Bringing Indian cuisine to home cooks and K-12 students
Sara Parthasarathy, CEO and co-founder of Madison-based Flavor Temptations, grew up in India, eating delicious meals cooked from scratch by her mother. Parthasarathy’s late father was a combat pilot in the Indian Air Force, and he talked about retiring and becoming a food cart proprietor, to share her mother’s food with as many people as possible.
“Today, I’m proud to carry on that vision by bringing my mom’s recipes to people across the U.S.,” Parthasarathy says. “I’m passionate about sharing my culture through food.”
Parthasarathy runs the company with her husband, Partha Sabniviss, COO and co-founder. Flavor Temptations spice kits contain pre-measured spices, individually packed in sachets to maintain freshness and allow customization. Cayenne is packaged separately, so customers can control the spice level to suit their taste. The company also offers pre-made curry sauces.
The company was inspired by their son Gautam, who went away to college and missed home-cooked Indian food. He asked Parthasarathy for help, and she prepared pre-measured spice kits for each recipe he wanted to try making himself. Those first kits inspired the launch of the business.
Bringing new flavors to home cooks and K-12 schools
Parthasarathy says Indian recipes include huge lists of spices, which can be intimidating for home cooks.
“The secret to great Indian cooking is nailing the right flavor profile,” she says. “Our pre-measured spice kits include multiple spice blends, and our pre-made curry sauces help families quickly create delicious dinners.”
Flavor Temptations products are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, salt-free, sugar-free, and contain no additives or preservatives.
“We always reassure our customers that Indian food doesn’t have to be spicy—it can be as mild or as bold as they prefer,”
Sabniviss says. “We take the time to educate them about the art of Indian cooking, explaining the layering of spices that creates its rich flavors.”
Over time, Flavor Temptations has partnered with K-12 school districts around the U.S. to make it easy for food service teams to cook Indian food for students.
“K-12 school food service teams are passionate about bringing new flavors to their students, and we’re passionate about introducing healthy, scratch-cooked global flavors to students across the country,” says Parthasarathy. “This journey has let us help schools dive into complex Indian recipes, while giving students the chance to try exciting new tastes in a safe setting. The fact that my mom’s recipes are being used in schools across the U.S. makes me feel good.”
Turning a hobby into a business
Parthasarathy spent over 30 years in IT, project management, and leadership roles, developing public speaking, analysis, strategy, planning, and innovation skills. She used her experience to slowly grow her hobby into a business.
“We started slowly, juggling day jobs while working on the business during evenings and weekends,” she says. “After a few years, we brought in co-packers to manufacture our products, which allowed us to focus more on sales, marketing, and product development.”
Sabniviss manages all aspects of finance, costing, pricing, and operations for the business.
“Over time, I’ve realized that these are the areas where many entrepreneurs struggle the most,” he says. “Fortunately, my degree in accounting and costing has been invaluable in this role.”
Sabniviss maintains the company’s accounts in QuickBooks, handles daily transactions, forecasts cash flow, and monitors receivables and payables.
“My expertise in costing allows me to accurately calculate the cost of manufacturing our products and price them strategically to achieve the desired margins,” he says. “Financial recordkeeping helps us to see whether we are making or losing money at the end of the month or year, and what actions we can take.”
Sabniviss learned the food industry regulations for compliance and had to get comfortable talking to clients and calling customers, while Parthasarathy had to get up to speed on business finance, marketing, sales, and product development. They leveraged training from WARF’s UpStart program, Doyenne’s Triple Threat Venture, Hello Alice, and the Food Finance Institute, and mentorship from SCORE, Merlin Mentors, the Green Bay Packers mentor-protégé program, SBDC, and their business coach, food entrepreneur Tera Johnson. They completed online education using websites like DATCP, FDA, and Customs and Border Protection.
Parthasarathy met Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at UW-Madison (SBDC) director Michelle Somes-Booher at the 2013 WARF UpStart pilot program, where Somes-Booher presented a session on the Business Model Canvas.
“This template helped us really understand our target customers, revenue streams, cost structure, sales channels, and other key aspects of the business,” recalls Parthasarathy.
Parthasarathy and Sabniviss have continued to work with Somes-Booher as a consultant.
“Over the years, Michelle has been our go-to person for resources to help secure bank loans, hire UW work study program students, software tools, and even quick questions that come up while running the business,” Parthasarathy says.
Parthasarathy and Sabniviss also worked closely with financial advisors to safeguard their retirement savings, while determining the right time to leave their day jobs and go all-in on growing the business, reinvesting any earnings back into it.
“In the beginning, I juggled everything—package design, manufacturing, customer acquisition, online sales, and in-store demos—during evenings and weekends, while still working my full-time job,” Parthasarathy says. “Partha was the first to go full-time with the business, and I joined him three years later, after officially retiring.”
Parthasarathy and Sabniviss had initially funded the business themselves. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they pivoted from retail to online platforms, like their website and Amazon, and secured loans to stay in business.
“During the pandemic, we were able to secure additional support through loans from Kiva, WWBIC, and EIDL from SBA, along with grants from Hello Alice, WEDC, and other sources,” says Parthasarathy. “These resources helped us keep things
moving during a challenging time.”
After getting loans during the pandemic, they have taken calculated risks to grow the business ever since.
“We went through risk assessment forms to get a clear picture of our risk tolerance,” says Parthasarathy. “Partha is great with QuickBooks, so we used past data and future projections to understand our repayment capacity and make informed financial decisions.”
“We took calculated risks while entering new market segments or introducing new products,” adds Sabniviss. “For example, we tried out our products with one school district first, before we started marketing to a broader base of school districts. Similarly, when we decided to borrow, we looked for low interest loans with longer payment terms, like five years or more.”
Advice to a new entrepreneurs
Both Parthasarathy and Sabniviss freely share their advice for new entrepreneurs.
“Entrepreneurs have great products and ideas, but they struggle with finances and costing,” Sabniviss says. “My advice is to gain knowledge or get expert help apprising and costing products.”
Parthasarathy encourages entrepreneurs to remember the three P’s: passion, pitch, and pivot.
“You need to have passion for what you do, and that will come through in how you speak to your customers about it,” she
says. “Whenever you get a chance, pitch your product and what you stand for. Be flexible and agile and ready to pivot based on what the circumstances demand.”
Parthasarathy and Sabniviss’ passion for their product shines through in the culinary trainings they have begun to conduct to educate food service teams, as well as students. They shared a recent experience visiting a local high school to teach culinary students to make Indian food, based on what the students had requested.
“That was one of the best afternoons that we’ve had,” Parthasarathy says, smiling. “We taught the students how to cook an Indian dish and gave a presentation about India and its culture. The students loved the session and polished off all the food we made. In the next class, they put their learning to use to make Butter Chicken, using the spice kits we left behind with the culinary instructor. We heard feedback that it turned out to be delicious!”