Valentine's Day is around the corner, Mother's Day after that, and birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and a range of other life milestones to be celebrated, even in the midst of the third national lockdown. The Celebration Boxes provide everything needed to create an extra-special day: delicious, event-worthy food and drink and instructions on how to prepare it.

The Celebration Boxes - which are designed for two people - will each contain starters, main courses, side dishes, puddings, along with half a bottle of Champagne and a bottle of red wine. The first box that is available from this week is a meat-eaters Celebration Box, featuring starters, main courses and desserts washed down with Guy de Chassey Grand Cru Brut NV Champagne and Château Gachon, Montagne St Emilion, Bordeaux

The starters include Hampshire Chalk Stream trout with dill, capers, pickled radish and shallots, served with half a loaf of our sourdough pain à l'ancienne. The mains are a succulent, mature, 28-day dry aged pasture-fed, free-range rib of British beef on the bone, prepared with Maldon sea salt, fresh thyme and a portion of rendered beef fat to glaze the joint during the cooking process. Served with a chimichurri sauce, a generous portion of truffle, parmesan, and black pepper butter or, if you prefer, some of dijonnaise dressing. This is served with pre-prepared side dishes of gratin dauphinoise, mac and cheese and a double portion of root vegetables slow-roasted in thyme and garlic.

Homemade sticky date pudding, served with sticky toffee sauce and a dollop of mascarpone is the perfect dessert ending to this Celebration Box.

The second Celebration Box is a Luxury Lobster and Steak Box featuring the same starters and puddings as the Luxury Steak Box but the mains include a whole native lobster and prime outdoor-reared British ribeye beef, served with pre-prepared side dishes of gratin dauphinoise, mac and cheese and a double portion of root vegetables slow-roasted in thyme and garlic.

All accompanied by half bottles of excellent Chablis Dom. Alain Gautheron and Chateau Gachon, Montagne St Emilion.

And the third Celebration Box is a Luxury Fish Box featuring the same starters and puddings as the first two boxes, but the mains include a whole piece of sustainable fresh halibut prepared 'en papillote', in a parchment paper envelope ready for the oven, with spinach, parsley, capers and lemon.

Serve with pre-prepared side dishes of alpine fries, mac and cheese, braised peas with caramelised shallot and mint and a double portion of root vegetables slow-roasted in thyme and garlic.

All accompanied by a quarter-bottle of Cantine Bortolotti, Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut NV (200ml) and a bottle of Chablis Dom. Alain Gautheron

Andrei Lussmann, the man behind the group of four restaurants throughout Hertfordshire, says: 

"This is yet another innovation from my team in this, the third lockdown. Lussmanns has been delivering good, restaurant-worthy food since the very first lockdown last March, along with a range of fresh fruit and veg boxes and some other pantry staples, and I would estimate that we have now delivered in the region of 80,000 items of food to old and new customers of ours alike, across the county.

"We launched the Strictly Burger takeaway in the second lockdown, allowing people to order a scrumptious, organic burger and fries online, and collect it in the evening from our restaurants. Some are saying these are the best burgers in the area, and of course I couldn't possibly comment on that but I do know that last Saturday we provided almost 500 burgers to the people of Hertfordshire.

"In fact, the Saturday night Strictly Burger takeaway has proved so popular that we have launched the Wednesday Night Burger Takeaway in St Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin and Hertford.

"And now that we are in the third lockdown, we are responding to a very real demand from people for ways they can create special days to celebrate momentous events, albeit within the four walls in which they have been trapped for the past month or so. We thought about this and developed these Celebration Boxes - our premium sharing supper boxes, with everything that you need to mark a very special occasion.

"As sustainability is at the heart of my business, all of our food To Go and Wednesday and Saturday night takeaways are delivered in 100% compostable boxes."

And, as usual, every purchase made also continues to raise money for the Lussmanns charity, national foodbank the Trussell Trust. 

The Celebration Boxes cost from £95 including delivery.

lussmanns.com/luxury-steak-box

About Lussmanns Sustainable Fish & Grill

• Andrei Lussmann, founder and MD of Lussmanns Sustainable Fish and Grill, opened his first café in 2002 in Ladbroke Grove and his first restaurant in Hertford in 2004; its success then led on to the opening of four more restaurants in Hertfordshire: St Albans, Harpenden,Hitchin and Hertford. Lussmann had also just opened a restaurant in Oxford when the lockdown happened.
• Lussmanns is founded on the fundamental belief that it's possible to be ethical and profitable and its vision is to make sustainable dining accessible to everyone, providing a locals-driven alternative that consistently delivers great food, service and value to diners.
• In 2020 Lussmanns was awarded the prestigious Menu of the Year award at the UK's Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) annual Sustainable Seafood Forum and Awards, the second time in a row that the restaurant group won this award.
• Lussmanns is a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, winner of the Food Made Good Awards 2018 'Source Fish Responsibly' and now the only restaurant group currently in the UK to be completely MSC-friendly. Lussmanns also ranks as a 3* restaurant, the highest score possible - audited and accredited by the Sustainable Restaurant Association in 2019.
• Lussmanns to go includes: the Saturday Night Takeaway, with Strictly Burgers, oven-ready meals and puddings for delivery, Lussmanns' larder items including cheese, veg, fruit, breads, drinks, for delivery.