Mum knows best for spice queen Nina
Smethwick’s own Spice Girl, Nina Uppal, tells Richard McComb how garam masala changed her life.
There is no doubt about it as far as Nina Uppal is concerned – home is where the garam masala is.
As a child she watched in fascination as her mother, Surjit, dried out her authentic Punjabi mix in the back garden of their home in Smethwick. Neighbours would be out pruning the roses while Surjit lavished time and love on her pungent crop.
“The spices would be blended whole in a tray and baked out in the garden under a mesh,” recalls Nina, who is the founder of spice and snack company New York Delhi, whose customers include the Queen’s grocer, Fortnum & Mason.
“They could be outside for three months to dry out, which aids the grinding. Mum would know the month, the day, the second that the spices had to be ground.”
Fast-forward a few decades and the same blend has been used to make the delicious chicken curry I am sharing with Nina. Cooked by Surjit, it is accompanied by a chick pea curry, which is a meal in itself, a delicate spicy rice and a fantastic spicy yoghurt with bundi (little balls of fried gram flour).
With food like this I am surprised 41-year-old Nina ever left home. She is based in Barnes, London, these days but concedes she comes back to her West Midlands roots. Like at the drop of a hat.
“Even if means a 60-mile detour I will make it for my mum’s curry,” says Nina as she finishes off some chapatis on the naked flame of the gas cooker.
The former pupil at Churchfields High School, West Bromwich, owes a huge debt of gratitude to her Indian-born mother. After a busy career in retail buying – working for top stores such as Liberty and Selfridges in London – Nina decided she wanted to go it alone and be her own boss. She’s got a fierce entrepreneurial spirit but admits she just couldn’t pin down the way she wanted to take her career.
“I knew I wanted to set up my own business. I just didn’t know what it was going to be. I ended up sitting on the sofa for months, thinking about what I could do,” recalls Nina.
“Then my mum said, ‘You are passionate about food. You always have been. What about garam masala? Your friends are always asking for it.’”
Ever since she could remember, Nina’s friends had asked her for small bags of her mum’s unique garam masala. When they tried ready-mixed bottles from supermarkets her friends were disappointed, but they found that Surjit’s aromatic mix transformed their homemade curries.
Nina was getting almost daily orders for her mother’s garam masala – and thus was the idea of Magic Masala born.
Magic Masala duly became the showcase product in Nina’s range of spices and snacks, launched by her company, New York Delhi, in September 2006, just weeks after Surjit’s suggestion. Once Nina has got a hot idea, she doesn’t hang about.
The name New York Delhi is a wordplay on two of the great loves of Nina’s foodie life – the delicatessens of New York and Delhi, the city evocative of her Indian heritage. And with fusion cooking becoming ever more popular, the merging of cultural influences chimes with the times.
Nina says: “The name was a real eureka moment. I love New York and I love Delhi – and New York Delhi was born. I thought, ‘This can be a global brand.’”
“You’re very modest,” I tell her jokingly. “You have to believe in yourself,” she says with a smile.
New York Delhi’s product range includes some wickedly spicy Bombay mix, which is
