There’s nothing quite like well-prepared homemade food but, even if you have the skills, finding the time and enthusiasm to make it can be a big hurdle to overcome.

Supermarkets are full of ‘ready meals’, but they are a million miles away in taste and nutritional content from the dishes that can be whipped up in the average kitchen.

It was this notion that led Edward Perry and his friend Dale Penfold to set up Cook, then known as Cakes and Casseroles, in 1997.

They had a simple vision — provide customers with freshly cooked, wholesome, meals that need no preparation apart from reheating.

Their approach was no-nonsense: ‘Make meals using the same ingredients and techniques that a really good cook would use at home’.

The people of Farnham were the first to experience this new way of eating when the shop in Downing Street opened 11 years ago.

The first three years proved to be a steep learning curve, but the company now has meal preparation down to a fine art, so much so that it has grown into a mini-empire of 23 shops.

More are planned, including a Lightwater branch which is due to open in May.

Meals from Cook can also be found in more than 100 farm shops and meals can be ordered online.

Since its inception, and despite the phenomenal growth, the company’s principles remain the same. And, according to Farnham shop manager Sara Mackenzie, the demand for Cook’s products is still growing.

“What makes these meals so special is the fact they are completely wholesome and made from scratch using good quality ingredients,” she said.

Nothing contains artificial flavourings, colours or preservatives, and on top of that, our baby food range is organic.

“We pride ourselves on knowing where all our ingredients come from and on ensuring we source from farms with good animal welfare standards.

“Our chicken, for example, comes from birds kept in barns with space to roost and perch, and our chefs regularly monitor conditions to ensure standards are maintained.

“Our vegetables are produced by local farms and are delivered fresh every day.

“If our chefs aren’t happy with a product, they will find a different supplier, and any customer can look at our records to see where our food comes from.

“Everything is out in the open and each pack has a complete breakdown of ingredients and nutritional content so you can see just what you’re eating.”

All the meals, apart from the desserts, are made in the company’s kitchens in Kent before being chilled and then blast frozen.

“Because the meals are frozen to such a low temp-erature, they won’t defrost before you get them home,” explained Sara.

“Blast freezing also means that all the goodness and flavour is retained.

“All the meals are designed to be cooked from frozen, so you can just take them straight from the freezer for cooking.”

The kitchen is divided into different areas for the various preparation processes and cooking goes on 24 hours a day, with chefs working shifts.

Each meal bears the name of the chef who prepared it and everything is made by hand, including the mashed potato and the pastry.

Meals are available in three sizes — single, two and four portions — and there are also side dishes such as vegetables, rice, couscous and mashed potato.

Sara continued: “Most of our customers have families and we do a range specially for them of quick, simple meals.

“We also cater for vegetarians and vegans and we do healthy children’s meals which are low in salt and contain vegetables.

“These smaller meals are popular with elderly people, too, who don’t have large appetites.

“The meals are very useful to store in the freezer for unexpected guests or for days when you don’t have time to cook, and they will keep for up to a year.”

To ensure that seasonal produce is used to maximum effect, the menus are changed four times a year.

The winter list has casseroles and hearty meals and the summer menu includes salads, coronation chicken and cold canapes.

“We don’t do barbecue food, though,” said Sara. “This is because our food is frozen so there would be a health risk if it was not properly defrosted before being cooked.”

The favourite adult meals are lasagne, hearty fisherman’s pie, chicken ham and leek pie, Moroccan lamb tagine and green Thai curry, while children like mild curry.

Best-selling puddings include lemon cheesecake, banoffi pie, raspberry pavlova and chocolate roulade.

Sara said: “The desserts fly out at Christmas, but really our customers like everything we do because our prices are excellent and so is the taste.”