Silhouetted against a massive orange sun, the elegant, sari-clad figure paces the spice merchant's yard, peering critically at the sacks of raw ginger stacked neatly along its white walled perimeter. Eager-eyed locals nudge each other. The glamorous half of India's ambassadorial food duo is back in town. For Meena Pathak, 46, company director, mother of three and unofficial gastronomic-spokesperson for the sub-continent, this is familiar territory. She is in Cochin, the lush tropical paradise unearthed by Vasco da Gama that has become one of the centres of the world's spice trade. A smile, a nod, and a warm greeting here and there, she is a stunning conduit between east and west. Haggling over crop quality with an eager seller, she dips into her chic designer handbag to answer her mobile. It's husband Kirit, 4,200 miles away, back home in Bolton. The southern Indian town of Cochin in the state of Kerala boasts temperatures topping 110F. The mercury's rise is only occasionally slowed by balmy breezes from the deep blue Arabian Sea. Back in Lancashire, international base for the £55m Patak's Indian foods operation, it's many degrees colder ­ and it's raining. For years Meena Pathak has been a regular commuter between the two. Since first arriving in Britain in 1976 for her marriage to Kirit, she has plugged the cause of the cuisine from her native land. And, significantly, given their massive contribution to UK food exports, they have picked up a brace of OBEs between them. Appropriately, 25 years on from when Patak's spice pastes first hit High Street UK, Meena is back in Cochin hunting for even more Indian culinary ideas. From humble beginnings selling to Asian shops in London and the south east, the family business moved to Lancashire in 1978 after distributor Parrish and Fenn offered it the chance of national distribution. Kirit and Meena's lives were never the same after that. The emerging multiples were converted to the Indian food cause (Meena says Asda was the first to see the light) and sales soared in a way many early ethnic foods pioneers in the UK could only dream about. Add the fact that they sell to 90% of Britain's 10,000 Indian restaurants and you have the sales profile a quarter of a century on. But while husband Kirit has kept a firm hand on the tiller to steer the business into international markets, it is Meena who has taken the cause of naans, chappatis, mutton curries and the rest to the curious consumer. And in doing so she has achieved celebrity status in her native land plus a few significant other markets. As one female rival put it, with more than a touch of envy and frustration: "She's beautiful, talented and rich ­ I hate her!" And that partly explains why Meena, regarded by many as a natural public successor to India's actress and skilful culinary artist Madhur Jaffrey, was tramping the historic warehouses of Cochin last week. For if you ask her about the most important feature of Patak's rise to grocery fame she will quickly cite the importance of "authenticity". And that means sourcing ingredients from her home territory. Shuddering visibly, she explains: "Once upon a time, far too many people believed that Indian cuisine was all about restaurants with red flocked wallpaper and plastic, gold coloured elephant ornaments, serving a mish-mash of food. That was quite shocking to a person like me, who was born and bred in India. Even though Robin Cook says it's the Brits' favourite dish, there is far more to Indian food than chicken tikka masala. As Indian tourism has opened up, we have been able to carry out an education campaign for both trade buyers and consumers. And I like to think we have been successful." And the commercial side to her character kicks in even further when she boasts: "On a value-for-money basis, we offer a better product than our competitors. And even though there is price competition in this sector of the UK market, we would rather concentrate on quality issues than price. Consumers have come to realise that Patak's stands for authentic good quality, and they are willing to pay a little bit extra for it. And 25 years ago that was certainly not the case." So where do they stand in the UK market? ACNielsen figures show Patak's holding second place, with 19.2%, to Sharwoods' 35.7% in the £137m ambient Indian food sector. The nearest major segment is private label, where Patak's is also growing a stake, with 21.7%. But competition has been hotting up in recent years with several new entrants. Has Patak's been feeling the heat? After taking a second call on her mobile, this time from a local ingredients supplier, she smiles and takes a gentle swipe at the opposition: "We have been narrowing the gap with Sharwood's during the past four years and we aim to ensure that trend continues." Meena is in Cochin because an integral part of the Patak's shopper education strategy has been the organisation of "educational" spice tours for potential customers and the media. But when I joined one of the trips last week, a thousand-mile journey from the teaming, wildly aromatic streets of Bombay (or Mumbai as it is now known) to Hyderabad, Madras and finally Cochin on the charismatic Malabar coast, there were other things on Meena's mind. It's no secret that she and Kirit would dearly love to sell their products to the one billion people who populate India's 28 states. There has been considerable success in export markets in Australia, the US, Canada and various EU centres have been conquered. And two