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Spice Kitchen is an award-winning family food business founded by mother and son Shashi and Sanjay Aggarwal. From an accidental beginning around the family table to around 700 retail stockists, two books and an appearance on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den, Spice Kitchen is a story about food, family, culture and building a business without losing the heart that made it special.
Sanjay Aggarwal is available for television, radio, podcasts and written interviews, as well as expert commentary on food entrepreneurship, family business, independent retail, gifting and purpose-led growth.
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About Spice Kitchen
Spice Kitchen is an award-winning family food business founded by mother and son Shashi and Sanjay Aggarwal. What began with a single spice tin sold on eBay on Boxing Day 2012 has grown into a much-loved British brand stocked by around 700 retailers across the UK. Known for its vibrant sari-wrapped spice tins, expertly blended spices and joyful approach to cooking, Spice Kitchen has won multiple Great Taste awards and built a loyal community of home cooks. The business supports independent retail, celebrates cultural connection through food and donates a meal through Akshaya Patra for every sari-wrapped spice tin sold in the UK.
Our Story
Spice Kitchen began with a conversation around the family table on Christmas Day 2012.
Sanjay Aggarwal’s mum, Shashi, had recently retired and was wondering what might come next. Sanjay suggested that she turn her lifelong knowledge of spices into a small business. Shashi dismissed the idea at first, but within hours the pair were discussing products, possibilities and the joy that a beautifully made spice tin could bring to other kitchens.
Their first spice tin sold on eBay the following day... There was no grand business plan. There was a mum with generations of knowledge, a son who recognised how special that knowledge was, and a shared belief that good food has the power to bring people together.
Today, Spice Kitchen creates spice tins, blends, cookery kits and gifts designed to help people cook with greater confidence and curiosity. Its products are stocked by around 700 retailers and have received multiple Great Taste and Gift of the Year awards.
Cofounder | Chief Spice Officer | Food Entrepreneur | Author
Sanjay Aggarwal is the co-founder of Spice Kitchen, the multi award-winning family business he created with his mum, Shashi.
What began with one spice tin sold on eBay has grown into a national food brand stocked by around 700 retailers. Along the way, Sanjay has learned what it really takes to move from an exciting product to a sustainable retail business, including the mistakes, difficult decisions and relationships that shape growth behind the scenes.
He is the author of Spice Kitchen and Essential Spices For Dummies and has appeared on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den. He speaks candidly about entrepreneurship, family business, cultural heritage, independent retail and the challenge of growing a brand without losing its personality or purpose.
Sanjay is particularly passionate about making the realities of retail more transparent for other founders. Through Retail Ready Academy, he shares the practical knowledge that emerging brands need to understand pricing, margins, buyers, stockists, cash flow and what happens after a product finally reaches the shelf.
Approachable, honest and naturally engaging, Sanjay brings both warmth and practical experience to interviews. He is equally comfortable discussing the emotional realities of working with family, the commercial pressures of scaling a food business and the unexpected experience of taking Spice Kitchen into the Den.
Sanjay is available for live and pre-recorded television and radio, podcasts, written interviews, expert commentary and event panels.
Short Biography
For captions, contributor listings and media briefs.
Sanjay Aggarwal is the co-founder of Spice Kitchen, the award-winning family food business he created with his mum, Shashi, after a conversation on Christmas Day 2012. What began with one spice tin sold on eBay now supplies around 700 retailers across the UK. Sanjay is also the author of Spice Kitchen and Essential Spices For Dummies and has appeared on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den.
Shashi Aggarwal
Cofounder of Spice Kitchen, Cook, Entrepreneur And The Heart Of Spice Kitchen
Shashi Aggarwal is the co-founder of Spice Kitchen, the award-winning family business she created with her son, Sanjay, following a conversation around the family table on Christmas Day 2012.
