The Cook founders: ‘£5 for a home-cooked meal is better value than your average coffee'

Telegraph

6 days ago

You might think you've never tried a Cook meal – but can you be absolutely sure? The frozen food experts at their Sittingbourne HQ often receive panicked Monday morning emails from customers begging for the recipe to a particular dish.
Try passing one off as your own and you may be caught out – your guest could well ask for the details.
'It doesn't just happen occasionally, it happens weekly,' says co-founder and co-CEO Ed Perry, still amazed. 'I do always think, 'Are you not secure enough in your friendship to tell them the truth?''
After all, there's no more respectable frozen meal than one from Cook. Mum friends will casually announce we're having a Cook lasagne when I come round – a time- and sanity-saving solution. I relay this to Ed, 54, his sister and co-CEO Rosie Brown, 49, and their brother James, 52, who is Cook's co-chair. They're pleased to hear it – but not remotely complacent.
Twenty-eight years into their business, with £150 million in projected sales this year, 109 shops, 2,000 employees, three savoury kitchens in Sittingbourne and a Willy Wonka-esque dessert kitchen in Ilton, Somerset, they still take nothing for granted.
The freezer that started it all
Thanks to what they describe as a 'tightly ingrained freedom gene' they all share, it's been a long slog to reach this point. They've never taken venture capital, aren't stocked in the big four supermarkets, and run the business with a mission to nourish both people and planet.
We're gathered around the kitchen table at Ed's home in Kent, ostensibly to discuss Cook: Serve Up Joy, the recipe book they're finally publishing – which should go some way to answering those Chicken Alexander recipe queries. It also marks a celebration of the way Cook has brought people together over food for nearly 30 years.
The inspiration for the business stretches back further, to the siblings' childhood in 1980s Kent. Their parents, Anne and Andrew, ran two small coffee shops in the county, as well as a bakery. Anne worked full-time while still putting homecooked meals on the table for her four children (their youngest brother, Alex, isn't involved in the business).
'She was a really good cook, but the sort that doesn't follow recipes. She had a distinctive flare for how to make food taste good,' says Ed.
Once a week, she'd make a big batch of casserole or chilli con carne. The leftovers went into square ice cream tubs and into the chest freezer at home. 'Come midweek, a tub would be pulled out and microwaved and that was supper. And it was always delicious. So we grew up knowing that frozen food can taste great,' explains Ed.
'Having the idea is one thing – executing it is another'
In his early twenties, Ed began working for the family business, but in 1997 he decided to strike out on his own.
'I had this idea in the back of my head that if we could make savoury food that tastes just as good as my parents' cakes, it could work on the high street.'
He had got to know a local chef, Dale Penfold, and the pair teamed up to make it happen. They borrowed £12,000 each from NatWest and Midland Bank, and £6,000 from Ed's parents. Dale set up a kitchen in Rainham for £18,000, while Ed opened their first shop – Cakes and Casseroles – in Farnham for £10,000. 'Even 28 years on, it seems a crazy small amount of money,' reflects Ed.
Very quickly, he realised that having the idea was one thing – executing it was another.
Ed still laughs at how naive he was. 'Dale was supposed to be instantly producing this food like my mother produced and we'd have 20 dishes in two weeks. But it wasn't like that.
'It was horribly complicated. We learnt it is really difficult to make it look and taste home-made, and deliver that consistently.'
With hindsight, not knowing the tricks of the trade to manufacture at scale was a blessing. It meant they took no shortcuts – but the learning curve was steep. Take a simple meal like macaroni cheese. 'If you make a brilliant one, freeze and reheat it, it will come out like a brick,' says Ed.
The perfect frozen macaroni cheese, he explains, involves dipping the pasta in boiling water for 15 seconds, then adding a béchamel that has the consistency of milk, but is packed with flavour. Freeze it, then take it out to sprinkle cheese on top. Freeze again. 'And when you reheat, it's perfect,' says Ed.
Getting to that point took countless iterations – but enough customers were coming into the shop to convince Ed he was on the right track.
'The meeting lasted two minutes. We were in the s--t'
Three years in, with a second shop in Tunbridge Wells, problems were on the horizon. Ed had failed to keep any accounts. 'Partly because I didn't know how. And partly because I knew how awful they would look if I had,' he grimaces.
When he went to apply for a loan to build a new kitchen, the bank manager asked, 'Can I see your accounts?'
'I said: 'You can see a menu'. The meeting lasted two minutes. We were in the s--t.'
Luckily, the following week his brother James came to visit. After five years at Cadbury, having joined the graduate scheme and lived at Bournville, he had agreed to take over the family baking business from their parents, Andrew and Anne, who were ready to retire.
But it was what Ed was doing – however haphazardly – that excited him. 'I could see the potential of the retail business. The bakery was quite boring by comparison.'
So in January 2000, Cakes and Casseroles merged with the family bakery.
The name Cook was Ed's wife Sophie's idea – the product of a late-night drinking session down the pub in Oxted.
Around the same time, Rosie, who had been working at Morgan Stanley and not enjoying it, came on board.
'They called and said, 'Come help us. We're trying to build a business.' I was like, 'I know absolutely nothing,' and they said, 'Neither do we.' And that's still slightly where we are – trying to figure it out.'
Classics that never go out of style
The decision not to sell through the big four supermarkets – although Cook products are available in Co-op and Booths – was down to James.
