Mum’s Punjabi feast by post

Momma Bains, Nottingham

The meal kit pivot was never realistic for Restaurant Sat Bains. Sat’s two-Michelin-star kitchen operates at such a technically elevated level that, says Sat: “I know it doesn’t translate, even if we make it as easy as we can. I didn’t want to devalue what we do.”

But his mum’s samosas got him thinking. Pre-Covid, Tarsem Kaur Bains would drop Punjabi snacks at her son’s restaurant and it struck Satwant Singh Bains that the family feasts this conjured memories of – “all helping ourselves to Punjabi dishes passed down mother-to-daughter for generations” – are what people are craving right now.

New company, Momma Bains, is the result. The RSB kitchen now makes Momma Bains’ samosas for award-winning chip shops (Rick Stein’s, Nottinghamshire’s The Cod’s Scallops) and its food truck based in Wollaton Deer Park. Meanwhile, in collaboration with a high-end food manufacturer, Sat is creating chilled curries, such as saag aloo, aubergine sabji or mung bean dahl, for nationwide postal delivery.

Tarsem and her thurka curry base is the key ingredient. A 20% shareholder in Momma Bains, she oversees and taste-tests each cook: “I’ve got to give her credit and something of value,” says Sat. “It’s her recipes.”

Getting Tarsem to weigh things is a battle – “She’ll measure salt in her hand,” laughs Sat – but that is precisely what he wants: “We could produce it, as chefs, but I want it to authentically taste of home.”

Curry packs, £36; mommabains.com