cost to between £3 and £6 per person.

Growth during the first half of the year hit 45pc month-on-month, reveals Ashness. But sales slowed in the summer. People don’t want to eat hot meals or spend time indoors when the temperatures soar.

“It’s been a horrible summer for e-commerce generally,” he says.

One way to combat the seasonality of the business is to expand internationally. “It wouldn’t be too difficult for us to export,” says Ashness. “We’re not selling fresh food so we could test the waters with Royal Mail.

“I want to internationalise early and move quickly into Europe and the US, but it’s important to get the UK business right first.”

He plans to fundraise for further growth capital this autumn to help to increase customer numbers.

“I want to completely change the way people think about cooking,” he says. “Have you seen that Michael McIntye sketch about the herb and spice cupboard? One of the spices says, 'I was in the old house, I’ve never been opened.’ Another says, 'I still have the plastic on my head, why did they buy me?’

People just don’t use these products but with Simply Cook the nation’s cooks can expand their repertoire without investing in costly cupboard fillers that go unused and out of date.”

Watch the Michael McIntyre sketch below

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