'There was a clear moment in time around 2005 when we'd just started supplying a few farm shops and we were always struggling financially. I asked, 'Shouldn't we try to supply supermarkets?'' recalls Ed.
'And I remember very clearly James saying, 'Look I spent five years at Cadbury having the s--t-kicked out of me by the big supermarkets, what chance do we have?' I still remember that conversation vividly. It made total sense and it was a red line.'
Had they gone down the supermarket route, they suspect their offering would be closer to 20 dishes rather than the 150 they make currently.
Their bestsellers remain mostly unchanged: beef bourguignon, chicken, ham and leek pie, lasagne, fish pie, chilli con carne.
Three best-selling Cook recipes to try at home
The veggie market has grown significantly in the past five years. Previously their veggie lasagne wouldn't have made the top 20; now it's top five. They've also introduced Indian ranges and, this year, Pan-Asian dishes.
Ed groans when asked for a favourite: 'It's like asking me to choose my favourite child.'
He is a crusader for their turkey laab, a Laotian dish made from minced turkey. 'The customer just isn't getting it. But it's absolutely amazing. I'm on a campaign to save it.'
Family get-togethers are a big affair, and of course Cook features regularly – even at Christmas. 'I almost feel it's a duty,' says Rosie. 'If I'm not going to feed it to my own family, then why would anyone else?'
Ed has three freezers at home. Not everything inside is from Cook. He frequently tries out competitors' offerings. 'It's always a weird moment when you have a bad meal from a rival, but you're also quite happy,' he jokes.
A friendly rivalry with Charlie Bigham
They don't think there's a shortage of room in the frozen ready meal market. Six months ago, Ed had lunch with Charlie Bigham.
'How was that?' I ask, eagerly.
'We stalked each other around the table, eyeing each other up,' he jokes. 'No, it's really good. We're not daggers drawn. His trajectory has been similar to ours, growing over a period of time.'
Today, you tend to know if you live in a desirable area based on the availability of Cook meals – either a standalone shop or a freezer in the village shop. How do they feel about being seen as a middle-class symbol?
'The honest answer is that I feel a little bit uncomfortable,' admits Ed. 'Because the way we think about business is super inclusive. I think people would be completely surprised by the broad spectrum of people who shop with us.
'We don't want people to feel intimidated walking into a Cook shop because it's a middle-class zone.'
Rosie agrees: 'At the end of the day we're selling a lasagne for £5, which is within reach of anyone who's buying a cappuccino for £3.50; £5 for a really good home cooked meal is really good value.'
Still, it has always been a tricky balance, finding a price point that customers will pay, while aligning with their values on animal welfare, the planet, and supporting British farmers. Most of their ingredients are British, except for some New Zealand lamb, as they can't source enough in the UK.
'We could save ourselves £1.5 million a year tomorrow if we went to the same welfare standard of other big brands,' says Ed.
Right now they are tackling the inflationary storm of the past two years. Energy, wage and ingredient inflation have seen costs spiral. 'And we can only move prices up so much,' says Ed.
They would like to see national food strategy moving up the government's agenda. 'It's still seen as bottom of the list and I think actually food is pretty fundamental to a healthy society,' states Rosie. 'And we do have a farming industry that is needing attention.'
Building a business that values people over profits
Their business has weathered other tough times. In 2008, they nearly went bust. Then in 2021, they faced a cyber attack.
'We were early adopters on that score,' jokes James.
It struck just before Christmas, their busiest period. Luckily, the Eastern European gang behind it didn't access customer data, but it did disrupt stock movements.
Their plan remains to open 8-10 shops annually; Macclesfield was their latest. They now have 1,080 live concessions, with 130 more planned this year across independent and cooperative retailers.
When asked what they're most proud of, it's not selling millions of meals but the workplace culture they've built.
In 2013, James introduced the B-Corp concept to the UK, meaning Cook meets strict social and environmental standards. Over 2,400 UK businesses are certified.
The siblings believe business should contribute to a fairer society. In 2015, just before paying their first dividend, Rosie pointed out in a board meeting they weren't yet paying the Living Wage Foundation rate.
'I spoil everyone's fun,' she laughs.
With families of their own, a dividend would have been welcome. But Rosie's calculations showed the Living Wage cost would match the dividend amount.
'We all looked at each other and said, 'Yeah, we have to do that',' recalls Ed. 'We made that decision and I'm so glad we did.'
Dale, 14 years Ed's senior, retired six years ago but remains a close friend. The Cook recipe book is dedicated to him and Liz Dove, who started the Ilton kitchen.
The business is passionate about people. Like Timpson, they employ prison leavers and those facing mental health barriers. Rosie is the first woman to chair the Prison Employment Advisory Board.
They credit their Christian upbringing for this outlook. 'Across the four siblings our range of faith goes from not much at all, to quite a lot, but the values set that we all share from how we were brought up informs everything,' says Ed.
Their parents are proud but 'would not have been in any way impressed if we'd become a £100 million company running the company in a way that was egregious,' says Ed.
'The belief [is] that the role of business is a lot more than maximising financial returns for whoever owns the capital. Those values continue to be a huge influence on what Cook is today.'