All of our meals begin in the same way — around the kitchen table in our founder John’s house in Dorset.  He has an enormous collection of cookbooks, and regularly flicks through looking for ingredients, dishes and techniques that catch his eye and might make a great dehydrated meal.

Having travelled widely, John draws inspiration from the curries he’s eaten in Nepal, pasta dishes he's stumbled across in Italy, and the varied flavours you find in Mexico. He gets most excited by looking at traditional recipes like chili and mole that have been honed over generations, and then working out how they might work as a Firepot. 

That process takes months. Just because something tastes good in the kitchen, doesn’t mean it will immediately work as a backpacking meal. Some things don’t work so well - dairy for example - and so substitutes and techniques have to be tested carefuly. This constant experimentation is essential to make sure the finished meal packs as much of a punch in our yellow pouches as they would do at John’s kitchen table.