Having recently retired, Shashi was considering what the next chapter of her life might hold when Sanjay suggested she turn her lifelong knowledge of spices into a business. She was not immediately convinced. Yet the following day, their first spice tin sold on eBay, beginning a journey neither of them could have imagined.
Known affectionately as Mamma Spice, Shashi is the cook, teacher and cultural heart of Spice Kitchen. Her instinctive understanding of spices was developed over a lifetime of cooking for family and friends, drawing on recipes, techniques and traditions passed between generations. That knowledge continues to shape the flavours, products and generous spirit of the business today.
Shashi also created the colourful sari wraps that have become one of Spice Kitchen’s most recognisable features. Made using recycled and donated sari fabric, each wrap is cut and sewn by hand, transforming a beautiful piece of cloth into something that can be treasured and used again.
As demand grew, Shashi began teaching other women to sew the wraps, helping to create flexible, meaningful paid work for women who may otherwise have faced barriers to employment. What began at one sewing machine has grown into a small community built around skill-sharing, purpose and connection.
Shashi’s story offers a joyful challenge to conventional ideas about retirement. She became an entrepreneur later in life, turning knowledge that she had once considered ordinary into the foundation of a national brand. Her experience speaks powerfully to women whose skills have been overlooked, undervalued or confined to the home, and to anyone wondering whether it is too late to begin something new.
Warm, funny and wonderfully candid, Shashi is available for interviews and features about later-life entrepreneurship, women in business, family enterprise, cookery, cultural heritage and creating meaningful employment through traditional skills.
Short Biography
For captions, contributor listings and media briefs.
Shashi Aggarwal, known affectionately as Mamma Spice, is the co-founder of Spice Kitchen, the award-winning family food business she created with her son, Sanjay, following her retirement. Her lifelong knowledge of cookery and spices lies at the heart of the brand. Shashi also created Spice Kitchen’s distinctive recycled sari wraps and has taught other women to sew them, helping to provide flexible, meaningful paid work for women who have faced barriers to employment.
Interviews, Commentary and Conversation
Sanjay and Shashi are available for:
For deadline-led enquiries, please include the nature of the request, the subject you would like Sanjay or Shashi to discuss and your deadline.
What Sanjay & Shashi can talk about
1. Family Business
The joy, complexity and blurred boundaries of building a company with your mum or son. Sanjay speaks honestly about defining roles, managing disagreements, protecting family relationships and learning when business conversations need to stop, whereas Shashi brings decades of knowledge of home cooking, heritage and not always knowing better than her son!
Entrepreneurship At Any Age
Shashi became an entrepreneur in retirement, turning a lifetime of knowledge into the foundation of a national brand. Their story challenges narrow ideas about retirement, ambition and who gets to call themselves an entrepreneur.
Growing A Food Brand
From pricing and production to cash flow, people and difficult decisions, Sanjay shares the realities of turning a kitchen-table idea into a commercially sustainable food business.
Becoming Retail Ready
Why having a brilliant product is not the same as having a retail-ready business. Sanjay can offer practical insight into margins, packaging, pricing, approaching buyers and preparing a brand for wholesale.
Independent Retail
Why independent retailers still matter, what makes a successful brand and retailer relationship, and why securing the first order is only the beginning.
Life After The First Order
What founders need to do once their product reaches the shelf, including supporting stockists, driving sell-through and turning an initial listing into a lasting retail partnership.
The Christmas Market
Spice Kitchen does a significant proportion of its business during the final quarter of the year. Sanjay can discuss planning for seasonal demand, gifting, stock management and how small businesses can prepare for their most commercially important period.
Dragons’ Den
Why Spice Kitchen entered the Den, how the experience compared with expectations, what viewers did not see and what happened once the programme aired.
Growing Without Selling Your Soul
How to pursue commercial growth while protecting the personality, values and human relationships that made customers care about the brand in the first place.
Culture and 'Authenticity'
How Spice Kitchen celebrates Indian food and family traditions as a contemporary British brand, without reducing culture to a marketing device.
