Why it matters:
- Global condiments in the U.S. are growing steadily, but consumer education and sampling is the key to success in the still-growing South Asian cuisine category.
- Achaar, a staple condiment in South Asia, was unknown in the western world, prompting Brooklyn Delhi to launch a whole new food subcategory by showing how the flavor can be used in a variety of cuisines.
- The self-funded startup, which eschewed investors to maintain product quality, its vision, and build a sustainable business, parlayed its origins as a food blog into distribution at national retailers ranging from Albertsons to Target.
When Chitra Agrawal first began documenting and sharing the Indian cuisine she grew up with in her local community, she didn’t guess it would grow into a national CPG business of condiments, sauces, and heat-and-eat meals.
Agrawal began cooking and writing a food blog in her home kitchen in Brooklyn in 2009. The original focus was traditional recipes, but she soon expanded into cooking classes and pop-up supper clubs, collaborating with local chefs who specialized in other cuisines. The resulting mashups of Indian Mexican and Indian Chinese recipes were a hit. Eventually, Penguin offered her a cookbook deal that turned into, "Vibrant India: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn.”
“I realized my hobby might be more than a side endeavor,” remembered Agrawal. Along with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Ben Garthus, a packaging designer who worked on large consumer brands like Cheerios, she decided to go to market with a CPG product.
‘Our growth may be slower but we’re building a sustainable business’
The pair landed on the brand Brooklyn Delhi to convey Agrawal’s Indian American identity and meld two worlds, maintaining cultural integrity while making Indian flavors more accessible and modern. The inaugural product, tomato achaar, is a savory, spicy condiment that is a staple in South Asia, but little known in the States. Achaar is used in various traditional recipes, but Agrawal wanted to highlight it in decidedly American dishes as well, as a sandwich spread or mixed with mayo on burgers, for instance.
Brooklyn Delhi launched in 2014 as a fully self-funded enterprise. To safeguard financial stability, Agrawal continued to work full-time in marketing and cookbook writing for four years. Only after landing major foodservice and retail accounts did she devote herself to the business 100%.
“The brand is personal to us. Others who have taken on investors either find that their product or vision changes. We stayed focused to ensure the products we put out were in line with what we envisioned,” she said. “Our growth may be slower but we’re building a sustainable business.”
The focus was deliberate enough to turn down an early national offer from Whole Foods Market. Brooklyn Delhi didn’t have enough money for the sampling that would be necessary to give the brand a fair shot at success, explained Agrawal, who knew that component was key because “whenever we demoed, we’d sell out.”
To start, instead, Agrawal rented kitchen space in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and began selling locally to markets around New York City. While her blog and supper clubs had helped build an audience, she emphasized consumer education, marketing, and a lot of sampling and social media to continue to build a customer base.
With achaar so unfamiliar to U.S. consumers, Brooklyn Delhi was creating a new condiment subcategory, an endeavor not without its challenges. “It takes a lot of education and a lot of time,” cautioned Agrawal. "If consumers have not heard about it, then they don't seek it out or pull it off the shelf. Retail buyers were apt to put it on the shelf after they tried it, but that did not help as far as educating consumers on why they should buy it.”
[Read: Cooking Convenience Trends Are Driving Sales for Food and Beverage Companies]
Agrawal rented kitchen space in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and began selling locally to markets around New York City. While her blog and supper clubs had helped build an audience, she emphasized consumer education, marketing, and a lot of sampling and social media to continue to build a customer base.
Blue Apron exposure opens retail doors
A big break came in 2018 when Blue Apron expressed interest in including the tomato achaar in meal kits, and not only those limited to Indian food. “They ran with it, putting it in all kinds of recipes,” said Agrawal. The achaar was placed in branded 1.5-ounce cups as a meal accompaniment, which encouraged trial and helped prompt consumers to look for the brand at retail. “We benefited from the exposure. Blue Apron got us in front of people while we were getting paid,” Agrawal added.
Another order from Whole Foods came around the same time and eventually became national. The tomato achaar grew into a 14-item line today that includes more achaar, simmer sauces, chutneys, and, most recently, a new category for the company: heat-and-eat pouch meals like Chickpea Tikka Masala, Sweet Potato Coconut Dal, Red Bean Rajma Masala, and Black Bean Butter Masala.
Whole Foods is a strong retail partner — the first to carry the achaar, chutneys, and new pouch meals. Brooklyn Delhi's line can now also be found in 2,500 retail stores that include Wegmans, H-E-B, Publix, Albertsons, Target, and several others. Most sales come through wholesale channels, said Agrawal, though as a private company Brooklyn Delhi declines to share sales data.
Startup model mirrors global, convenience-driven food trends
Brooklyn Delhi's products align well with prevailing food trends around convenient at-home cooking and global flavors. U.S. sales of global condiments alone are expected to reach $17.1 billion by 2030, up from $11.5 billion in 2022, according to DataM Intelligence 4Market Research. Still, the market for Indian flavors in the U.S. is nascent, said Agrawal. While achaar remains a best seller online, shoppers in mass-market grocery gravitate to more familiar and mainstream Indian flavors like Tikka Masala. “As a food entrepreneur in this space, you have to be patient,” she said.“ We've been around for 11 years and each year it gets better as far as consumers’ understanding of South Asian flavors, but there is still a long road ahead of us.”
[Read: How Food Giants Like Whole Foods and DoorDash Find Innovative Brands by Running Accelerators]
Retaining quality control
Brooklyn Delhi’s core customers are often South Asian people who grew up in the U.S. as well as those interested in Indian flavors that are easy to prepare. The marketing stresses the products’ convenience as well as cross promotion opportunities. “We want [retailers] to sell the whole meal experience,” Agrawal said. “In the heat-and-eat meal pouches, we encourage them to use a simmer sauce or achaar to complement the flavor.”
To modernize the cuisine, Brooklyn Delhi is all plant-based, created with better-for-you recipes. The mango chutney, for example, has 60% less sugar than traditional versions, and the achaar 75% less sodium. The pouch meals also contain fresh, not frozen, ingredients.
While the products are co-packed, Brooklyn Delhi sources and tests all ingredients to retain control and quality. “A lot of co-packers will try to sell you a turnkey solution but that’s not what I wanted,” Agrawal asserted. “I want to control what goes in. We’re dogged about quality. We have kids that eat these products, which makes it doubly important to take it seriously.”
Agrawal noted that product development coincides with real life and “what we’re eating at home” as well as retail partner input. Blue Apron helped develop a mango chutney item and then put it in rotation. Similarly, a Whole Foods buyer told them to think about adding simmer sauces to the lineup. Product and recipe development is done in-house so Agrawal can stamp them with her own unique Indian American point of view. “It’s a partnership. They suggest and support, and we do the personal product development,” she said.
After launching six new products in the past year, including the four pouch meals, Agrawal plans to spend the coming year focused on growing the velocity of existing products through marketing and education. New products are likely to launch at the end of 2025 or early 2026.
‘Before you invest your money, is there a market?’
Launching a new line is daunting, perhaps more so in the current environment. “There used to be a lot of venture money flowing in but now it’s flowing out. Investors are understanding the margins are not comparable to tech companies they may have been investing in,” said Agrawal.
Her advice to startups in the global condiments category mirrors her own approach: Be financially solid (aka, don’t quit your day job right away) and grow at your own pace. “Before you go all in with a co-packer who has high minimums, be sure you have the market,” she cautioned. “Before you invest your money, is there an audience?”
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