Doctor Wanted Fresh Curry, so She Made It

September 12, 2005

By Tyler Chin
American Medical News

Name: Asha Patel, MD
Specialty: Internal medicine.
Location: Royal Oak, Mich.
Business: Tasha Foods Inc. In February, the company started selling bottled Indian curry sauces through gourmet stores in the Detroit area.
Annual Revenue: "It's a new company. I'm not sure [how much] I'm going to make."

Why she started the business:

Four years ago, Dr. Patel and her psychiatrist husband, Hiten Patel, MD, were busy with their careers and raising two sons wo then were in middle and high school.

"It's an elaborate [and time-consuming] process to cook an Indian dish," she said. "I always used to cut the ginger, chop the onions and everything [else] at home. I was thinking that if you could just saute the chicken and then just pour on the sauce, it would be ready very quickly."

She had tried commercial curry sauces, but found them lacking.

"I wanted all fresh ingredients, and a lot of the curry sauces do not have fresh ingredients," she said.

That's when she decided to create curry sauces that would enable her to cook tasty - and healthy - meals in 10 to 20 minutes.

However, she had to put her plan to go commercial on hold because the company she had lined up to manufacture the sauces could not do so according to her specifications. But Dr. Patel resurrected the idea late last year, after her oldest son had gone off to college.

She found that the same company could now handle the job.

Why she keeps practicing:

"This is a hobby. Medicine is my business. I'd never leave medicine for this. No, even if this grows big, I'm going to continue [to practice medicine]."

Words of wisdom:

"You need a lot of self motivation and persistence. That's very important."