We have a lot to celebrate this Mother’s Day. After all, Prashad was inspired by and built off the passion and dedication of hard-working mothers. From mother to daughter, generation to generation, the love of cooking for others has been passed down through our family – along with a lot of the recipes we still serve in the restaurant today!
It’s the perfect time to cast our minds back and share some stories from the early days of Prashad. Hope you don’t mind indulging us…
Generations of family values
For Kaushy, food has always been a way to express real love. Inspired by her grandmother, with whom she lived as a child, Kaushy discovered the delights of cooking at a very young age. Rising early to prepare the family meal, her grandmother would encourage and coach her before seeing her off to school.
Kaushy learned so much about the art of cooking from her grandma, from the importance of fresh, quality ingredients to the magic of cooking from the heart.
So, when the time came to say goodbye to life in Pardi and travel to England, Kaushy was naturally nervous. But bolstered by her grandma’s unwavering belief in her, she seized the opportunity and took a leap of faith.
The early days
Kaushy and Mohan married in 1968 and moved to Bradford. Cooking for friends and their growing family helped Kaushy feel closer to her grandma and her Gujarati roots. But when Kaushy acquired her local deli, little did she know it would shape her family for generations.
Generous, warm and welcoming, Kaushy forged lasting relationships with her customers and delighted in sharing her homecooked creations with the local community. She became a beloved fixture of our old corner of Bradford – people still remind her of the times when they’d pop in with their parents at the weekend as children, and Kaushy would give out handmade Indian sweets. Some of them are still regulars in the restaurant.
Nothing brought Kaushy as much pride as seeing customers enjoy her food and watching her little deli flourish. With gentle persuasion from her kids, Bobby, Hina and Mayur (co-owner of Bundobust), Kaushy and Mohan introduced a few tables and chairs into the deli – and the café was born!
Growing as a family and a business
In 2004, a family marriage brought another equally passionate chef into the fold. Minal fit so perfectly into the Patel family, it seemed like it was meant to be. Minal has always had a passion for food! Her childhood was spent collecting recipes and cooking for her family and village community, taught by her own mother back in Gujarat.
So, when Minal and Bobby married in 2004, it seemed only natural for Minal to continue nurturing her passion for cooking with Kaushy at her side. The two women made an excellent team – Kaushy’s experience paired with Minal’s creativity took the family business to new heights, with three generations of heritage, recipes and culinary secrets across two different families to draw from.
When Kaushy won the South Asian Chef Competition in 2005, the deli and café was flooded with restaurant critics all eager to taste what made Prashad so special. Five years later, renowned chef Gordon Ramsay paid the little café a visit – and the rest is history!
Taking Prashad to the next level
New opportunities presented themselves at every turn, including the chance for Minal to train at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in London and for Prashad to move to larger premises. The restaurant’s popularity surged, and it was time to move on from the little deli-café that had been Kaushy’s baby (alongside her actual babies, now grown up!) for so long.
Leaving the deli and café behind was a hard decision, but it also felt right. Times were changing! Kaushy drew on all the happy memories from her time behind the counter to deliver the same welcoming and warm service that people had come to appreciate when visiting the deli-café – bringing the new Prashad restaurant to life.
Preserving Prashad values
With Minal taking on more responsibility in the kitchen, Kaushy had more time to relish her time with valued customers who have become close friends. Throughout this, Mohan was the anchor – the ultimate sous chef, providing consistency in the kitchen through the transition, supporting the head chef, and freeing up time for culinary creativity! Minal was in her element.
Since handing over the reigns in the Prashad kitchen to Minal, Kaushy has been able to travel the world, spend more time with the family and enjoy extended trips back home.
Minal and the Prashad team have preserved the same values that Kaushy and Mohan poured into their deli-café. Sharing food is our way of maintaining relationships with our community. Customers are welcomed in with a smile and served only the freshest, finest-quality dishes – just like Kaushy’s grandmother taught her.
Mother to daughter
Now, with Maitri – Bobby and Minal’s daughter – starting to help out in the kitchen at home, Minal is eager to pass on her love of food. Maitri knows her dad loves a healthy salad and is eager to get stuck in – but can occasionally get overzealous with the ingredients, making more of a… let’s say work of art than an edible dish.
Still, Maitri is always welcome in the kitchen, and her parents just know she’ll grow up to have an amazing way with food – but they also want her to seek out her own passion and not feel pressured to follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps. Maybe she’ll leave her own mark on Prashad, maybe she’ll do something else altogether. Either way, we can’t wait to find out.
A gift that keeps on giving
From our mum to yours this Mother’s Day! Order our cookbook to unlock family recipes and culinary techniques that have been passed down through our family for generations. Visit our shop for more.
At Prashad, we jump at the opportunity to share tried and testing cooking tips, tricks and techniques, pass on our extensive knowledge and introduce people to meat free Indian food.
Towards the end of last year, we were approached by