This Business Will Supply Handmade Samosas For New Indian Cafe
MONCTON – Before he moved to Canada, Raman Sobti was the banquet chef at the world’s tallest hotel, the JW Marriot Marquis Hotel in Dubai. He also ran a restaurant with his wife Shikha there. Now, through their company Sai Krishna Food Services, they supply authentic, hand-made samosas to hotels, restaurants, the casino, and soon, an new cafe called Chai Samosa in Dieppe.
“We migrated to Canada in November 2017, and when we visited the local markets, we saw that authentic handmade samosas were missing,” Shikha says. “We started back in May 2018 with 200 samosas. This summer, we sold 50,000 samosas.”
The couple knew they wanted to offer up a delicacy from their home in Northern India, but never expected the demand to grow so quickly.
They started by selling their samosas to friends, but the word spread all the way to P.E.I. Now the couple, with the help of six full-time and part-time staff, makes between 500 and 600 vegetable, chicken and beef samosas each day.
The idea is simple: make the samosas from scratch, fry them, and then freeze them so customers can just re-heat them when it’s time to serve. The secret is in the dough, something Raman has tested many times so they don’t break when re-heated.
“This is a quick appetizer that’s fully made…when you need to eat it, you just need to put it in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees, and it’s completely ready. You don’t need too much labour and it’s not time-consuming. And the vegetable samosas are vegan as well, so it’s a good vegan option,” Shikha says.
The team cooks from a kitchen at Xtreme Cold Storage, near the Greater Moncton International Airport. It’s where seafood set to be sent abroad is usually stored.
“With Xtreme Cold, we have 40,000 square-feet of freezer unit, so storage is not a problem. Right now we have also around 10,000 samosas kept in our facility,” Raman says.
Sai Krishna also offers catering services, though as the demand for samosas grows and with the opening of the cafe, the company is now focusing on their wholesale product.
Because some customers asked for some sweets during this year’s Diwali celebrations, Raman plans to add at least one sweet offering next summer.
Chai Samosa Cafe
Sai Krishna will be one of the suppliers for Chai Samosa Cafe at 489 Acadie Ave. in Dieppe, which is set to open later in November. The cafe is owned by the Sobtis’ friend, Gaurav Shekhawat.
For the cafe, Sai Krishna plans to offer their samosas and test out North Indian menu items like ready-to-go meals like butter chicken and chicken biryani with rice or naan.
The cafe may also offer Samosa Chaat, Pao Samosa (samosa in a burger bun), and other items that will be prepared in-house or supplied by other vendors.
The decision to be a food supplier rather than starting a restaurant comes from experience, the Sobtis say.
“We had our own restaurant in Dubai. We had a lot of success…But I used to go to work early morning at 4 or 5 a.m.,” says Raman.
“There is no personal life. With two growing boys – 12 and 8 years old – we want to have a balanced work and personal life. So we said we will support retailers from the back-end,” Shikha says.
Originally from New Delhi, the couple moved to Moncton when Raman was offered a job at the Delta Beausejour, also a Marriot hotel. They were looking for a calmer city where they can have more quality time with family.
Raman is now food and beverage manager at IGT Canada Solutions. Shikha, with a background in hotel management and human resources, worked at ExxonMobil when they first arrived in Moncton. But she’s now the “executor” to Raman’s vision, she says.
Raman says having worked at luxurious hotels throughout his career, he wanted to offer food that’s more accessible and gives people satisfaction the way authentic street food does.
“That’s why our samosas are handmade. We don’t want to go with the machine work. We are happy to pay for the guy who’s doing the hard work, but our authenticity is there. So when people see samosa, they’re seeing real [Indian] samosa.”