Shelly Nuruzzaman is entrepreneur and co-Founder of BANG! Curry, the Brick Lane-inspired meal kits that have taken the UK by storm.
Established as the best-selling curry kit on Amazon, BANG! Curry has sold over 750,000 kits in the first five years, gained millions of likes and views on social media and has recently launched in Waitrose stores nationwide – the first major retailer listing for the brand.
Containing 100% natural ingredients, each kit comes in a cardboard pouch containing the relevant spice mix, base mix and dry ingredients. Simplifying the cooking process, each kit follows the same 3-step process of ‘Prep It, ‘Spice It’, ‘Cook It’. Brimming with recipe ideas and tips on how consumers can make their dish their own, BANG! Curry gives at-home cooks the confidence to make fresh, Brick Lane-inspired meals in their kitchens.
The range includes kits to make authentic curries such as Korma, Jalfrezi, Tikka, Dahl and Bhuna, as well as kits to make delicious side dishes including Bhajis, Samosas and Pakoras.
What was the inspiration behind BANG! Curry?
Growing up in Brick Lane, London, in the heart of the Bangladeshi community, my childhood was spent surrounded by food. Both at home with my mum who would spend hours playing around in the kitchen, transforming the simplest of ingredients into something really special, and in my community, eating at the curry houses that lined Brick Lane as my dad was friends with all the restaurant owners.
When I grew up and cooked for myself, I was frustrated with the poor quality of products that were available to consumers. I felt they were being dealt a real disservice and deserved something far better. In the UK, curry is a very popular dish and consumers are true curry connoisseurs, however cooking curry by pouring from a jar has become the norm.
I wanted to recreate my mum’s curry making, but in an easy way and show that it doesn’t take much more effort to achieve authentic dishes as well as having a real sense of enjoyment while doing so.
As much as I love how my mum poured time and love into her food, it’s not a reality for many families. Lives are much busier nowadays and most people just don’t have the bandwidth to spend hours cooking.
Our BANG! Curry kits contain the relevant spice mix, base mix and dry ingredients, doing the complicated legwork of a curry dish and leaving customers to follow simple 3-step instructions to create amazing dishes at home, from scratch.
Who do you admire?
It’s got to be my mum. She is such a strong, smart female. She underwent great hardship when she moved from a comfortable life in Bangladesh to 1970’s England. It wouldn’t be for the faint hearted but she transformed her destiny through sheer hard work and determination. She is still an absolute powerhouse today, and I feel lucky to have had her as a role model throughout my life.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Although the road hasn’t always been smooth, we’re a product of what we have been through and so I wouldn’t want to change anything. It’s shaped me into who I am today.
In all honesty, I would never have imagined I’d be doing this – as a young girl, I was anything but traditional and so starting a curry business linked to cooking was not really on the cards. But life has a funny way of working out, and you somehow end up exactly where you’re meant to be.
What defines your way of doing business?
It’s still strange to think of myself as a business owner. It’s been a long road to get here and happened quite organically, so I never set intentions on how I wanted to do business; it’s all just evolved along the way.
As we’re in the food sector, the quality of the product really can make or break you. My emphasis has always been on creating the very best products possible and, even though we have built a successful brand in the sense of sales and listings, I have never – and will never – become complacent in this area. We set our products apart by reacting to customer feedback. We’re always improving and I don’t think I will ever stop believing there is room to get better. This is what has kept us ahead of the game in taste, quality and end-product.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Test the validity of your idea as you will need to pour every ounce of energy into your vision. I did exactly the same in the very early days of BANG! Curry. I needed to prove the concept would work and that people were interested in creating Indian dishes in their own kitchens, so I ran group cookery lessons from my home. They were really popular and confirmed to me that there would be demand, so I then poured all the profits from the classes back into product development and trialled them at farmers markets to get customer feedback to help refine the recipes. Businesses don’t happen overnight; you need resilience and it can be tough.
