Passion on a plate, Essential Surrey magazine, August 2024
- Deana Luchia
- Aug 1, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: May 7
Deana Luchia finds out what inspired four self-confessed foodies to start their own businesses
Passion, imagination, determination and diligence: just four of the attributes of the successful food entrepreneur. And the women on this page have them in spades. Abandoning secure corporate jobs and regular incomes, they have all embraced multi-tasking and unsociable hours to get their unique enterprises off the ground...
Griselda Soames is the owner of Enchanting Bakes
With a background in media sales and marketing and a lifelong love of biscuits, Griselda Soames hit upon the ingenious idea of using biscuits as a marketing tool and set up Enchanting Bakes in 2017.
Her delicious iced biscuits feature everything from company logos and business cards to book covers and QR codes. Clients include the BBC, Boots, L’Oréal, John Lewis, Goldman Sachs and numerous book publishers who choose to promote their authors’ books via the medium of an eye-catching biscuit.
"It’s a soft sell approach for companies to market their products," explains Griselda. "No one is miserable when they’re eating a biscuit!"
How did the idea arise?
"I love food – both cooking for people and eating it – and I knew that I wanted to do something related to it. Moreover, because of my name, I’m obsessed with personalised things – when I was growing up there was never going to be anything with Griselda on it! So I thought: 'Personalised biscuits, let’s give it a go.'"
After years spent in large corporations, Griselda loves the flexibility of running her own business.
"I can do whatever I wish that day, whether it's baking, admin, promotion or sales. I was used to organisations with lots of staff and rules and regulations. Now, I get to decide whom I work with and what I want to do."
And her enthusiasm is infectious.
"Food is an act of love," she says. "Love your product, work out how to get other people to love it and then get it to be commercial."
Roni Bandong is the founder and director of RoniB’s Kitchen
When I speak with Roni Bandong, she’s just back from ThaiFex, a food and beverage trade show in Thailand where she’s been promoting her award-winning Filipino food products: banana ketchup, BBQ sauces, oils, pastes, marmalade and jam.
Originally Roni worked in conferences and events. So what inspired her to quit corporate life and become her own boss?
"I’m a foodie who really wanted people to understand Filipino food and flavours," she says. "It’s all greatly underrepresented here. I saw a gap in the market and I decided to fill it."
Having moved to the UK from Manila 23 years ago, Roni launched her mission by running supper clubs with a friend, before branching out on her own with RoniB’s Kitchen. She began by selling her products at farmers markets – something she still does, despite the company’s success.
"Markets and festivals are my market research. Talking to customers is how I learn what they think, what they want. Also, when they tell me how much they love my products, it’s a nice validation."
And whilst the flavours are very much Filipino, the products themselves are "British", insists Roni, who sources as many ingredients as possible from these shores.
As for the biggest seller, that would be her banana ketchup.
"It’s probably weird for people here, but it’s been a staple in the Philippines since WWII and I grew up with it. It’s almost a heritage product for me."
Lizzie Marsh is the owner and MD of The Abinger Cookery School
Couples on a date night, retirees trying something new, teenagers learning how to cook before leaving home, friends celebrating a birthday: all these and more head to The Abinger Cookery School, near Dorking. Here they learn how to make everything from macarons to sushi, sourdough to dim sum.
"I love to see how much my clients enjoy the courses," says owner Lizzie Marsh. "They come not knowing what to expect. When they leave, having learnt all these new skills, they’re so happy."
Lizzie was already managing the school, in the village of Abinger Hammer, when the previous owner asked her if she wanted to buy it.
"I always loved food and was doing baking on the side," she says. "I was going to leave and start my own baking company, but the school was established and I thought: 'Let’s go for it.’"
Right now the BBQ class is very popular, but there’s something for everyone: Pickling and Fermentation; the intriguingly named Dude Food Cookery Course; Christmas Canapes and the Children’s Cookery Course.
"It’s proper food, not simply pizzas and cupcakes. Children learn to cook next to their mum or dad and then eat something they’ve made themselves – often something their parents say they'd never eat at home."
And does Lizzie still enjoy baking?
"Of course! It’s my way of relaxing."
Mandira Moitra Sarkar, founder of Mandira’s Kitchen
Mandira Moitra Sarkar is a busy woman. Quite apart from selling delicious frozen Indian meals (both online and from her shop), catering for private functions and offering cookery lessons, she also runs a café next to the Silent Pool gin distillery in Albury, near Guildford.
"I came to England 25 years ago from India and worked in management consultancy for 17 years," she tells me. "I was always complaining about the lack of good Indian food and people started telling me to put my money where my mouth was. So eventually I started running supper clubs."
That was back in 2016. When the clubs proved a success, with many diners enquiring as to where they could order her food, Mandira asked local farm shops to stock her products.
"There was no great plan," she says. "It happened organically. Everything we make comes from recipes sent by my family via email, letter or phone. It’s food that millions of Indians eat."
Originally working from home, Mandira subsequently moved the growing company into its current premises, a derelict cowshed, and converted it into a commercial kitchen. Now Mandira’s Kitchen makes around 16,000 meals per month, the biggest seller being cashew chicken – a recipe of Mandira's mum.
Despite her burgeoning success, however, Mandira refuses to get carried away.
"I don't feel that I've got there yet," she reflects. "I’m in my second innings [she is 53] and I just need to get on. I want to be the go-to company for Indian food in this country."
This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Essential Surrey magazine and was posted online at: https://www.essentialsurrey.co.uk/food-drink/local-female-food-stars/