Small Business Saturday Blog

The success of Mandira's Kitchen’s home-cooked traditional Indian food is a real success story, with the brand earning plaudits from the likes of Nigella Lawson. So the fact that founder Mandira Sarkar moved to the UK without knowing how to cook at all makes it all the more intriguing.

Mandira spent 17 years complaining about the lack of proper Indian food in her new home, until an exasperated friend told her to put her money where her mouth was. So in her forties she decided to follow her heart and do something that her parents would heartily disapprove of – give up a well-paying, settled job to cook for a living!

Mandira’s business originally operated out of a converted cowshed, where her team created award-winning food, offered culinary experiences such as cookery lessons and supper clubs alongside bespoke catering, and ran a shop boasting freshly brewed chai, alongside the best Malabar coffee and the crispest samosas in town.

All their food is lovingly handmade using traditional methods, local produce and family recipes, offering wholesome preservative-free home-cooked food with gluten-free, dairy free and vegan alternatives.

Since being featured one of the campaign’s #SmallBiz100 in 2020, the business has grown significantly.

Mandira’s Kitchen now boasts a lovely indoor space called Chai in the Barn, as well as a fabulous patio overlooking the Silent Pool which is used as a daytime street food café as well as for various events, including corporate events, supper clubs, pop-ups, and more.

The team are firm believers in using local produce as far as possible and work closely with their partners to actively support and showcase the best of British produce. They are also passionate about protecting the environment, and use no single use plastic - even their meals are sold in cardboard trays.

Its freshly frozen meals are available at many farm shops and can also be delivered to any UK address, ready to heat from frozen in four minutes, while its monthly ‘Boxes of Happiness’ are the UK's first Indian meal subscription service.

Their meals have now travelled into many homes across the country, and they have recently launched new products such as Indian-inspired chocolates (Bombay mix, chai and biscoff, and garam masala) and ice cream (mango and cardamom, chai and pistachio, lychee martini, etc.), all of which have been enthusiastically received.

Mandira is a fan of American Express’ Shop Small campaign, which she thinks is a wonderful initiative to encourage people across the UK to support their local independents.

Mandira says: “It’s great to see Amex supporting small businesses like mine with their Shop Small campaign. We absolutely need everyone to get behind us right now.”

Finally, Mandira and her business have also appeared on several TV shows, including Aldi’s Next Big Thing on Channel 4, BBC’s Countryfile, and Saturday Kitchen with Alan Titchmarsh, to name a few.

It looks as though Mandira’s plan to conquer the UK one freezer at a time is well underway!