Daskha Mistry - The Inspiration
Can there be many people more passionate about food than Daksha? Originally from the Gujurat region of Indian, Daksha now lives in London where she provides a fine dining experience to those that understand the meaning of fine food.
She entered Masterchef in 2006 and reached the final after having worked in the kitchens of the Ritz and QE2. Along the way she hugely impressed the judges with her skills and knowledge of food.
Simon Lister - Master of Ceremonies
After years of running the catering at the the NEC, Simon decided it was time to have a go at running his own show. He purchased a 50 room hotel in Birmingham and subsequently a smaller one in Warwick before realising that 2 * Hotels = No family life and so sold up and changed careers once again.
Simon is an experienced Chef with an impressive dislike of low grade, tasteless "industrial" food. Richard Cockayne - Pays for things
With over 25 years experience of running a variety of businesses, Richard has created several business from scratch and understands that a business needs more than just great products to suceed. His current business has been trading since 1987 and is now an interenet retailer of lighting and air conditioning products.
Richard shares Simon's passion for food but tragically not his culinary skills so I guess he will just have to make do with the QC role!
Where did the idea come from?
My son was about to leave home for university & as a concerned parent I tried to advise him that a Beer Diet does have it's limitations. A foodie friend & I discussed my dilemma & an idea based around student meal kits was discussed, we both liked the idea and then went home and forgot about it for a while!
Things moved on a bit & while the existing internet business provided a stable living, the products (lightbulbs) are a trifle dull & we seemed to be left alone at parties, although we did meet some nice accountants!
There had to be another way, EUREKA, back to the meal kits. !
Our cupboards were full of 'old spice' & never the right ones when we wanted to try something new so decided to make spice pastes - they were great but we just didn't feel they were complete meals - what do you with them, yes rice but which type & what else would you eat with that? You go to a restaurant & it's all there so we added chutneys, dips & some really interesting Indonesian prawn crackers & a concept was born. !
Initially, friends thought we were mad but when we got in touch with Daksha after her Masterchef appearance, she immediately grasped what we were about & with her new enthusiasm for new foods from around the world she joined the mad team and off we went . . . . !
Now just watch out for Daksha's range of regional Indian dishes ready later this year.