If you have been following any foodie blogger or lover of food on Twitter over the past three months, you will have come across Manjit’s Kitchen. A home delivery service (NOT a takeaway) based in LS8, Manjit cooks up delicious, authentic and fresh Indian home cooking from her kitchen at home and delivers to the hungry people of Leeds every Friday and Saturday night.
I have ordered from Manjit’s Kitchen and can say without any doubt that it is the best “takeaway” I have had since moving to Leeds over two years ago. I recently reviewed the meal on my blog, as did Katie from LeedsGrub, and we were in agreement that this home delivery service is something special. It’s not just the bloggers that love the food, reviews on Manjit’s own website are full of praise for the food and the service. I was excited to get the chance to meet up with Manjit herself and ask her the questions we all want the answers to- how has her business become such an overnight success and what is it that makes her food so tasty and worthy of such glowing reviews?
What gave you the idea to open a home delivery service and how did you get it started?
I grew up in a family of five children- my mum was busy working most of the time, and so my granny looked after us- she did all of the cooking. Even though our religion meant that girls spent their time in the kitchen learning how to cook, it was something I wanted to do- I loved learning how to cook traditional vegetarian Indian food. As I grew up, cooking was such a huge part of family life- when there was a big event like a wedding, all the family would work together to prep and cook all of the food; caterers just didn’t exist back then. Weddings would last three whole days and we’d spend a lot of our time cooking. Home cooking was just such a huge part of our culture and of everyday life and I really enjoyed learning how to cook my granny’s traditional recipes.
When I got married, I moved to Germany and lived there for twelve years. During this time, I had a lot of friends from different cultures and spent a lot of time trying loads of different types of foods, which I enjoyed. My aunt even has her own restaurant out there; an Indian one called Taj Mahal. There was so much great street food in Germany and huge food festivals- we’d buy fresh, locally produced food from there and the whole food experience was so different to that in the UK. In fact, it was more similar to India- I last went there twelve years ago and loved trying all the amazing street food there- we just don’t have that kind of thing here in England.
I moved back to Leeds in 2002 and carried on cooking- mainly just for family and friends; for parties and weddings and so on. I also had stalls at music festivals- I went to the Wicker Man festival this year and loved it. My family and friends always recommended that I should start my own food company, as my cooking always went down well! I was made redundant from my office job in March this year, and decided just to go for it- I had met Michael Jameson in Leeds, who does all the driving for me and he really supported me in setting Manjit’s Kitchen up- helping me create a website and introducing me to Twitter- I had no idea what it even was before that! My son was really supportive as well, and came up with loads of names for the business. It’s been tough as I’m a single parent and have struggled in the past, and it came to deciding whether to go ahead with Manjit’s Kitchen or not, and I just thought, “why not give it a shot?” And so I did. We opened on October 22nd 2010 and I’ve been amazed with how well it’s gone.
How did you advertise Manjit’s Kitchen and why did you decide to use Twitter?
In terms of advertising, there is none. No menus through doors, no business cards and no leaflets- just the website and my Twitter account. It was busy from the first day of opening thanks to word of mouth on Twitter, and I think it was a much better way of doing things than putting menus through doors, which people just tend to throw away. Michael persuaded me to use Twitter, and I’ve learned so much about social media and blogs and so on- I now have over 400 followers on Twitter which is amazing. I’ve always wondered how people who are not on Twitter find out about us as it really is the only way we advertise apart from the website, so if anyone knows, can you tell me please? Customer feedback is really important to me- I publish all comments on the website and give out samples for customers to taste and test- I even had a poll to find out what people wanted as the next dish- Shahi Paneer (Indian cheese) won which I was pleased about as it’s my favourite dish.
What is your most popular dish and can you give us any tips for cooking it?
I do three main dishes every week- Tarka Daal (lentils), Chana Masala (chickpeas) and Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) and then introduce other dishes on top of that. The Aloo Gobi is the most popular, which surprised me .
I just follow my granny’s recipe- I half cook onions, garlic, ginger and chilli and then add the potatoes- adding them at this point means they absorb all the flavours. It’s a dry dish, so I add a small amount of fresh tomatoes for depth of flavour and then only add a few basic spices- garam masala, turmeric and cumin- my motto is always “keep it simple”- I only use basic ingredients that you find in an Indian home and there are no hidden extras, apart from a tiny bit of butter added to the Aloo Saag (potatoes and spinach) for richness.
How do you plan your menu and where do you get your ingredients from?
