Meet the new business looking to bring spices to Yorkshire

The team behind Tapasya Spices says diners have followed Eat Out to Help Out with staying at home.

To help them achieve authentic quality dishes at home, the new company is drawing on its contacts throughout India to import around 50 varieties of spices plus Basmati rice, lentils and other pulses.

Mukesh Tirkoti, CEO of Tapasya Spices, said: “Indian spices are in demand at fine-dining restaurants for various cuisines, not just Indian. They are also important to other sectors, such as the expanding craft gin market, but it is not easy to source the best quality and that is what we will bring.

“There is also rising demand from people who have been cooking at home a lot more since lockdown started. They haven’t been able to go to their favourite restaurants so they have become more ambitious in their own kitchens but have been held back by a lack of variety and quality on the store shelves. We will help them to create the authentic combinations and tastes by supplying the spices and by showing them how to use them.”

Mr Tirkoti has a long history of running Indian fine-dining restaurants including launching the award-winning Tapasya in Hull in 2013.

In 2016 he opened Tapasya@Marina, which last year became one of only two Indian restaurants in Yorkshire to be awarded a Michelin Plate.

Tapasya Spices is a separate venture and draws on Mr Tirkoti’s experience of sourcing ingredients and catering for the tastes of British diners.

He is joined in the new business by lifelong friends and fellow directors Meghdut Biswas and Soumen Hajra, both based in Chelmsford.

The team is completed by renowned chef KK Anand, whose career started at the five-star hotel Sofitel in Delhi.

He also oversaw the preparation of food for thousands of Asian athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games and as consultant chef he will lead the drive to showcase the products of Tapasya Spices with cooking demonstrations online and on social media.

He said: “Every product has been carefully selected to bring something new and different to the UK market, all tested and endorsed by some of the most celebrated Indian chefs in the world.”

The company has appointed Islam Foods on Beverley Road, Hull, as its first distributor to reach the Asian restaurant, wholesale and retail markets in Yorkshire.

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James Mitchinson