I Tried a Michelin-Star Meal via getvoila and This Is What I Thought

Have you heard of getvoila? They deliver ready-to-serve menus from renowned chefs and (Michelin-starred) restaurants that have been created and prepared exclusively for getvoila. All you have to do is assemble them at home. A three-course menu from a Michelin-starred chef, served at our own festively set table? We’re always up for that. Jonathan Zandbergen of restaurant Merlet* created the getvoila menu that was delivered to our home. Read on to find out how it went.

About getvoila

Getvoila was founded in Berlin in 2021 by Mostafa Nageeb and Julius Wiesenhütter. With both founders having experience in the food and delivery industries, they had an idea: bring the best restaurants and culinary talents into people’s homes. In other words: make Michelin-starred meals accessible to everyone. The company now works with more than 125 chefs and restaurants in Germany and Austria, and getvoila also launched in the Netherlands last October 2023. It was high time for us to put it to the test!

About Jonathan Zandbergen

Jonathan Zandbergen has been cooking non-stop for about 25 years. He began his career at Het Polmans Huis in Utrecht and started as executive chef at Merlet* in Schoorl 8.5 years ago. He also wrote a cookbook, from which we have made his cod dish dozens of times. He will leave Merlet* at the end of December 2023. He does not yet know exactly what he will do next. Although he told hospitality trade magazine Misset Horeca that he wants to be a role-model entrepreneur—someone young people in the industry would be happy to work for and learn from. He plans to develop that further in the coming period.

All that’s left is to assemble the dishes

From getvoila and Jonathan, we received a starter of beetroot with smoked eel, confit de canard with sauerkraut and truffle sauce as the main course, and matcha panna cotta with chocolate mousse for dessert. All that was left was to assemble everything. It sounds incredibly easy, and it actually is. The components for each course can be found in a separate box, and instructions are included—although they are in German. The box containing the first course (for clarity, it has a big bold 1 on it) contains several transparent plastic containers with separate components. Then you simply follow the instructions, like a recipe. Mische die gegrillte Rote Bete mit dem Chioggia-/Apfelsalat und dem Schnittlauch in einer kleinen Schüssel. I can do that!

Plating with an eyebrow tweezer

What I’m not particularly good at is plating a dish beautifully. Yet even that turned out pretty well, thanks to my eyebrow tweezers. With them, I could place the slices of beetroot and strips of eel perfectly, along with the tiny lavender flowers for decoration.

Before serving course number one, I put the bags for the main course in hot water and preheat the oven. And then: dinner is served! My dining companion is impressed by the presentation (the fact that I had forgotten the dot of crème fraîche went unnoticed), and it turns out to taste wonderful too. Fresh and tangy thanks to the apple and the little dollop of cream I added after all, with the subtle smoky flavor and richness of the eel. The fishiness and richness also return in the beetroot prawn crackers. Delicious!

The dish is a delightful whole

The second course is even easier to put together. I slide the sauerkraut purée into the oven, along with the duck legs. A little later, I stack everything on top of one another and add the sauce. No tweezers needed, unfortunately. I simply can’t get everything to look that beautiful on the plate. But the proof of the pudding is, as always, in the eating. It’s a real autumn dish, full of earthy flavors. The meat is fantastic; it falls right off the bone. The gravy is delicious too—lovely and dark and savory, with truffle that thankfully doesn’t overpower anything. The sauerkraut is very soft and mild in flavor, and the mushrooms with bacon turn the dish into a wonderfully satisfying whole.

Best chocolate mousse ever

And then it’s time for dessert. Unfortunately, the wafer-thin sesame cookies and the chocolate mandalas did not arrive completely intact. But oh well, I can just piece them together a little. One layer after another follows, from sesame cookie to chocolate mousse and from panna cotta to even more chocolate mousse, with the mandala on top. Tricky! The drops of lime gel around the edges are really too much to ask of my limited plating skills, but that doesn’t detract from the flavor. The chocolate mousse is the best I’ve ever eaten, but the overall dessert is a little too much for my taste. Too many flavors and textures together. Just the chocolate mousse with the lime gel would also have been perfect for me—but of course it wouldn’t have looked quite as spectacular.

The ultimate Christmas dinner, right at home

Broadening your culinary horizons has never been this easy. The chefs do all the work; all you have to do is finish everything off yourself. Would I order another Michelin-star meal like this? Absolutely! It’s genuinely easy to do, with neatly packaged ingredients and clear instructions. And it’s truly delicious. An idea for Christmas? Wherever you live—in the big city or somewhere remote in the countryside—getvoila is available anytime, anywhere. Oh, and ordered today? Delivered the day after tomorrow!

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