76-year-old grandmother’s frozen meal delivery start-up delivers thousands of free & subsidised meals to key workers & elderly during pandemic

Gourmet Indian meal start-up Chef Akila created by Chef Akila, a 76-year-old Indian grandmother living in Yorkshire, with the help of her family. Knowing how unhealthy takeaway and supermarket curries alike can be, the business was launched with the goal of becoming the healthiest and tastiest Indian food in Britain.

Combining her culinary experience of over 60 years, input from doctors, nutritionists and health experts, she created healthier versions of her traditional recipes. All meals are gluten-free and the menu is designed to cater for various diets, including for those with allergies.

The gourmet curries have already accumulated multiple accolades, including 24 Great Taste Awards in 2019 and 2020. 

Based out of Akila’s kitchen in Keighley, Yorkshire, the grandmother and her team helped deliver to the nation during lockdown and witnessed an impressive 680% increase in sales. This allowed them to employ new staff during the pandemic and further support local farmers. 

In addition to this, the Indian meal start-up delivered free and subsidised meals to key workers and elderly people throughout lockdown; curries were provided free of charge to hospitals, while keyworkers were able to obtain discount codes for subsidised prices.

Not only do Akila and her team help those locally, but their ‘buy one - feed one’ initiative sees one free meal donated for a child in India for every curry sold, with more than 50,000 donated since the pandemic started.

Akila, who has continued cooking with her small team and has not taken any time away from her kitchen during the pandemic, commented: 

“We are incredibly grateful to have experienced such a growth in 2020, and even happier that we were able to give something back for all of those on the frontline during the pandemic. We continue to employ new people and support local farmers during these difficult times and will continue to help those in need, both here and in India, as much as we can.”