about us
What is a Test Kitchen?
All our recipes, hints, and super quick tips are conceived, designed and then carefully tested to ensure you will have success every time. All our Food Features are specially thought through and then put together with recipes we know you will enjoy.
Our four wonderful Food Designers are always on the lookout for upcoming trends, interesting ingredients and not forgetting shortcuts that will make your time in the kitchen easy, quick and enjoyable. We are constantly checking our products to ensure the cooking times, flavours and quality are of the highest standards, and to do this, we have what we call "Cook-Ups", happening on a daily basis.
Here you can see we are all having a tasting session of some recipes to be featured on the Simply Great Meals Recipe Club Website. Before the recipes are placed on the website, they are thoroughly tested, then written up and checked several times to ensure the ingredients are all accounted for and used in the correct progression.
Don't forget we are here to help you and if we don't have a particularly recipe that you want then just contact us via email on simplygreatmeals@simplot.com.au or call Karen on 1800 080 045.
What happens in the studio
We are often asked just exactly what happens in the photography studio. The answer is lots of creativity, props everywhere, food being prepared and of course, sometimes even the odd spat between the Photographer and the Food Stylist! The work done in the studio is a real team effort with everyone working towards making sure each and every food "shot" looks not only fantastic but truly represents the recipe we are given.
The recipe is read over and dishes (props) and extras like serviettes or cutlery are selected. The style of the picture depends on which product we are photographing and of course the time of year or the occasion. The food is prepared by the Food Stylist and assistants following the recipe and is then placed in front of the camera. The photographer then does their magic and the shots are taken!
Our food presentation
People often ask us where we get our dishes, cutlery and knick knacks that we pop into our photographs for the Simply Great Meals Website. As you can see from the picture here, we have an extensive set of shelves that are sometimes groaning with all types of dishes, plates, glassware and cutlery, of course they come in all shapes, colours and sizes. We shop at all the same type of stores and outlets that our members would purchase from, to keep our "look" contemporary and affordable. When we are shopping though, we often get asked by the shop assistant why we are buying just 1 or 2 of so many different types of dishes and cutlery. Propping as we call it; looking for what to put into the photographs, is a very creative process and of course it is fun to be out and about, shopping!
How we check Recipes & Nutrition Information
Our lovely Jane is hard at work carefully analysing the nutrition content of recipes using a specifically designed computer program for Australian ingredients. The ingredients, including the measures from each recipe are entered into the program which then generates a panel giving the nutrition information per serve and per 100g. The data is then analysed by our Food Designers to ascertain whether each recipe meets the requirements to warrant a nutrition claim. Soon to be added to our website, nutrition claims including Low Sugar, Low Sodium, Low Fat, Low in Saturated Fat, High in Fibre, High in Omega-3. We also have recipes suitable for Diabetics and Vegetarian.
For example: For a recipe to be deemed Low Fat it must contain less than 17.5g of fat per serving and less than 3g per 100g.
All our nutrition claims for Simply Great Meals come under the auspices of our in house Dietitians.
For information on other dietary requirements such as gluten intolerance, contact the Dietitians Association of Australia.
Helping Australians eat well for generations.
www.simplygreatmeals.com.au is brought to you by Simplot Australia. We're the parent company for some of the best known and loved food brands in the country.
Birds Eye, Edgell, John West, Leggo's, I&J, Ally, Seakist and Harvest products have been part of everyday life and family meals for generations.
www.simplygreatmeals.com.au is a wonderful way to assist Australians to serve wholesome meals and to save time in the kitchen, and make the most of family time.
This easy-to-use site combines thousands of ideas for tasty meals, that can be prepared in fifteen minutes or less, up to date nutrition information, helpful tips and delicious food features for making mealtimes even easier.
For mealtime success, let the Recipe Club help!
We're pioneers of food innovation, and our free-to-join SimplyGreatMeals.com.au Recipe Club offers innovative features that make planning, shopping and preparing the week's meals easier.
How the Team Develops & Tests a Recipe.
The recipes we present to you have all been very carefully thought out, keeping many things in mind, such as the time of year, ingredients available, ease of preparation and cooking times. We cook up each and every recipe to make sure it works. As you can imagine some ideas work perfectly the very first time, then others need a bit of special tweeking. The final testing happens when we are in the photography studio when we are ready to take the pictures of the recipes. Our Recipes are all tested using metric measuring cups and spoons and all measurements are level unless otherwise stated. The metric measures can be purchased from most local supermarkets.
Meet the people behind the scenes.
We think the people who bring you SimplyGreatMeals.com.au are quite extraordinary - even though they draw on 'ordinary' personal experiences to do such a great job.
Our Food Design Team is made up of talented professional home economists. Like many of you, they juggle family and children (aged from 18 months to 30-years old), the daily "What's for dinner?" question, and the demands of work, social lives and finding a bit of "Me time".
Our Test Kitchen Team spend every working day developing and testing recipes. But at home they face the same budget restrictions, picky eaters and time constraints as the rest of us. Which is partially why there are so many quick, easy, nutritious and delicious recipes at SimplyGreatMeals.com.au