Behind The Scenes: Manjit’s Kitchen

I noticed looking back at all of the previous behind the scenes features that the subjects had all been men. In attempt to redress this balance I visited Manjit of Manjit’s kitchen, in her erm kitchen!

Last week marked a year since Manjit started her business, this is what she had to tell me…

I love cooking. There were never caterers when we were young, so for a wedding or family celebration we all used to get together in the garden with massive stoves. Aunty, grandma, my dad, everyone really, cooked and that is where I learnt it from. I used to live in Germany and I used to visit a curry festival there every year. My Aunt also has two restaurants there and I sometimes helped her.

I got made redundant I thought ok, ‘What am I supposed to do now?’ My partner Michael and I are vegetarian and we always struggle when we eat out, vegetarian dishes are always seen as a side dish but they are not, and I wanted to bring that idea forward to people.

3 months down the line the website was together and we started it, through Twitter and the email. I’m not keen on leaflets coming through the door, they go straight in the bin. You open the leaflets, there are two pages of dishes, its confusing, I like to keep it plain and simple. If I bring in a new dish I blog it or I let people request what they want to try or see on the menu.

I do home delivery Fri and Sat night. I work by time slots. All of the customers are happy with that. I get booked up really quickly. My nephew does delivery and my son who just turned 17 is learning to drive so he can get roped in too to work and do the deliveries.

Michael does most of the driving but he works full time so its hard for him to see a board full of orders has he walks through the door after a hard day at work.

Through the week I do catering for lunches and cook for the temple. My aunties say ‘ I don’t know how you do it’. I get satisfaction from it, I like to get the feedback.

Have you got any more plans?

Next year I am trying to concentrate on festivals and getting a catering van as at the moment we are using the camper van to work out of. I have staff now so I get them to cut the onions for me, its great, I just supervise! My mum comes along with us and sits and watches and comes shopping with me to the market. Maybe the year after that I would consider opening a small café with traditional Indian breakfast dishes.

What is the best thing about Manjit’s Kitchen?

Its bringing the vegetarian food out and making people aware of it.

How has it been received?

It’s been really positive, some of my Twitter friends, their partners are not vegetarian but once they have tasted it they like it. The lentils are full of flavour, you don’t need the meat, people are surprised about how a vegetarian dish can be a main meal.

Light Night was fantastic, we did the hope and social garden party too. We sold hundreds of wraps. We run out of dough on Light Night. I was kneading the dough and making the chapattis on site. I had my mum sat frying the samosas to order.

Usually when I do behind the scenes I stand and watch as people do their thing, but not with Manjit. She had an apron ready for me in the kitchen so it was hair tied back, hands washed and I was set to work chopping veg.

I love the Aloo Gobi, which always seems to sell out by the time I get to it. The dishes are incredibly simple, cauliflower, onion and potatoes, with just a small ammount to tomato as a binder for the spices, they were all put in to the huge cooking pot and allowed to simmer away. Manjit explained that she didnt learn to cook by weighing things out, she does it all by sight and by smell. This time the chillies to her seemed really strong so less were put in.

Manjit trys to get all of her veg locally, some from Leeds market and some from alotments of friends and family. She is even thinking about turning some of her own lawn over to being a veggie patch. Manjits kitchen has recenly been awarded a 4* hygiene rating.

If you want to try Manjit’s food for yourself tweet her @manjitskitchen or take a look at the blog.