The JaiJai Story - Our Founders
Originally from Mumbai, Kiran's family has spread all over the world - London, New York, California or Singapore. Kiran's father Pinakin ended up in Germany, where he met Lieselotte and started a family.
After graduating, Kiran founded a management consultancy in the noughties and worked in London for many years. This is where he experienced the fantastic Indian-inspired restaurants and learned how innovative Indian food can be. Back in Cologne he looked in vain for this quality. Whenever friends asked, "Where can we go for a good Indian meal?", "My house" was Kiran's standard answer.
The belief that this London-style Indian cuisine would also find many friends in Germany did not let him go. But it was simply nowhere to be had. "I have to change that", Kiran thought, and the idea for "JaiJai" was born. By chance he met Gaurav, who successfully defended his Michelin star as head chef in one of the best Indian restaurants in London (Benares, 1*) and had meanwhile settled down with his family in Upper Bavaria. The two soon agreed "we are not opening an Indian restaurant, but are making restaurant-quality London-style Indian food available at home".
So Gaurav developed our delicious JaiJai recipes. And he came up with the idea of using the sous-vide method to bring excellent quality to your plate - without any preservatives, colourings or flavour enhancers! And to make sure our London-style dishes find their way into your fridge, Florian and Ines are reinforcing the JaiJai team. Florian is a logistics expert and has worked for various retailers in Germany and Switzerland for many years. He helps to get our products onto the road and into the shops. And Ines, as a marketing expert, is responsible for making sure you hear about our JaiJai story. And if you like our story, feel free to tell it to others.
CEO
Kiran Mazumdar
Kiran has primarily worked in London for the past 10 years, where he has witnessed the fantastic development of Indian diaspora cuisine up close and on the plate. The fear of having to do without this great Anglo-Indian cuisine back in Cologne was the trigger for Jai Foods.
Prior to starting Jai Foods, Kiran worked for procurement consultancy Inverto – a BCG Company for >20 years, which he founded in 2000. At Jai Foods, Kiran is the managing director and responsible for sales and business development.
Product Development
Gaurav Bajaj
Gaurav was literally born into Indian cuisine. After studying at the renowned Institute of Hotel Management in New Delhi and various kitchen stations in Indian luxury hotels, Gaurav completed his training at the famous L'École Grégoire-Ferrandi in Paris. After different positions in various Parisian 1- and 3-star restaurants, Gaurav was brought to London by the well-known chef Atul Kochar as Head Chef at the Benares (1*) restaurant. There he defended the Michelin star for several years before being sent to India by Rational AG with the exciting assignment of translating Indian street food into haute cuisine. Gaurav is the culinary innovation engine at Jai Foods and the creator of our fantastic Anglo-Indian dishes.
Sales & Logistics
Florian Friedeman
Florian is a foodie through and through - privately and professionally. After studying Gastonomic Sciences in Italy, he started his career at Coop Switzerland, where he was in charge of building up fresh convenience brands. After working as a category manager at Metro C&C and in a Retail & RMCG consultancy, Florian joined premium food manufacturer Henry Lamotte as Head of Purchasing & Supply Chain. At Jai Foods, Florian is responsible for logistics and distribution. And above all, he makes sure that we look at everything we do through the eyes of our retail partners to ensure efficient and smooth processes from the outset.
Marketing & Admin
Ines Mazumdar
Ines knows what it means to create structures for a startup. She worked for a consultancy for where she built up the areas of marketing and HR from scratch and ran them for over 10 years. And that´s the exact same challenge she now faces at Jai Foods. As Managing Director, Ines is responsible for our entire administration and marketing. She also keeps a watchful eye to make sure that our dishes are not too spicy and adapted to European tastes.
Natural
At JaiJai we say YesYes to natural ingredients and NoNo to preservatives, flavour enhancers, meat substitutes or food colouring.
Ready2Heat
Our dishes are ready on your plate in 5 minutes. Enjai!
Mild
Our dishes are piquant and flavourful, but not hot. However, if you like, you can spice it up with the added sachet of chilli powder. Curry novices are advised to google 12,000 Scoville beforehand.
Filling
We use particularly high-quality protein sources such as chickpeas and Beluga lentils. And our chicken dishes have a high meat content (100g/serving). Will you be full? Absolutely! Food coma? No!