Like I said, my motto is always to keep it simple. All the vegetables I use are sourced locally, either from markets, local fruit and veg shops or from an allotment in Harehills, and everything is cooked fresh- I only cook a few dishes for home delivery so it ties in with my ethos of fresh and simple home cooking. I try and add new dishes to my menu- I now do onion bhajis and make Kheer, which is Indian rice pudding. Everything is cooked how it would be in an Indian home- I often have people asking me how big my chapatis are, and I tell them they’re small, because that is how we always made them at home. You definitely couldn’t share one! Locally sourced food and supporting independent businesses is really important to me- I have collaborated with local Kulfi (Indian ice cream) producer Indie Ices, and I have his products on my menu for customers to order.
I only do vegetarian food, and this is because I wanted to provide something a bit different. In most Indian restaurants or takeaways, vegetarian dishes are usually only viewed as a side dish, and I wanted to bring them into the limelight a bit and show people that vegetarian food can be a meal in its own right. I was delighted to see that Prashad in Bradford won Gordon Ramsay’s Best Indian restaurant as they promote vegetarian food as a main meal, and I really admire Hansas in Leeds- in fact I wouldn’t mind a restaurant like that myself! The idea that all the food is home cooked and authentic is also really important- my family all get involved; my son, who claims not to like Indian food, tries my dishes every week and always says “It’s better than last week Mum!”- he has even started staying in on Friday and Saturday nights to help out. It’s also nice to be a woman representing home cooking to customers- it seems that wherever you go, it’s all males in restaurants and in the kitchen areas.
It must be quite tricky coordinating all the orders for an evening- how does it all work?
People can order either by phone, email or via Twitter, so I tend to give them a delivery slot instead of a specific time, so I’m not making promises that I can’t keep. It is just me and one driver, so we can’t be in several areas of Leeds at once! I usually offer a choice of half hour slots- our busiest time is between 6.30 and 8, so for people who live further out, I tend to offer them a later timeslot to ensure we get there on time. Our customers have been fantastic- some have even clubbed together on orders so we only have to deliver to one place instead of three. Oh, and no, my social life hasn’t suffered- we manage to go out once deliveries have finished! We hardly ever turn customers down- we will always try and fit people in, but do try to stick to within a four mile radius. Once we sold out really early on, so I spent the rest of the evening cooking like a maniac- I don’t like to let people down. My customers are really important – I value all the feedback and do take it all on board.
So what is the future for Manjit’s Kitchen- you’ve enjoyed such massive success so early on; what are your plans for 2011 and beyond?
I was amazed and delighted that the business took off so quickly- we’d originally only aimed to get to this point by January or February next year but it’s been so popular so quickly and I’m so thrilled by that. First goal for next year is to get some business cards made- I have Harp Bhambra (@harp13 on Twitter) designing a logo for us, and I’m thinking of starting catering for office lunches in the New Year on Fridays. It would also be great if I could start selling my sauces in jars, or even tubs of my homemade Kheer (rice pudding) and I want to continue catering at music festivals like Eden in Scotland- I love travelling around. In February, I will be selling hot food at Oakwood Farmers Market and am thinking about having a stall at the Chapeltown Global Village market. I love all the great independent food places that are doing pop up restaurants in Leeds at the moment, like Dock Street Market, and would love to take part in something like that in the future. Finally, I have always dreamt of opening a lounge- where I could sell my food in a relaxed atmosphere to truly create the home cooked experience- that wouldn’t be for at least one or two years though!!!
I really enjoyed meeting with Manjit- her passion and love for what she does really shone through and it was great to talk to someone who is so dedicated to supporting local, independently run businesses and providing good quality, fresh and delicious food. She kindly brought me some onion bhajis to sample, which were as good as the rest of her food, and I really wish her all the very best in developing Manjit’s Kitchen in the future. I have a feeling it’s going to get even better!
Manjit cooks and delivers food within a four mile radius of LS8 on a Friday and Saturday evening. You can order by twitter @manjitskitchen, by email manjit@manjitskitchen.com, or by phone 0113 216 1089. The website is here.
Steph writes a food blog Cake, Cats and Cocktails and can be found on Twitter @davaikoshka
Coffee, hot chocolate and a warm meeting place for the interview was provided by Casa Mia Coffee Shop in Chapel Allerton, Leeds.
Congratulations to Manjit and the success of Manjits Kitchen. A shining light for Indie business and hopefully more people will take her lead. Simple things are hard to do and be consistent many places fail but Manjits have perfected it. We have such a diverse culture in the UK it’s a shame the street food hasn’t exploded up here I know it’s starting to in London but it would be great to be able to have something other than a greasy hot dog or jacket potato.
