F&B incubator winner brings recipe kit offer to UK
Encouraging consumers to discover and cook off-the-beaten-track cuisines in their own kitchens, Nisha Ramisetty and her husband Sam Williams are taking their first stride into the UK with Naksha Recipe Kits and securing listings of the beautifully-designed recipe kits at Whole Foods Market, Harrods and John Lewis.
Naksha’s UK-made range include both savoury and sweet (baking) dishes, and were first launched by Nisha Ramisetty and Sam Williams in Dubai in 2020. The duo found Naksha quickly gained traction by winning the prestigious Spinneys and Waitrose Local Business Incubator and has been listed in Spinneys and Waitrose stores in the UAE ever since.
Naksha’s arrival in the UK in June 2023 is aiming to shake up the cooking experience of UK home-chefs by redefining store-bought, shelf-stable recipe kits.
With whole, small-batch ingredients, authentic local recipes, and original hand-drawn artwork by emerging artists, Naksha’s kits want to prove that simplicity and convenience are compatible with premium look-and-feel and gastronomic wow-factor. The kits, says the company, suit weekdays, special occasions and gifting.
According to co-founder Nisha Ramisetty, Naksha is solving the problems of cooking inspiration and accessibility.
“Many people want to cook more often but struggle to keep their menu varied,” she says. “At the same time, many tempting cuisines are perceived to be too complex, expensive or wasteful to cook at home. Naksha tackles this by curating recipes from amazing places and giving customers the specialist ingredients needed to cook them without waste or fuss. UK consumers are hungry to cook food with engaging origin stories, and we are feeding that appetite.”
The recipe kits focus on cuisines with strong appeal but limited visibility, bringing to life dishes from countries including Cuba (Ropa Vieja), Singapore (Lemak Cili Padi), Turkey ((Dark chocolate fondant with Turkish coffee), Jamaica (Curried Goat) and Lebanon (Milk chocolate blondies with Lebanese tahini); meeting demand for international food which – according to a recent Waitrose & Partners report – is growing rapidly in the UK1.
Naksha kits are vegan-friendly as they don’t include perishable ingredients. Instead, the shelf-stable products include easy recipe cards and specialist ingredients such as spice blends, herbs, grains, noodles, sauces and other extras. Most of Naksha’s recipe kits are also gluten free and contain organic ingredients.
Naksha is based between London and Brighton and has manufacturing facilities in Derbyshire.
