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In 2003, Maya Kaimal decided to leave her full-time job as a photo editor and start her own business in cooking. What may sound like a simple idea – prepare fresh homemade sauces and chutneys, put them in containers and sell them – turned out to be a tricky affair. But Maya Kaimal Fine Indian Foods has been a huge success with customers loving the idea of simply adding one of the all-natural sauces; classic korma, vindaloo, tikka masala, coconut curry or tamarind curry to their favorite meat, seafood or vegetable, simmer and voilà! Accompany the dish with some spicy ketchup or a fig, cilantro, coconut or mango chutney and the dinner is complete!
Dean and Deluca, Whole Foods Market, Costco and Gourmet Garage are only a few of the places where you can find Maya’s products in New York City. Click here for a complete list of stores carrying her line, or purchase the sauces and chutneys online.
CitySaheli talked to Maya to find out more about her business.
What made you decide to leave your full-time job as a photo editor and start your own business?
I had a foot in the food business since I’d written two Indian cookbooks. I was working as the photo editor of Saveur – a perfect combination of food and photography. But shortly after September 11 they cut a number of jobs, including mine. I got the news the day I returned from our honeymoon. So it was time to rethink if I wanted to take another photo editing gig, which would most likely not be for another food magazine, or switch into food full time. My husband is a writer and used to being self-employed, so he encouraged me to take the entrepreneurial route and launch an Indian food business. The other factor was a good friend of ours owns a chain of upscale grocery stores in Manhattan and he had been nudging me for a year to make Indian food that he could sell in his store. He saw the Indian category as lacking in fresh, new, interesting products, and he was eager to get something exciting in his stores. So having a potential buyer pushing me had a big impact.
Did you find it difficult to start your own business as a woman?
I encountered a bit of skepticism, like “Oh right, another lady who thinks she makes the best whatever and wants to bottle it.” It was hard to be taken seriously because I was an unknown quantity and my kind of product i.e. fresh, refrigerated Indian food, was an unheard of niche. So I don’t know how much of it was due to my being a woman. More like a combination of being a woman, wanting to do something brand new, and having no commercial food experience whatsoever.
How did you overcome these obstacles?
The ticket for me was meeting the right manufacturer who was entrepreneurial and a risk taker himself. He could see we had an interesting idea and didn’t mind that the initial volume was low. He had a small operation at the time (we’ve helped him grow it a lot), so that helped too.
What would your advice be to young professionals who want to start a business?
Be sure you enjoy the business side! It’s sort of nuts to say it, but I don’t. I’m good at the creative food side and the branding side, so the challenge for me has been finding the right fit in a partner that shares the vision and is good at managing the beast. And if you decide to go into the food business, don’t expect to get rich quick! The margins are notoriously thin, and unless you want to manufacture it yourself (we did not) then it’s hard to keep your price low and profit high. But with the right product, and the right team in place, you can create a nice business for yourself – and feed people food that reflects your values, and in my case my heritage.
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