Building An Emotional Brand
How sari-wrapped spice tins, thoughtful gifting, storytelling and genuine human connection helped Spice Kitchen stand out in a crowded food market.
Purpose And Social Impact
How small businesses can build charitable giving and positive impact into their everyday operations. Spice Kitchen donates a meal through Akshaya Patra for every sari-wrapped spice tin sold in the UK.
Story Angles...
The Accidental Beginning
A Christmas Day conversation, a newly retired mum and the spice tin that sold on eBay the following morning. How an idea intended to give Shashi a hobby became an award-winning family business.
Ambition Has No Age Limit
Shashi became an entrepreneur in retirement and helped create a brand stocked by around 700 retailers. A joyful story about second acts, hidden expertise and refusing to place an expiry date on ambition.
(Sanjay) What It's Really Like To Build A Business With Your Mum
The warmth, laughter, disagreements and blurred boundaries behind a successful mother-and-son business partnership.
From One eBay Sale To 700 Retailers
The defining decisions, mistakes and relationships behind Spice Kitchen’s growth, and why success in retail depends on far more than creating a good product.
What nobody tells you about starting a food business
The honest lessons behind the attractive packaging: margins, manufacturing, cash flow, buyer relationships, stock management, resilience and knowing when to change direction.
The Truth About Dragons’ Den
What it takes to prepare for the Den, what happens in the room, how a lengthy pitch becomes a short television segment and what exposure on one of Britain’s best-known business programmes can mean for a growing brand.
Why Independent Retail Still Matters
In a market dominated by supermarkets and online marketplaces, Spice Kitchen continues to champion independent shops and the relationships that help small brands grow.
The Business Of Christmas
How a gifting brand prepares for the busiest and noisiest quarter of the year, and the practical lessons other small businesses can use to make the most of seasonal demand.
(Shashi) The Retirement Revolution
Why later life can become a time of creativity, purpose and entrepreneurship, and what younger founders can learn from people who begin again.
Food And Lifestyle
Spice Kitchen is an award-winning family food brand bringing colour, flavour and confidence to home cooking. Founded by mother and son Shashi and Sanjay Aggarwal, it is known for its vibrant sari-wrapped spice tins, expertly blended spices and belief that food tastes better when it is shared.
Business
What began with one spice tin sold on eBay on Boxing Day 2012 has grown into a national brand stocked by around 700 retailers. Co-founder Sanjay Aggarwal speaks candidly about the decisions, mistakes and relationships behind that growth, including the realities of family business, independent retail and taking Spice Kitchen into BBC One’s Dragons’ Den.
Family
Spice Kitchen began when Sanjay Aggarwal suggested that his newly retired mum, Shashi, turn her knowledge of spices into a business. More than a decade later, their kitchen-table idea has become an award-winning family brand, but the relationship between mother and son remains at the heart of its story.
Retail Ready Academy
Through building Spice Kitchen from one eBay sale to around 700 stockists, Sanjay Aggarwal has experienced both the opportunities and hidden challenges of retail growth. Through The Retail Ready Academy, he offers practical, honest commentary on buyers, margins, wholesale, sell-through and what founders need to know before approaching their dream stockist.
On Screen, On Air and In Conversation
Sanjay is an experienced and engaging contributor with a warm, straightforward interview style. His media appearances and conversations include:
Imagery & Assets
High-resolution product photography, founder portraits, family photographs and Spice Kitchen brand assets are available for editorial use.
Available Assets
Images may be used in editorial coverage of Spice Kitchen with the appropriate photographer credit where supplied.
Press Contact
For interviews, expert commentary, broadcast appearances, podcasts, features and other media enquiries, please contact:
Ann Lowe
Head of PR & Communications, Spice Kitchen
Email: ann@spicekitchenuk.com
Telephone: +44 (0)7436 233383
Website: spicekitchenuk.com
Please include your deadline when making a time-sensitive request and we will do our best to respond promptly.
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