We absolutely love trying different food products, so whenever we see new things at the supermarket, we have to give them a go. We recently came across The Food Company's latest product, Gourmet Meal Starters. Keep reading for our thoughts!

Who are The Food Company?

The Food Company is an Australian owned company specialising in long shelf-life salad dressings, sauces, and aromatic condiments. They've spent over 30 years in the industry supplying both wholesale and retail spaces with delicious, high-quality food products. All their offerings are gluten free and manufactured right here in Sydney. With everything from international flavours all the way through to Australian native bush ingredients, The Food Company has something to suite everyone's tastebuds!

Gourmet Meal Starters from The Food Company 

The Gourmet Meal Starters are aromatic mixers which are great for adding flavour to meals at home. The range currently includes 3 flavours:

• Onion, Garlic and Chilli

• Garlic, Ginger and Shallots

• Garlic, Chilli and Thai Basil

We decided to incorporate these gourmet meal starters into some of favourite mid-week meals - creamy bacon and tomato pasta, Chinese-style oven steamed fish, and chilli basil stir fry chicken.

Creamy Bacon and Tomato Pasta

(Serves 4)

• 1x 500g packet of dried pasta

• 4 rashers middle bacon, finely diced

• 300ml light thickened cream

• 1/2 cup white wine 

• 700g passata

• 2 tbsp The Food Company's Onion, Garlic and Chilli Gourmet Meal Starter 

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• Salt and Pepper, to taste

• Parmesan cheese, for serving
  
  

In a large frying pan, sauté bacon with olive oil until golden in colour, approximately 5 minutes. 

Add in The Food Company's Onion, Garlic and Chilli Gourmet Meal Starter and cook for another 2 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine, then add in the thickened cream and passata. 

Stir to combine all ingredients, then simmer for 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to packet directions. Drain the pasta, then stir through the sauce. 

Serve topped with parmesan cheese. 

Chinese-Style Oven Steamed Fish

(Serves 2)

• 2 Frozen white fish fillets - we used bass fillets 

• 2 tbsp The Food Company's Garlic, Ginger and Shallots Gourmet Meal Starter 

• 1 tbsp Sesame oil 

• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce 

• 2 tbsp shao hsing cooking wine

• steamed rice, for serving

  
  

Preheat oven to 220 degrees (200 Fan Forced). 

Place the frozen fish fillets in the centre of a baking tray lined with aluminium foil.

Spread The Food Company's Garlic, Ginger and Shallots Gourmet Meal Starter evenly over the fish.

Drizzle the sesame oil, soy sauce and shao hsing cooking wine over the fish.

Fold the edges of the aluminium foil over the fish, scrunching the edges tightly to creating an air-tight parcel for steaming.

Place fish in the oven and cooking for 25 minutes or until fish is no longer translucent. 

Serve with steamed rice.

Chilli Basil Stir Fry Chicken 

(Serves 2)

• 2 chicken thighs, diced

• 60g shallots, cut into 3 cm lengths

• 150g green beans, cut into 3cm lengths

• 2 tbsp The Food Company's Garlic, Chilli and Thai Basil Gourmet Meal Starter 

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tsp dark soy sauce

• 1 tsp brown sugar

• 1/2 cup cashews, for serving

• steamed rice, for serving
  
  

In a wok, fry the chicken and shallots in the sesame oil for around 4 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. 

Add in The Food Company's Garlic, Chilli and Thai Basil Gourmet Meal Starter and fry for another 10-15 seconds.

Add in the green beans and fry for another 1 minute.

Add in the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar and mix until a thick glossy sauce forms (1-2 minutes).  

Toss in cashews and serve with rice.

Our Thoughts on The Food Company's Gourmet Meal Starters

These jars definitely leveled up our meals, adding fast and easy flavour to simple recipes. If we had to pick a favourite, it would have to be the garlic, ginger and shallot mix! We love making steamed Chinese-style steamed fish as a mid-week meal, but prepping the fresh ginger and shallots is a lot of effort after coming home late from work.... this meal starter makes it so easy, and while it may not look as pretty, it tastes just as good as the fresh ingredients.

We did find the Garlic, Ginger and Shallots mix to be quite salty, so we’d recommend a quick taste test before adding extra seasoning to your fish. It’s also worth noting that the chilli flavours in the pasta and stir fry were quite subtle, so if you like heat you’ll probably need to incorporate some additional fresh chilli to your dishes. 

Overall, we’ll be using The Food Company's Gourmet Meal Starters for future meals!

You can find The Food Company's Gourmet Meal Starters are available at IGA and Woolworths supermarkets. Read more about The Food Company on their website.

This post contains gifted content. As always, our review is based on our honest experience of the product.