My boyfriend and I are relatively fussy vegetarians (or maybe we just know a good curry when we taste one) and have eaten Manjit’s food twice; both times we were still talking about how good it was two hours later. I would say it’s the best veggie curry I’ve eaten. Some veggie Indian food is rushed, made with cheap ingredients (frozen garden veg) or too small to be filling – a secondary thought to the meat dishes. Manjit’s food proves you can eat veggie food with rich, deep flavour AND be absolutely stuffed at the end of the meal. We will be putting in an order for Christmas Eve!
PS. Best onion bhajis ever!
I am starting a petition to move Pudsey a couple of miles nearer to LS8…
Seconded. I’ve tried Manjit’s food and it’s great. Shame it’s too far away!
What a great article. Congratulations Manjit and all the best for the future!
We live in Bradford so are too far away for Manjit’s Kitchen delivery so when we watched a film in LS7 as part of the film festival recently we sneakily ordered a delivery and ate it during the film, we were so keen to try what everyone was raving about. It was fab, and well worth adopting some friends in the LS8 area for! I concur with Claire – the bhajis are truly superb.
Tried this food, wasn’t very nice, was full of oil and was not very tasty. The bhajis were very oily indeed and I ended up throwing them away. If you are a hardened curry eater go somewhere else. However if you are a novice then this might suit you.
hmmmm no I can’t see how this is from the same place. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I strongly strongly recommend you read other reviews before taking this into account. We are long time curry experts ta, and love a Manjits
Ordered a aloo gobi a week ago. Don’t know what the fuss is about. Not as good as my local curry house, it was very oily and not spicey enough. Samosa’s are like cardboard.
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Right, we’ve been getting takeaways on a regular basis from Manjit’s Kitchen since she started out on Twitter (which is a revolutionary idea for local takeaway meals to say the least). Each meal we’ve had has been better than the last, the food is fantastic, really tasty, and really good. I am a meat eater generally but wouldn’t think twice about ordering a Manjits over anything else that could be delivered, it’s extremely well priced and exceptional food. Not to be missed by anyone in Leeds. No excuses. We’ve also introduced many of our friends to it, with varying tastes, and they’ve all mentioned how much they enjoy it.
I had daal and channa massala from Manjits Kitchen at the Chapletown Global Market. Firstly I saw her take the supposedly freshly baked naan from a Sainsbury’s box. Secondly the daal and the channa massala tasted exactly the same as the tinned versions that you can buy from any Asian grocers; for example Continental on Roundhay Road. If you want the same food go to an asian grocer its much cheaper and exactly the same. If you don’t believe me go buy the tinned versions and try for yourself. Don’t be fooled by Manjits repackaging business.
As editor of the Culture Vulture I take these comments very seriously. We are not in the business here of slandering or rubbishing ANYBODY’s reputations.
I would recommend that you consider the implications of what you are suggesting.
We hand pick people to be featured on the site based on word of mouth reports and our own experience of the food. Manjit’s food has been very popular and I expect if we asked there would be a great many people in complete disagreement with you.
Was at chapy market on Saturday, had samosas and paneer rolls from Manjits kitchen. They were ready made from Singh Sweets on Chapletown Road who sell them for 45p!! Manjit was selling them for 1 pound. Its sad when you cant cook & take credit for hard work of others, thats not the Punjabi way. I’m a regular at Singh Sweets I know their food.
Hello Samena and Arjan. Apologies, I do not remember you from the market on Saturday. You should have said hello, if you were not satisfied with anything you tasted or saw, I would have happily talked with you. I notice you have commented on other blogs and between you, have set up 4 new twitter accounts to air your views. I can confirm that everything on my stall on Saturday was made by me. I do sometimes outsource the Naans, as they are quite time consuming to make on the day of the market – However I didn’t anticipate Chapeltown Market to be very busy so I made 20. There is a small bakery in Huddersfield I like, and one in Bradford I have used for larger numbers. I don’t really go to Sainsburys that often and have no idea what the Naan Breads are like. I am guessing Samena you are suggesting the Daal and Chana were from a tin from an Asian store. I can confirm again this is not true. I doubt it would be worth it financially to buy that amount of tins and sell them on? The snacks were not bought from Singh Sweets and I was selling 3 for £2 either samosa/pakora/rolls or tikki. I will be at the next Chapeltown Market selling homemade Indian vegetarian food.
I am not entirely sure what is really going on here, but I thought i should respond and set some of the facts straight.
Manjit
Well Manjit if you’re at the next Chapeltown Global Village Market that’s given me all the more reason to come down. I’ll check you out.
