RATATOUïE – fresh food for littles delivered straight to your door

Words: Holly Kirkwood

One of the priorities we all have when our little ones are at their smallest is making sure they’re eating properly. Despite the mums you meet who tell you their ten-year-old only ate white bread and crisps for eight years and they are FINE, all the media noise around healthy eating (ten a day, anyone?) and the huge choice when we go shopping makes most mums feel like they’d like to encourage their little ones to eat well from an early age.

Healthy, home-cooked meals are the holy grail, whether you have a six-month-old or a two year old: almost anyone you’ll ask who knows their stuff will tell you that eclectic tastes develop best from just a few months old.

But of course this desire is countered by the many responsibilities mums of babies and toddlers have to contend with on a daily basis, whether you’re working or not.  Having a balanced life should not have to consist of pureeing vegetables at one in the morning..

One working mum who came to just that conclusion is Helene Piquion. As an investment banker her hours at work were long, but she still wanted her daughter to eat well, and found herself making her own baby food in the early hours, because she felt what the supermarkets offered wasn’t really up to scratch.

After she realised this was a serious gap in the market, Helene came up with the idea of RATATOUïE, which has just launched and currently offers freshly-cooked organic children’s meals delivered straight to doors in south-west London including Chelsea, Battersea, Kensington and Wimbledon. Deliveries are twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the dishes are everything you wish you had time to make yourself from scratch every day: apple and pear, or carrot, parsley, broccoli, sweet potato and parsnip purees for tinies all the way up to creamy fish pie and veggie-packed meatballs for 2-3 year-olds.

Ratatouie purees are organic, and come in sustainable packaging

They are absolutely delicious, and come in glass jars with plastic lids, which are entirely recyclable (and you can return your used jars for just that purpose). Prices start at £1.95 for a single pudding puree and go up to around £4 for a full toddler meal. Delivery costs are extra, but Helene points out that friends can all get together to spread the delivery charge.

The company is very young, and hoping to expand to new locations within London, so if you’re not located in the south west, watch this space because RATATOUïE could be coming to a delivery area near you soon..

Read more on food and nutrition at www.absolutely-mama.co.uk.