Délidoor is a company which prepares and delivers dishes from many different cuisines in Sydney. Founded by French fathers, Jacques and Mathieu last year, we speak to Jacques about Délidoor.
You are two French Dads who founded the company Délidoor. Where and when did the idea come from?
Mathieu is the founder of the chain Café Délisse that you can see in the city. During COVID, the city emptied out and the cafés as well as the centralised kitchen were running at idle speed. So Mathieu started to think and test offers of freshly prepared dishes sold online under the new brand. We have known each other for a few years and we spoke about the idea in July 2020 before repositioning and relaunching as an online e-commerce platform for frozen ready meals. This positioning allowed Délidoor to meet an essential need among our customers to eat varied and healthy food, in a context where the time available for cooking is increasingly limited.
Are you trained in cooking? If so, here or in France?
Jacques is a mining engineer, trained in France. He has been living in Australia for 15 years and has no specific training in cooking.
Mathieu is a food engineer and holds a master’s degree from HEC. He has been in Australia for 9 years. After a career as a consultant, he set up the Délisse coffee chain in 2013.
As for the kitchen, we rely on the expertise of our chef Sébastien, a Frenchman based in Australia for 20 years. Sébastien is a chef with 20 years of experience, including several years working alongside the great chef Marco Pierre in London. Sébastien also has a great expertise in the preparation of frozen dishes.
How long have you both been in Australia?
Jacques for 15 years, Mathieu for 9 years.
How did you know each other before starting Délidoor ?
We have known each other through the informal network of French people in Australia / FACCI and others for 5+ years.
I see that the dishes offered by Délidoor are not only French. What is your favourite dish from the menu?
Délidoor does indeed have some French-inspired dishes (Boeuf Bourguignon, Poulet Chasseur and Steak Sauce Marchand de vin) but not only.
We cater mainly to Australian families who appreciate good and varied dishes both in format (from stir fry to family lasagne) and in origin: France. Italy, Thailand, Japan.
Mathieu’s favourite dish is the Garlic Greek Chicken. Jacques’ is the Chicken Cacciatore.
Are you chefs at home?
Jacques: No, I am not the chef. I share the responsibility for what we eat and how we prepare it with my wife. We both love to cook, but we don’t have much time at the moment between our business startups and our 3.5 year old daughter. So we rely heavily on Délidoor to feed us a few nights of the week.
Mathieu: In the same way as Jacques, the cooking is shared at home, we each have our own specialities but we share the tasks. We are also big fans of Délidoor at home, it has literally changed our lives, we get about 5 to 6 hours of free time per week.
How many people make up the Délidoor team? You have an impressive menu with a lot of choices.
We have 4 cooks in the kitchen including our executive chef. We encourage our chefs to cook the cuisine of their country of origin, for example we have an excellent Thai sous-chef who takes care of the various curries on the menu.
The broad menu is a necessity for us because we want Délidoor to be able to offer its customers interesting options to cover several meals a week without ever becoming boring.
Are Délidoor’s dishes prepared in a commercial kitchen?
Yes, all of our dishes are prepared in our commercial kitchen situated in the Inner West from which we make our deliveries.
Why order from Délidoor?
For many reasons.
1 – Firstly, because it’s good. Our dishes are prepared by hand, in small quantities, from natural ingredients without preservatives or additives. They are “clean”. We work very hard on the flavours without ever using artificial or non-artificial flavours. The quality is equivalent to a restaurant offer.
2 – Because our prices are competitive and a lot cheaper than other solutions such as takeaway via food delivery apps.
3 – Because it’s practical. Our dishes are 100% prepared and mostly 100% cooked. What’s left to do at home is extremely limited which saves our customers a lot of time. Délidoor is the opposite of meal kits such as Hellofresh or Marley Spoon which, in the end, offer no real time savings: all the work remains to be done by the customer.
4 – We have a real commitment to environmental protection. Our packaging is reusable and recyclable. We have also decided to offer frozen products which have a much better ecological balance. They allow us to significantly reduce food waste.
Anything else to add?
We wish to offer Matilda Marseillaise readers who have not yet tried Délidoor an exceptional offer of 30% off their first order. Go straight to the link below or enter the code DELIDOOR when placing your order:
https://delidoor.com.au/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=matildamarseille
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We thank Jacques for this interview.
Visit the Délidoor website: https://delidoor.com.au/
If you’re interested in French food delivered to your door, you may also like to read the following articles:
OLALA Box – the answer to your French food delivery dreams
La French Box, a monthly box subscription filled with French delicacies, delivered to your door
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