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The Dinner Ladies are Sophie Gilliatt and Katherine Westwood. We got together at the school gate in 2007 and came up with the idea of preparing dinners for time-poor friends and family members so that they woud always have good, homemade food in their fridges and freezers (and incidentally, so would we).
Between us we have seven children and two husbands of varying sizes, appetites and degrees of fussiness - there’s not much we don’t know about pleasing a tricky crowd.
We started cooking in the shed in Katherine’s back yard on a converted trailer and two camp stoves.
We’d shop on a Monday, cook on a Tuesday and then one of us would do the delivery run while the other fed and bathed all the kids.
We're no longer cooking in the shed – and we’ve got a few more hands on deck in the kitchen now – but we still cook every dish as if we were cooking for our own families:with the best possible ingredients and no added rubbish like preservatives, emulsifiers, thickeners or flavour-enhancers.
We like to say that we only use ingredients your grandmother would recognise, as long as she was an adventurous and well-travelled grandmother who knew her turmeric from her tamarind.
Holbrook Paddock chooks & their Maremma guardians
All our poultry and eggs are free-range, our beef and lamb are grass-fed and our seafood comes from sustainable Australian aquaculture. We buy our vegetables and herbs directly from the markets ourselves.
Mrs Sokhum Tok ung's beautiful Sydney Basin grown tomatoes
Our influences come from all over the world, from great chefs and street food, as well as treasured family recipes passed down from our mothers. What matters to us is that our food is honest, nourishing and full of flavour.
We believe that dinner should be the highlight of the day and that good food, lovingly prepared, is always good for the soul.
See more from our customers
  • "You truly are angels, there's nights we would have been eating cereal for dinner if not for our DL stash in the freezer!"
  • "The food is so fresh and nice and there's so much variety - it's like being young again and eating at my mate's mum's house. I'm a single bloke who can't cook to save himself and run a crazy, time-consuming business – you're the best find ever!"
  • "Your food has absolutely saved our lives - we have a newborn and were given a few of your vouchers and have not stopped ordering since. SO SO delicious and the changing menu each week is wonderful."
  • "I am really happy to have found the Dinner Ladies and it's made a big difference - best of all the kids love the meals! They're used to healthy home-made meals and are very fussy so I am thrilled to bits."
  • "I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the beautiful dinners you've been cooking me for a couple of years now. You've got me through some very tough times - thank you for taking such great care of me and long may you reign!"
  • "We are loving your dishes and I am loving the fact that I can feed my family something which tastes as if it has been made with love."
  • "You have helped add sanity to the evening meal preparation after a long day at work. Your meals are of such high quality that I don't feel guilty eating or serving them."
  • "I can now spend time with my children in the afternoons not planning nutritious meals and running around shopping and then chopping and cutting it all up in the kitchen! You are legends and the best part is, the food is delicious too!"
  • "You really have changed my life. No longer do I pay for over-priced, unhealthy takeaway food as I have always got your beautiful home cooking on hand. I can't tell you how much time and stress you've saved me."
  • "We have a very busy household of six and it's great not to have to think about what I'm going to cook for the week. The quality is excellent and the biggest bonus is not having the clean-up at the end!"
  • "Love your work, ladies!"