Olivia Manner is the founder of Hello Chef, one of the UAE’s leading meal kit delivery services, she recently took the time to discuss what this exciting service can provide families with in this exclusive interview.

But for me, Hello Chef was never really about getting people to cook more. It was about helping them enjoy it again. Not just the process, but the small things you stop noticing when you’re stressed — the winding down that happens while you’re chopping, the satisfaction of creating something with your own hands.

When you take away the mental load — the ‘what do I even make tonight’ spiral, the last-minute supermarket run — something shifts. Cooking gets lighter.

And honestly? My favourite proof of that is what happens in my own kitchen. The moment things start smelling good, nobody stays in their room. Everyone finds their way to the kitchen. That’s when I know it’s stopped being a task and started being something else entirely.

How do your meal kits encourage families to spend quality time together in the kitchen rather than just preparing food quickly?

A meal kit makes cooking genuinely accessible in a way that a recipe from memory doesn’t. There’s a card, there are clear steps, and that means anyone can pick one up and own it. In my house, that’s not a nice idea — it’s just what happens. When my son is hungry enough, he will absolutely grate carrots or peel potatoes if it means dinner arrives faster. Hunger is a great motivator.

My kids are 12 and 14 now, and what I’m noticing is that they’re not just helping anymore — they’re actually cooking. My son makes meals for his friends sometimes, which still surprises me a little. My daughter has completely taken over her own breakfasts — smoothies, chia seed puddings — she doesn’t need me involved at all. And the thing I love most about that? I don’t need to shop separately or leave instructions. It’s all just there.

Saturdays are probably my favourite. We’re often all in the kitchen at the same time — two of us on dinner, the other two on dessert. It’s not planned or coordinated, it just happens that way.

And that’s exactly the point. You’re not scheduling quality time. You’re just making dinner, and somehow it becomes that anyway.

With the region experiencing periods of unrest, many families are spending more time at home – how has this changed the way people approach cooking and dining?

I should say, this is really the experience of families who stayed here in the UAE — like mine did. And when you’re all home together, working from the dining table, kids on school calls in the next room, meals start to play a completely different role. They become the punctuation of the day. A reason to stop, step away from the screen, and actually gather.

What we noticed at Hello Chef was that snacks and desserts really took off. Kids weren’t getting their school tuck shop fix anymore, and honestly, the adults needed a little something too. Morale food is a real thing. I personally became slightly obsessed with our flapjack during that period — I’m not sure how many I got through, but it was not a small number.

But beyond the treats, I think something more lasting shifted. People became more intentional about mealtimes. Less rushing through dinner to get to the next thing. More sitting with it — literally and figuratively. Even a simple meal started to feel like a moment worth creating.

How do you balance convenience with creativity to ensure meals still feel special rather than routine?

For me, convenience is what allows creativity to happen in the first place. If something feels too complicated, it’s very hard to muster the energy to even start — at least on a Monday at 7pm, which is real life for most of us.

Once it feels manageable though, people become so much more open to trying something new. Thai, Korean, Indian — these cuisines can feel genuinely daunting at home. Not because the cooking is hard, but because of what happens at the supermarket. You end up with six jars and tins of things you’ve never cooked with before, you’re not even sure you’ll like the dish, and suddenly you’re doing mental calculations about whether you’ll ever finish that tamarind paste or whether it’ll just quietly disappear to the back of the pantry for five years until you throw it away.

I know this because I did exactly that with lemongrass paste. It just wasn’t in my repertoire, my comfort zone, my anything. It sat there judging me every time I opened the cupboard.

With a kit, that whole barrier disappears. Everything you need is there, in the right amount, with no waste and no commitment beyond tonight’s dinner. And suddenly you’re making a Thai curry on a Tuesday and wondering why you were ever intimidated by it.

Food is deeply tied to culture and memory – how does Hello Chef incorporate regional flavours or traditions to make meals more meaningful and nostalgic?

Our customers come from all over the world, and that’s something we take seriously when we build our menus. We don’t want to just cook for one kind of home.

What I’m most proud of is that our recipe development team genuinely reflects that. Between us we have the UK, Lebanon, India, Bahrain, South Africa — and I’m French-Finnish, which makes for some interesting menu meetings. We’re not guessing at what feels authentic to different cultures, we’re actually living it.

For me personally, food memory is everything. Our sweet and sour chicken on the menu is actually the exact recipe my dad used to make for us at home in Finland. In the early nineties that was considered pretty exotic — which makes me laugh now. But I still love it for exactly the same reasons I did then. The warmth of it, that gentle undertone of ginger. It just takes me straight back.

That’s what we’re trying to give people with every menu we build. Not just a recipe, but something that feels like it belongs to them. A familiar spice, a dish that tastes like somewhere they love, a moment from a kitchen they grew up in. For so many families in this region — expats especially — that connection to home through food is deeply meaningful. And we feel a real responsibility to get it right.

We love that you offer meals and snacks specifically for children. What are some of Hello Chef’s best sellers for kids? Can children help prepare these at home?

For younger children, lunchboxes are all about familiarity. They want what they know and love — and honestly, that’s fine. Our biggest hits are the pepperoni and margherita mini pizzas, the turkey sandwiches, and the snack boxes with their little combinations of fruit, vegetables and cheese bites. Simple, recognisable, and genuinely something kids get excited about opening.

What I love about the lunchbox range specifically is that from around seven years old, children can make almost all of it themselves. The wraps, the sandwiches, the pizzas — the steps are simple enough that they can own the whole thing. And when a child has made their own lunch, they’re infinitely more likely to actually eat it. That part never changes, whether they’re seven or fourteen.

The pizzas are great because you can prepare them the night before, which is something I always intend to do. In reality I still often find myself assembling them at five in the morning, because teenagers are not always at their best at the crack of dawn — especially when school starts as early as it does here. But that’s the other thing about this range. Even half asleep, it’s manageable. And that’s really the point.

Looking forward, how do you see the role of home cooking evolving in the region, and how will Hello Chef continue to support families in making it a meaningful ritual?

Life is getting faster, fuller, and in many ways easier — everything is at our fingertips. But I think that’s exactly why home cooking is going to become more important, not less. When your day is filled with screens, data, decisions, and constant stimulation, you need somewhere to land. Somewhere that feels safe and grounding and real. The kitchen can be that place.

I genuinely believe cooking is a survival skill. Not in a dramatic sense, but in the way that sleep matters, or spending time with the right people matters. It’s something I want my children to carry with them. The ability to slow down, make something with their hands, and sit down together. That doesn’t go out of style.

For Hello Chef, the exciting part is that we’re just getting started. We’re really energised by what’s happening in the region right now — there’s a growing movement around local and homegrown produce, and we’re bringing more and more of that into our boxes. Because knowing where your food comes from adds another layer to what cooking means at home.

And we’re expanding beyond dinner too. Supporting families across more occasions, more moments in the day. Because the ritual of cooking together shouldn’t just happen at 7pm on a weeknight. It can happen in so many more places than that — and we want to be there for all of them.

Olivia Manner is the founder of Hello Chef, one of the UAE’s leading meal kit delivery services. Driven by a passion for making home cooking accessible, convenient and enjoyable, Olivia built Hello Chef from the ground up into a brand trusted by thousands of families and food lovers across the UAE.