Kalpana Laitflang comes from a family whose love language is food, and she’s carrying on the tradition with gusto – and a heap of perfectly-balanced spice.
“We kind of grew up in the kitchen, and we learned by osmosis,” she says.
Those teachings were rewarded at the New Zealand Food Awards last month, where her ‘Hot Stuff’ curry oil, sold under her brand Mixed Roots, beat out nine other finalists to win Cuisine Magazine’s Artisan Award.
The awards are an annual competition that celebrate food and beverage excellence and innovation in Aotearoa.
Kalpana was exhilarated, although a little flabbergasted, to win.
Although she has complete faith in her products, her fellow finalists included the likes of Nadia Lim’s Royalburn lamb, as well as a blue cheese that had been crafted under dairy juggernaut, Fonterra’s Kāpiti label.
“On the other hand,” Kalpana muses, “it does show that people are just really welcoming to change, and open to other cultures and just more adventurous with their palates.”
According to the website, the judges explained that Hot Stuff “packs a lot of flavour into a jar using time-honoured traditions of ‘tadka’ smoking that have been modernised for scale and to ensure a consistent quality across batches”.
They were also impressed with the importance of community to her brand, particularly using local wāhine (who Kalpana calls her “team of incredible mums”) to help manufacture the product, sharing processing facilities at Pics Peanut Butter World, and utilising re-usable packaging and ethically-sourced ingredients.
“It’s a really, really technical award,” Kalpana summarises.
New Zealand has been home to Kalpana and her husband Adriano for 22 years.
“I’m as Kiwi as I am Indian,” she says.
Kalpana says, this was the motivation for both the brand name Mixed Roots and the products it encompasses.
Amidst her range of infused honeys, oils and spice mixes, her best-selling item is her ‘Hurry Curry’, a spice blend.
This blend can be used to quickly craft an authentic homemade curry.
She curates her products instinctively, inspired by those years at the elbow of her family back in their Punjabi kitchen.
“What do I want my mouth to experience?” she always asks herself as a guiding principle as she creates.
Mixed Roots products are available online and at Richmond’s Raeward Fresh and The Junction Shop in Appleby. They can also be found at Benge & Co Green Grocers in Montgomery Square, Mrs Smiths in Riwaka, Motueka’s Revite Cafe and Paper Plus on High St.
