El Corte Inglés reinforces its gastronomic offer of ready meals for Christmas

El Corte Inglés is reinforcing its gastronomic offer this Christmas in ready meals with recipes designed especially for the festive season. The company, which has been working in and developing this category for more than 40 years, has become a major specialist. This year El Corte Inglés has completely refurbished the ready meals areas in its centres in Avilés, Barcelona (Francesc Macià), Vigo, Granada, A Coruña, Madrid (Goya, Reyes Magos and El Escorial), Murcia, Seville (Plaza del Duque) and in Gaia and Lisbon (Portugal).

The ready meals section at El Corte Inglés is based on a unique model with in-store kitchen operations and the key support of El Corte Inglés' central bakery in Valdemoro (Madrid). The Christmas campaign is a challenge for the shop teams, as many orders are concentrated over just a few days at this time of year. This staging involves changing the configuration of the shop by implementing specific delivery points for customers. In addition, staff reinforcements are provided to meet peak demand on the most important days. In the Preciados shop, more than a thousand customers walk past its display cases in a single day.

The company currently has 275 products in this range, of which 25 are new additions for this year. They are distributed among the more than 80 centres that offer this service and in which more than 550 cooks work. In addition, the gastronomic offer is adapted locally to include the most renowned dishes in the different cities in which the company operates.

The ready meals business is expected to grow by more than 15% this year. Online orders have grown by 30%; this year is the third Christmas in which customers can choose this channel to make their purchases.

Turning Christmas dinners and lunches into unique moments is one of the objectives pursued by El Corte Inglés through its entire range of products, whether customers prefer to cook, order meals for Christmas celebrations, or take them precooked from the supermarket shelf.

A special Christmas catalogue is being launched for the holidays with more than forty traditional and innovative gastronomic proposals so that customers can define their own menu according to the tastes of each member of the family.

The novelties for this Christmas include: cardinal prawns with Palo Cortado; king prawns with garlic; a new recipe for Iberian pork cheek with PX sauce and cranberries; consommé, duck cannelloni with Cumberland sauce; lobster with butter, garlic and parsley; grilled sea bass with Bilbao sauce and desserts such as pistachio and ricotta cheese semi-sphere cake; and another with red berries and white chocolate, as well as a sugar-free dessert, a chocolate and mascarpone cheese Yule log. The catalogue also includes key dishes for this time of year such as suckling pig from Segovia, lamb from Castilla y León or poularde roulade, garnishes such as caramelised French onions, among others.

In addition to all these options, you can go for the special Christmas menu that El Corte Inglés has designed, where customers can choose between a rock fish pie or peppers stuffed with seafood as a starter; a roulade of stuffed poularde with muscatel port sauce and foie gras, or a monkfish stew with prawns as a main course; and for side dishes, the options are sautéed mushrooms, boletus, wild garlic, asparagus, and button mushrooms, or roast potatoes with butter and rosemary; as a dessert, you can choose between a pyramid of Valrhona dark chocolate or a semi-sphere pistachio and ricotta cheese cake.

To get an idea of the size of the ready meals operation for this Christmas campaign, El Corte Inglés will produce 40,000 units of the roast range in its central kitchen in Valdemoro, which means more than 28,000 kilos (including 13,000 kilos of poularde roulade and 11,000 kilos of poularde). In addition, it will produce 73,000 units of Christmas desserts (including 16,000 units of pistachio desserts and 11,000 units of the red berry sphere).

Every year, Christmas is a challenge for procurement teams, as one of their objectives is to source the best suppliers to ensure the highest quality products. Another challenge is to guarantee the required volumes for operations, for example, for this Christmas, agreements have been reached with suppliers to obtain 21,000 shoulders of lamb, 15,000 kg of monkfish, 10,000 kg of pork cheeks and 10,000 kg of clams.

The Christmas preparation of ready meals is part of the overall total of 2.5 million kilos of food prepared throughout the year in the central kitchen in Valdemoro. In this overall figure, the five largest items are 350,000 kilos of Olivier salad; 175,000 kilos of Iberian ham croquettes; 150,000 kilos of Villeroy style chicken breast; 125,000 kg of veal meatballs; and 60,000 kilos of rice pudding.

The Christmas campaign is concentrated on 23, 24, 30, 31 December and 4 and 5 January, when around 45% of total sales are made. In order to meet the increase in customers and orders for the holidays, the company is reinforcing its staff in this service. Customers can visit shopping centres to place their orders for these dates or order online: https://www.elcorteingles.es/platos-preparados-navidad/.

Throughout the year, El Corte Ingles responds to customer requests for unique recipes or special orders such as roasts, rice dishes, or specific fillings. This customised service, which is also offered by the El Corte Inglés patisserie, makes a big difference.

The containers in which the ready meals are delivered are completely airtight, 100% recyclable, and microwave and dishwasher safe.

GOURMET CLUB

Customers will be able to discover other approaches that best suit their tastes, circumstances and needs at El Corte Inglés. In this sense, the Gourmet Club is reinforcing its gastronomic proposal with a selection of exclusive products designed to offer a unique experience during the Christmas holidays. Special preparations stand out for these dates, such as the veal shank from the Casa Toc brand, prepared according to the recipe by chef Santi Santamaría; braised duck magret from Selectos de Castilla; organic capon from Dehesa del Milagro; and the Casa Toc pâté en crout, following the recipe of chef Albert Boronat, a delicate balance between tradition and creativity.

Fonda del Prado's exclusive cooked dishes are also unique, such as its free-range cockerel in pepitoria sauce or poularde supreme. On the other hand, the Mas Parés pyramid of the pharaohs stands out as one of the most spectacular products in the foie range; it is a 250 g pyramid of entier mi cuit, with two intermediate layers of fig jam. The proposals also include half a suckling pig from Arévalo, prepared by Villavieja, ready to enjoy with all the traditional flavour.

In addition, the premium selection of cured and smoked meats and sausages includes smoked salmon from the prestigious Carpier brand; and the special Christmas preparations of Casa Mitjans handmade stews, with traditional recipes that have maintained their essence for generations.

Among the proposals for Christmas, the Gourmet Club's own elaborations are top-notch, such as roast lamb shoulder; leg of suckling lamb in its juice; poussin stuffed with Iberian pork, truffle and cranberries; confit quail Bocachups with soy sauce and honey; or confit boneless rack of suckling pig ribs.

With this selection, the Gourmet Club confirms its commitment to offering unique products, made by select producers and renowned chefs, making it the perfect partner for an unforgettable Christmas.

SELF-SERVICE READY MEALS

For this festive season, the range of ready meals is rounded out with more than 40 options available in the El Corte Inglés, Supercor and Hipercor supermarkets, including well-known brands such as Cascajares (with its renowned capon, truffled chicken, suckling pig, stuffed duck, roast turkey, Iberian pork tenderloin, etc.), Carloteña (with its characteristic stuffed turkey or stuffed chicken recipes), Covap (beef roulade, its acorn-fed Iberian pork tenderloin or its new 100% acorn-fed Iberian pork cheeks) as well as a wide variety of dishes under its own brand El Corte Inglés Selection (such as cream of seafood soup, sautéed red cabbage with raisins and pine nuts, roast suckling pig, roast poularde stuffed with apricots, prunes, truffle and duck mousse, half a roast stuffed capon with cassis sauce, roast suckling pig roulade, stewed red partridge and sea bass fillets with lemon and tarragon oil together with our truffled, chestnut or apple potato purées).