Janel Horton

Like many Australian women, Janel Horton spent the first chapter of her career in the corporate world — as a sales and marketing executive for a large funds management company, and as co-author of one of the first personal finance books written for women, Financial Affairs for Women. It was a career with real highlights. But nothing quite prepared her for the biggest win of all: swapping a corner office for a second-hand station wagon, $10,000 in savings, and a gut feeling.

The idea was born over drinks with finance colleagues at the Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay, Sydney. As the group traded stories about ever-longer work days and the little time left over to cook, it struck Janel that there was a real, unmet demand — busy professionals wanted proper home-cooked food, without the hours of shopping and cooking it usually took to make it.

Already a trained chef, Janel combined her culinary skills with her marketing and finance background — and no shortage of instinct — to leave her high-powered finance career behind and launch Gourmet Dinner Service in 1994. The premise was simple but ahead of its time: restaurant-quality, made-from-scratch meals, free from preservatives, delivered straight to the home or office as a genuine alternative to takeaway. Customers could order online years before online shopping became mainstream. Three decades on, Gourmet Dinner Service has grown into one of the best-known names in home-delivered meals in Australia, with millions of meals cooked and delivered, and Janel's contribution recognised in Business Review Weekly's list of Australia's leading female entrepreneurs.

True to form, Janel never stopped looking for the next gap in the market. Gourmet Dinner Service customers began asking not just for convenience, but for healthier options to support their weight-loss and weight-management goals. In response, Janel launched Dietlicious in 2009 — and the success has been nothing short of stellar. Now regarded as the quality benchmark in an increasingly crowded weight-loss meal delivery market, Dietlicious offers an extensive range of calorie-controlled meals and plans designed to prove that healthy eating never has to mean bland eating.

Today, both businesses continue to be shaped by Janel's hands-on involvement in the kitchen and her philosophy that good health starts with good food. Gourmet Dinner Service and Dietlicious now deliver healthy, wholesome, chef-prepared meals to customers across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia.