Surinder Hothi-Bellamy Founding Director of Pure Punjabi Ltd
Pure Punjabi Safia European Roadshow culinary experience
Pure Punjabi Safia and Surinder European Roadshow culinary experience
Pure Punjabi Ltd are 2016 Small Biz 100 UK winners

About us

We’re Surinder and Safia of Pure Punjabi,  a mother & daughter team dedicated to bringing you into our North Indian culinary traditions.

We give people the knowledge and the accessibility of our Indian kitchen while preserving, promoting and teaching, the traditional cookery methods of our mothers and grandmothers.

We do this through our Indian Cookery School, Indian meal kits and spice products, private dining, weddings and corporate events.

Everything we do is from the original ‘grandmother’ methods, all by hand. We still make our Garam Masala from scratch. This is home food and we specialise in our own region and not generic ‘Indian’ food. We crush, grind and blend all our own spices and teach the old ways of making Indian village-style food.

Proud moments

Absolutely delighted to win ‘Family Business of the Year’ 2020 South West of England awards from The Federation of Small Business, and to be awarded 2nd place in the Finals of Wiltshire Life 2020 “Food & Drink Producer’ awards. 

We were thrilled to be named Top 8 Indian Cookery Courses in the U.K. by Olive Magazine…and for Safia to be appointed as a Gourmet Guru by Love Pulses, as part of the United Nations Campaign to make 2016 the ‘Year of the Pulse”.

We were also very proud to be selected as one of the 2016 Small Business Saturday 100, chosen from small businesses across the U.K. culminating in an invitation to a reception at No. 10 Downing Street.

Proud to be named by Olive Magazine as one of the top 8 Indian cookery classes in the U.K.
Pure Punjabi Safia Gourmet Guru for Love Pulses
Pure Punjabi Ltd invited to No. 10 Downing Street as part of SmallBiz100 UK
Pure Punjabi invited to No. 10 Downing Street as art of SmallBiz100 for Small Business Saturday

 

Named a Top 8 U.K. Indian cookery course by Olive Magazine

We deliver cookery workshops, welcoming small groups with North Indian cookery tuition in the mother-daughter style. The Pure Punjabi cookery school was formed from consistent customer feedback from the pop-ups…to learn to cook the traditional home-style way.

Our first ‘Indian Experience’ cookery workshop was delivered back in June 2013, and since then we have welcomed hundreds of lovely customers into our home to learn the traditional methods of home-style cookery.  Click here to see more

Pure Punjabi Cookery School roti-making
Pure Punjabi Indian cookery school Olive Magazine Trip Advisor
Pure Punjabi The Indian Experience cookery workshop gift experience
Pure Punjabi Cookery School

Timeline and where we are today:

 

  • 2024 – Great Taste Award, 1 Gold Star for our Adraki chicken
  • 2023 – Our new bed & breakfast named winner in the Channel 4 hospitality TV Show ‘Four in a Bed’
  • 2022 – LuxLife Global Wedding Awards – Best Indian Wedding food caterers – South West England
  • 2022 – LuxLife Travel & Tourism Awards – Best Traditional Food Events & Experiences Company – Wiltshire
  • 2022 – Surinder listed in the #ialso 2022 which celebrates and showcases amazing female entrepreneurs from all over the UK and is brought to you by the f:Entrepreneur campaign, run by Small Business Britain. 
  • 2022 – Great Taste Award, 2 Gold Stars for our Butter Chicken

 

  • 2020 – Selected for the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator programme
  • 2020 – Winners of the ‘Family Business of the Year’ 2020 South West of England awards from The Federation of Small Business.
  • 2020 – Finalists Wiltshire Life Awards 2020 “Food & Drink Producer’, achieving 2nd place in the county final.

 

  • 2019 – Theo Paphitis #SBS Winners 2019
  • 2019 – Great Taste Award for our Tikka Paste
  • 2019 – Great Taste Award for our Punjabi Chicken
  • 2019 – Lux Life Food & Drink Awards ‘Best Indian Cookery School UK’ &  ‘Leading Purveyors of North Indian cuisine UK’
  • 2019 – Through to first round of ‘The Pitch’ in London in October 2019 to pitch for potential investment and business growth.
  • 2019 – Selected by a Los Angeles marketing company GroundSwell, on a worldwide search for a chef of Indian origin or descent to lead and provide an authentic culinary experience for their international client’s conferences Freshworks, on a European 10 city experience roadshow.
  • 2019 – Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence for consistently excellent reviews.

 

  • 2017 – Olive Magazine named Pure Punjabi as one of the Top 8 Indian cookery courses in the U.K. with consistently high reviews and bookings
  • 2017 – Safia appointed as an international ‘Gourmet Guru’ by the Love Pulses/ United nations initiative declaring 2017 “The Year of the Pulse”
  • 2017 FreeFrom Food Awards, Bronze in the ‘No Top 14” allergens for Pure Punjabi Masoor di Dhal.
  • Launch of the Meal Kit Boxes at This Morning Tv Show at the NEC- created to enable customers to prepare and eat traditional, authentic Punjabi food, as taught on the workshops, but conveniently prepared and packaged to be quick & simple.
  • 2016 A Great Taste Award, 2 Gold Stars for our Tandoori Masala.
  • Future growth and expansion of the business saw the filming of the traditional cookery courses in 7 dietary versions, as an e-learning video course, to enable everyone to access the traditional learnings.
  • 2016 – Pure Punjabi were selected as one of the ‘Small Biz100’, in The Small Business Saturday campaign – 100 small businesses selected every year to represent small business across the U.K.
  • 2014, Pure Punjabi in a National Lottery diversity project to ensure that children in the New Forest area grow up with cultural and gastronomic awareness, through teaching about traditional food, cultural similarities & celebrations.
  • Safia selected as finalist in “The young Entrepreneur of the Year” category, in the Enterprising Wiltshire Awards.
  • 2013 The food events launched with the first pop-up restaurant.  An Indian food experience evening of traditional North Indian food, layered with professional Indian dance performance between the courses, each one having a charity and community fundraiser. Private event bookings followed and the pop-ups later evolved into weddings.
  • 2013 A Great Taste Award Gold Star for our Tandoori Masala.

 

The European Roadshow

We provided the culinary experience, headed up by Safia, across London, Manchester, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Bornem, Amsterdam, Stockholm & Helsinki. Read about it here.

Pure Punjabi Safia and Surinder European Roadshow culinary experience - London event
Pure Punjabi Safia and Surinder European Roadshow culinary experience
Pure Punjabi Corporate European Roadshow Berlin culinary experience

About Surinder

Surinder is the Founder of Pure Punjabi, which she started in 2010, producing the Garam Masala she had learned from her mother, as a young girl. She later added Tandoori Masala, and the business remained with the production of these two products until Safia joined her in 2013.

Born and raised on the south coast of England, in  Southsea, Portsmouth in Hampshire, Surinder grew up within a mainstream English environment, attending the girls Grammar School.

It was her mother, Seso, wishing to preserve the knowledge that she could pass to her daughter, who taught her how to cook traditional Punjabi food from scratch. From the age of 7-11 years old, she taught Surinder everything that her own mother and grand-mother had taught her. By the age of 11, Surinder had to be back home from school in time to cook the family dinner each night.

Pure Punjabi Learn Cook Eat Meal Kits, Cookery School, Weddings, Pop-up Restaurants and Private Dining

It was only at the tragically early death of her mother, when Safia was only 18 months old, that she realised the extent of the culinary knowledge and expertise that her mother had passed to her.

Whilst raising Safia and her two brothers, as a single mother, Surinder, who had qualified as a Personal Trainer while living in Johannesburg in 1999, and later qualified as a life coach & a performance coach on returning to England.  Alongside this, she bought and renovated property, both as residential and buy-to-let. She continues some work as a personal trainer, looking after the health and well-being of a few remaining long-term clients.

In 2013, when Safia unexpectedly found herself between jobs, Surinder offered her the start up funds, support and guidance and a partnership to preserve, teach and promote their traditional North Indian food.  When Surinder had founded Pure Punjabi in 2010,  this was solely for the production of her mother’s recipes of Garam Masala and Tandoori Masala. These hand-produced jars were made and sold locally at small markets and food events, with no intention to expand the business until Safia actively joined the business in 2013.

About Safia

Safia is the co-director of Pure Punjabi Ltd, a Top 8 UK Indian Cookery School, food events & products business.

The company focuses on the preservation and teaching of traditional cookery from Northern India, with Safia at the helm of all food production and kitchen management for corporate and wedding events, as well as menu development for both food products and services.

Their client work includes:
• A chairman at Citi Group
• The directors of The Billington Group
• The European director for a major hotel chain
• A ‘Masterchef: The Professionals” finalist and former sous-chef at The Ritz
• International celebrity personal trainers and nutritionists
• The founders of the Help for Heroes charity

Prior to joining Pure Punjabi, Safia served as an International Conference Producer, working with Fortune 500 companies to produce world class speaker line ups and conference agendas in New York, London and Amsterdam. Joining forces with Pure Punjabi’s founder in 2013, as co-director, Safia went onto reach the position of the top 3 Finalists in the ‘Young Entrepreneur’ category at The Enterprising Wiltshire Awards, achieved Great Taste Awards for the business, and was appointed as an International Gourmet Guru by Love Pulses, a campaign organised by The United Nations.  She also represented Pure Punjabi at 10 Downing Street, as part of their success as being named one of the U.K. SmallBiz100.

In addition to her role at Pure Punjabi, Safia also works on a freelance basis for Front of House food service for a range of clients, both in the U.K. and abroad. The clientele profile includes royalty, A-list celebrities, sports professionals, film producers and heads of multinational corporations.

 

We were interviewed by the Telegraph shortly after launching our cookery school…

“How we turned our Punjabi home cooking into a thriving business
A career crisis and a move back home had unexpected benefits for Safia Hothi-Bellamy and her mother Surinder,  who now run the Pure Punjabi food company….”

Read the rest of the Telegraph article by clicking here

What is Punjabi food ? Click here to learn more.

How did we get started? Click here to read our story.

north indian cookery school and meal kit boxes

Pure Punjabi are an award-winning North Indian cookery school, artisan spice blends producer, traditional Indian meal kits producer and and food events experiences business.  We are home to a world of pure North Indian food traditions and methods of the grandmothers spanning generations of traditional Punjabi cookery teaching methods.

Our concept is simple: to deliver healthy, delicious home-style North Indian food and cookery techniques to anyone who would like to be able to reproduce the food of the Punjabi grandmothers.  Simple honest food that was cooked this way when the first generation of immigrants arrived in the U.K. in the 50’s, which included our mother and grandmother, Seso Kaur Hothi.

Our cookery workshops and meal kit gift boxes, are perfect for gifting at any time of the year: Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, thank-you’s, and all special celebration days such as new home, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

 

OUR Family cookery mETHODS

Our Indian experience Cookery workshop, is centred on historic culinary methods and contemporary delivery.  We unlock the mother’s teachings of our past for the indigenous population and second generation Punjabi descendants, bringing it to life in a modern age and setting, while promoting, preserving and teaching the traditional culinary ways.

We hope that we can deliver the food of childhood memories, to those of Punjabi heritage, who have lost access to the original cookery of their grandparents, as well as introduce our home-cooked dishes in a simple, easy and quick meal kit format to new and experience British cooks.

This is mother’s food – the daily diet and the nutritious food of The Punjabi, a region known as ‘The Bread Basket of India’. Punjabi people are farmers and small landowners, with a rich farming heritage and famed for hearty, substantial, nutritious and delicous food!

Indian Meal Kits

Our Indian meal kits are available in a huge range of individual meal kit sachets, Indian dinner kits, meal kit gift boxes as well as Children’s Indian meal kit boxes and bags. Our meal kit gift boxes and a huge range of our meal kits can accommodate almost every dietary requirement. Whether you are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free or combinations, the Indian diet is naturally and accidentally ‘free-from’.

We produce all our spice kits and meal kits from scratch to bring you Indian food from the northern region of Punjab. Punjabi food is an incredible variety of Dhal & always served with freshly-made Roti (Chaptti) and Sabjhi, (vegetable curries). It is predominantly vegetarian food, but Punjabi is alos renowned for outstanding chicken dishes and feast dishes, such as Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Tikka Chicken Biriyani and Naan Bread.  There are the old-school farmers dishes of Saag & Makki di Roti, as well as classic dishes like Chole Bhatoore (Chickpea curry & Puri Bread).

The Crown &  victoria Inn – our bed & breakfast, purchased so that our cookery workshop attendees could stay with us, we could have commercial kitchen facilites for our meal kit production and bring our events in-house. 

Very soon after purchase we were proud to enter and win Channel 4’s ‘Four in a Bed’ TV show competition.

The Crown & Victoria Inn Tintinhull Somerset Four in a Bed winners