‘Raw and almost tasteless’: Xanthe Clay reviews Charlie Bigham’s £30 beef wellington (and more)

Gone are the days when the TV dinner was a fast fix to grab on the way home and thrust in the microwave, the preserve of harried singletons who just needed post-work fuel. Over the years, producers have raised their ready-meal game, persuading us that we don’t need to spring for a restaurant meal. We can have the same experience at home, they insinuate, albeit one after which we’ll have to do our own washing up.

The newest iterations certainly cost as much as restaurant dishes: £29.95 for a beef wellington for two from ready-meal maestro Charlie Bigham’s new Brasserie range, in which other options – coq au vin, venison bourguignon, duck confit and salmon wellington, which he prefers to call “prepared meals” – cost upwards of £16.95.

Bigham’s regular meals are already on the posh side – fitting for a chap whose great-great-grandfather, the 5th Marquess of Landsdowne, was Viceroy of India. They command their own dedicated branded bay in some supermarkets, these jolly, no-nonsense dishes: shepherd’s pie, lasagne, moussaka, meatballs.