Meet the Newcastle business delivering Xmas roasts to your uni door

Christmas is almost upon us and for many, that means the annual house dinner. As predicted, it probably won’t go to plan and you can expect everything from heated debates to dodgy smoke alarms. Of course, nothing screams “happy family” quite like a few kitchen disasters, but the chances of burnt stuffing ruining the festive mood are very high. On top of this, there’s the dreaded clean-up which everyone will try and avoid until new year’s. Such fun. Thankfully, a new business called HomeMadeNCL is here to take the pressure off.

Charlie Cook, 21, is in his final year of study at Newcastle University. Outside of his course, the business student from Manchester came up with the idea ‘HomeMadeNCL’. Charlie says he used his own experience of living in a student house to propose this Christmas concept: “In addition to my own experience of house cooking, never-ending clean-up, and a pretty basic dinner at the end, this year I wanted to provide students with an opportunity to socialise over a delicious festive scran with minimal washing up involved”. He adds, “We’ve only been running about a week and have already seen such a positive response”.

Charlie and business partner, Simon from Gosforth, work alongside local meal prep company, eets, to bring pre-made Christmas roasts to student doors across Newcastle. Together with chefs who have worked in Michelin star restaurants and well-known eateries such as Riley’s Fish Shack, Long Friday and Cafe 21, the pair have created a festive menu for students to choose from. Charlie explains the importance of letting the professionals take the lead: “I’ve seen some questionable flat Christmas meals on social media every year since I started university”.

Along with the standard menu, the local business caters to both vegetarians and vegans. What’s more, students can purchase Christmas crackers, playing cards, mulled wine spice kits and paper plates (if washing up really isn’t for you). All deliveries take place on a Tuesday and heating instructions are supplied too. Simply head to their website to pre-order your house’s Xmas dinner.

For more information about HomeMadeNCL, visit their website.

Related articles recommended by this author:

• Here’s what your Jesmond Tesco meal deal says about you
• Forget the alphabet, here is the definitive A-Z of being a Newcastle student
• Saving lives at uni: Here’s how you can get involved