The new way to experience fine dining is in the comfort of your own home, courtesy of companies like La Belle Assiette who work with professional chefs to bring the restaurant experience to you.

For according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, staying in is the new going out.

Many of us are forgoing pubs, clubs and restaurants, in preference to the atmosphere of our homes it seems.

Chef Maciek Kijewski, who came to Dorset 12 years ago from Poland with his wife, has worked for companies such as Beales Gourmet in Canford Cliffs and the Highcliff Grill in Bournemouth.

Maciek, pronounced Magic, is now one of around 250 professional chefs who work with La Belle Assiette.

He explains: “We planned to go travelling to get more experience in my job but we fell in love with Dorset. I love living here and being near all the quality ingredients. From a chef’s point of view you don’t need anything else.”

I was invited to organise a dinner party for eight people to put the service to the test. Maciek did all the shopping and even supplied the plates.

When it comes to cooking, his approach is to take a classic and give it a new twist, or what he calls the “magic” twist, and he certainly had a few tricks up his sleeve for us that night.

For starters he conjured up his “magic” chunky pesto with whole pine nuts and because it had not been processed through the blender you could taste every individual ingredient.

This was presented to us alongside a selection of rustic bread, mixed kalamata olives (which were purple, plump with a smooth meaty texture) mini glass jars containing a rich balsamic glaze, a fresh whole roasted garlic, caramelised walnuts and sage foam made with local bee pollen.

Bearing in mind this was meant to be an appetiser we knew we were in for a treat.

Our next course was goat’s cheese and beetroot Playdough, which Maciek explained, has been inspired by his four and half year old daughter, “She watched me making it at home and thought I was making Playdough. I make mine with organic beetroot juice,” he explains.

This was followed by Dorset’s seared scallops served with squash and a star anise infused puree with crispy pancetta, parsley and white truffle dressing garnished with nasturtium flowers.

For our main course we had pork belly which was so exquisite the meat practically melted in the mouth but the skin was still crispy.

Maciek described how he cooked the pork belly very slowly for 55 hours at 90C in a dish with 50 per cent goose fat, 50 per cent veal stock, a few herbs and mustard seeds and then served it with a granny smith apple puree and rhubarb caviar which was simply ingenious.

To round off the meal we had his homemade chocolate brownies with caramelised mixed nuts, a generous splash of cognac and just a hint of coffee.

The brownies were served with a hazelnut praline, freeze dried raspberries and a Cointreau jelly with chocolate ganache and clotted cream ice cream.

Maciek is a chef and a showman, but he is also the just the sort of character you are happy to welcome into your home. He is polite, friendly and professional.

What’s more he also buys all the ingredients, cooks in your kitchen, serves and presents each dish to you and then cleans up.

Hosting guests at home has never been so enjoyable.