The essential ingredients for a Friday night in: candles, wine, music – and Michelin-starred cuisine. Now if you’re wondering how you are going to create a world-class meal in your own kitchen, not to worry. Like everything else these days, you can simply get it brought to your door – in this case courtesy of Voilà. Launched in 2021 by former Foodora employee Julius Wiesenhuetter and business partner Florian Berg, the Berlin start-up has partnered with dozens of top restaurants to bring haute cuisine home. The concept of fine dining to-go is nothing new in Berlin: since the pandemic, leading eateries like Restaurant Tim Raue and Einsunternull have experimented with high-end food delivery. What makes Voilà different is that you can sample cuisine from restaurants all over Germany and beyond. And so while you can order dinner from local legends like Cookies Cream and Zenkichi, you can also taste two-star cuisine from restaurants further afield like Ox & Klee in Cologne and Opus V in Mannheim. The founding pair expect the restaurant line-up – which currently extends to Parisian eatery Sola – to expand further.
This being the festive season, a number of the restaurants are serving up Christmas specials including Hamburg’s Dim Sum Haus, who are shipping out their showstopping Peking duck (some say it’s the best in Germany) for festive dinners at home. Delivery of the food is via post: once you place your order, your meal is prepared and partially cooked by the chefs before being packed in smart sealed containers to keep it fresh and juicy. At home, all you need to do is reheat the dishes according to the instructions and serve. As to whether you reveal to your guests that their dinner came in the post: well, we’ll leave that up to you…
Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Voilà (r) & Cottonbro (l)
To get the full story on Voilà – including an interview with the founders – listen to episode #15 of Teller Stories, available on Podigee, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
Voilà deliveries are fulfilled in time for Friday dinnertime. Deadline for orders is Wednesday at 20h.
Teller Stories is on Podigee, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
New episodes of the current season are released every Thursday.
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