I suspect that message is from a competitor. If it has been posted on two blogs under different names then I’m almost certain it’s a competitor. Please don’t worry about comments like this Manjit, you’ve got a fantastic business and a brilliantly inventive way of selling food that’s going to arouse jealousy in people who wish they’d thought of it first. How long before we see a second Twitter take-away pop up in Leeds? Judging by this troll, I’d say it’ll not be long now. Take no notice!
The comment left above by Semena Hussain was left nearly word for word on my blog by someone under the name of Arjan. Same person or in cahoots? I don’t know. Either way I didn’t publish the comment at my own discretion. I have eaten Manjits food myself and it was better than anything tinned I have ever eaten. Manjit has also invited me to go ‘behind the scenes’ in her kitchen. I doubt she would have done this if all she did was decant and reheat things out of packets.
I stand by everything I wrote in the blog- Manjit cooks amazing food and is a lovely person. I don’t know who these people are who are posting these frankly untrue comments (naans from Sainsburys?! come on!!) but it will take more than a couple of comments on a blog to discredit Manjit’s Kitchen.
Maybe the people posting the comments may want to consider the idea that any publicity is good publicity. You’ve just made many more people want to go and try Manjit’s food as well as making her (hundreds of) admirers rally round and put in more orders themselves.
Dont worry Manjit- we all still love you! 🙂
What a load of codswallop from these guys (not Manjits Kitchen of course), they obviously don’t know their mung from their bahji!
I like a spot of veggie curry and fancy I can cook it a bit too, so discovering Manjits was bliss, homecooked, quality curry on a Friday night without sweating in the kitchen for several hours.
Its great stuff, with fab service!
Well I definitely want to try her home delivery comments or no – You don’t fancy a second home in Wakefield by any chance do you Manjit?
I rave about Manjit’s Kitchen regularly (especially the dhal). The whole experience is everything you could hope for from a takeaway – fantastic local food by someone who puts alot of care & thought into her cooking – & really great value to boot! Go Manjit!
Manjit, your food rocks and this seems to be a very underhand sneaky attempt to discredit what you are beautifully achieving. Well done you, be proud, as to”them”… Shame on you!!! They have made fools of themselves!
The only food I get delivered to my house is Manjit’s. It’s great that it’s veggie only and as yet I have never had better chappatis. Don’t believe the poor comments above they quite clearly aren’t genuine. I don’t know anyone who has tried Manjit’s food and not been completely satisfied. My only complaint is that sometimes she’s sold out before I’ve had chance to order! Keep up the great work Manjit.
Agree with everything thats been said about the ‘lame comments’ made! I commend manjit for answering rather than deleting. Puts comments in their place as having no backbone and being based entirely in fiction of someone not liking someone who is successful. Well done!Having never tried your food, it increases my confidence that it ll be great! I ll be trying that daahl very soon.
It’s a shame that these two have tried to have a very cowardly, sly dig at Manjit’s Kitchen and her food in this way on a site states keep it nice and so often is a platform for support.
I have seen Manjit’s reply and it is honest and open reply to these people which is typical of her, her food and manner.
Manjit’s have sold at a Market I am involved in and done a function for a friend’s birthday and on both occasions, I know the feedback was positive and good and the food and method of production was world away from what is implied above. I also know she works very hard to bring her good home cooked product ( skills she has learned through the years) to customers, who you can see through her followers and great feedback appreciate her talent.
Being in the business you expect at times that some people will not get what you do, or even not like how you do it. You also here of occasions were on feedback sites, feedback is given but only from bitter competitors in an effort to undermine success. It seems to be to me that the negative feedback above comes from the latter origin.
Manjit keep on cooking and save a portion for me at the next Chapeltown mkt, I’ll be ordering because I know the food is home cooked and great.
I had the wonderful pleasure of tasting Manjits cooking this Saturday (June 4the 2011) at Chapletown Global Village. It was delicious and genuine. It is not often to come across such good quality food which retains the hallmark of homemade taste.
Well done Manjit! I hope you go from strength to strength. There is a big market waiting for you.
A big thank you to Arjun and Semena for their pathetic comments as it allowed a demonstration of how strong Manjits supporters are with their overriding comments to diminish the negative comments made by these ‘tasteless’ people.
Arjun should go and get his eyes tested if he cannot see the difference between Singhs and Manjits somosas! And as far as Semena goes, what are you buying tinned curries for? Do your cooking skills resort to using a tin opener? I cannot stop laughing at the pair!
I think the comments made about the food being out of a tin are correct. I’ve just come back from a trip from India, tried the food at the CGVM. It does not compare to food I had there, very commercial.
I find the reaction to mine and others opinions very strange, must have touched a nerve. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Time to call a close to this now.
oh food i like very much and this a nice ranjit food thanks for this
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