Housebites delivery service lets you fake home-cooked meals, dirty dishes included

A British food-delivery service understands how busy people think.

Not only does Housebites deliver fantastic home-cooked meals you'll want to claim as your own creations, it delivers the dirty dishes too, so that you can keep up the facade when neighbours come over to dine.

The dirty dishes cost an extra £5 ($8 CND) per order. If you do the dishes, however, you'll be refunded half that.

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"Of course, if people are willing to go the extra mile for authenticity and do the washing up, then we're willing to reward the commitment to their ruse," says Housebites CEO Simon Prockter in a statement.

Smart? Sneaky? Sad? Here's how Housebites works:

The food is usually delivered by the local chef who prepared it "so you can try to squeeze out colourful details about the recipe to make your deception more convincing," Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The food comes in disposable packaging, with pots on the side if you opt to fake-out your dinner guests.

"When a few [customers] requested we deliver the dirty pans alongside the meal 'for authenticity' we thought it could be a useful service, especially for those less adept in the kitchen looking to impress," says Prockter.

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"The nature of Housebites meals is that they are cooked at home, so I guess it makes sense that people want to impress their partners or friends by pretending they cooked the meal themselves," Prockter adds. "It's harmless fun, so we thought we'd see if we could help them out with some added authenticity."

Have you ever pretended to make a meal made by someone else? Would you use a service like Housebites to fake domestic-goddess status?

Watch the video below for how to make your own "real" Indian butter chicken dish.