People
Sukhi's Gourmet Foods
by EVE MITCHELL
It started more than 20 years ago with Indian curries cooked on the stove of an Oakland (California, U.S.A.) deli and sold to residents.
Today, Sukhi's Gourmet Indian Foods is a multimillion-dollar business that makes a range of curry sauces, chutneys, samosas and other foods sold in grocery stores and served in corporate and college cafeterias nationwide in the U.S.
"I started making these sauces and selling them out of my delicatessen in Oakland. People moved out, and they came back to Oakland to pick them up," said Sukhi (Sukhjit Kaur) Singh the 62-year-old founder and CEO of the Hayward-based company that employs 100 people.
Among her employees are her husband, Sardar Surinder Singh, who serves as President, and their three children.
After the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, Sukhi and her family were forced to sell the breakfast-and-lunch deli they had purchased a year earlier. They said business never recovered to prequake levels.
After selling the deli in 1992, Sukhi continued to pursue her dream of opening a company that made Indian foods based on recipes she learned from her grandmother while growing up in northern India.
Later that year, she started Sukhi's in a rented commercial kitchen in Emeryville that was used one day a week. The whole family pitched in to help make curries and other foods. "We cooked and packed and left at night," said Sukhi, who worked as an educator and opened a preschool in India before immigrating to the Bay Area in 1985.
Not only did the family cook together in the Emeryville kitchen, they also offered samples of the products in local stores in hopes of securing shelf space, said Sukhi, who has taught Indian cooking at the Judith Ets-Hokin Cooking School in San Francisco, the California Culinary Academy and the Culinary Institute of America.
Sukhi's first product - classic curry sauce - won a spot on the shelves of the Berkeley Bowl in 1992. Her sister offered samples to a fellow worker, who happened to be married to the store's owner.
In 1993, Sukhi's moved to a new kitchen in San Leandro, followed by a move in 2002 to the present production facility and test kitchen in Hayward.
Another Bay Area grocery chain that began selling Sukhi's is Lunardi's. "It's getting more popular as people are trying different methods of cooking and trying new things. It breaks the monotony of everyday food," said Mike Sharkey, general manager of Lunardi's in Danville.
The Berkeley Bowl connection turned out to be a break in the very competitive food world where securing shelf space is always a challenge. But then Sukhi heard from Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard. They asked her if she could provide large quantities of her products so they could be used to make Indian meals in the company's cafeteria. That request, which Sukhi's began filling in 1995, helped launch the move into the corporate and college cafeteria sector. Today, that sector accounts for about 60 percent of revenues.
"It made my business," said Sukhi, referring to the influx of high-tech workers who have come to the United States from India over the years.
Well over 100,000 Sikhs and others of Indian origin live in the San Francisco metropolitan area, defined as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, according to the 2008 census figures.
As more Indians moved to the region, the number of Indian restaurants also grew. That resulted in more Americans giving the food a try, said David Browne, a senior analyst at Mintel, a leading market research company.
Indian food products made by the top manufacturers sold in food, drug and discount stores (excluding Walmart) reached an estimated $44 million in sales last year, up from $17 million in 2004, according to a Mintel report. Sales are projected to reach $72 million projected in 2014.
Sukhi's, along with private labels brand such as those offered by Trader Joe's and Target, are not included in the Mintel report. Petaluma-based Amy's Kitchen topped the list with $13 million in sales last year.
While the Indian food market is smaller than those for Mexican and Chinese foods, it is one of the faster-growing ethnic segments, Browne said.
"The American palate is evolving. They are more accepting of spicy foods," he said.
[Courtesy: Silicon Valley Mercury]
September 3, 2010
Conversation about this article
1: Pritam Singh (San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.), September 03, 2010, 2:00 PM.
We have sampled Sukhi's products. They are delicious. Try it.