years ago Kirit picked up the prestigious Food from Britain Exporter of the Year award sponsored by The Grocer. And that's not a bad record. Ten years ago, for example, Australia was a virgin market for the Pathaks as far as mainstream business was concerned. Meena claims it was their drive Down Under which created the Aussies' first full scale market for Indian foods. But she admits the firm wants wider sales in the US. Although working with the mighty Hormel Foods as a joint venture partner, she describes sales to the McDonald's and Col Saunders community as "good in pockets". For, in truth, the locals are still cautious. "Many Americans remain insular. We need to open up that market by getting more of them to taste the products. There aren't enough Indian restaurants, apart from on the east and west coasts, so we must build the impetus. America would be a wonderful market if we could crack it. But even getting a first spoonful into their mouths is a challenge. However, we will not change our flavours just to suit America." But, despite their global challenges, its that "coals to Newcastle vision to export their expertise to Meena's native land that remains strong. She gazes wistfully at the Arabian Sea, before adding: "We must set up our own plant in India. And, remember, there are distribution factors which food firms abroad take for granted but that do not exist in India. "There are no real multiple supermarkets here so distributing food is a major factor. And there are many different state cuisines about which the locals remain strongly possessive. "That means we will have to go for convenient forms of product, with varying flavours for different states. Even though, 10 years ago, every middle class family had its own cook, and shopping was done every day, India is ready for convenience products. "In the average family, the husband and wife are both working and even though the woman of the house wants a wholesome Indian meal she wants help to prepare it. "We have set ourselves a target to be in this market in three years from now. Having said that, we have to get it right the first time. The eyes of everyone will be upon us." The firm has been quietly laying foundations. Significantly, it already holds management control of a hand-made poppadum factory near Madras that claims to be the only ISO9000 unit in the sector. The executive in charge, ex-Unilever man Kuntal Desai, proudly proclaims that the factory ranks favourably alongside anything that has emerged in India's food processing sector in recent years despite the presence of a string of household name multinationals. But the plant's real strength lies in the fact that it has effectively maintained traditional processing methods while introducing the ever-stronger safety and quality controls demanded by international retail customers. As Desai puts it: "When we say our products are authentic we mean just that. The poppadums are sun-dried in the age-old manner and they are also hand-made. We tried a mechanised process, but the taste was not the same and that was quickly spotted by customers." Employing more than 200 local workers, the plant runs out two and half tonnes of products daily and there are hopes of raising production even further. And, curiously, its western influences come to the fore every day when, in true Wal-Mart style, the workers enthusiastically chant the company's quality policy in the form of a song. In addition, Meena points out that the Patak quality control influence also extends to the Indian plants where their chillies and turmeric ­ the only spices ground for them before shipping ­ are prepared. But despite the phenomenal development of Indian food in the UK in recent years, she insists that it is "nowhere near" its peak. "My personal ambition is to take the sector out of the so-called tikka masala rut' and expand the number of flavours. The cuisine must move forward. There is more to Indian food than we have previously seen in the UK. For example, South Indian flavours have yet to become mainstream in the UK. In reality, if you were to serve an different Indian vegetable dish every day, you could do so for 365 days without repeating one. You could also eat a four-course Indian meal, three times a day, for a year, without repeating yourself. That's why I find it so frustrating when I meet grocery buyers who are not convinced about the cuisine's versatility." Later this year Meena will be publishing a book on Indian food. "I haven't had the time to do it before, as I have been too busy travelling and creating recipes for business. The publishers say I will have to partly disassociate myself from the brand. But, frankly,I don't think I will ever be able to do that. Having said that, it will not simply be a branded book' which urges readers to use Patak's pastes in favour of all the others." Meena shuns talk that she has deliberately become the glamorous face of the business, pushed into the limelight by her husband while he got on with the administration side. "I happened to have the knowledge that I had when I married into the family. I became the official spokesperson as my food technology background meant I could talk to the media and others with more authority and knowledge. It was fortuitous, because the family were looking for a product development person when we married. They were trying to move forward with new products but had no expertise within the company, so they had to hire someone from somewhere." But the executive who has been likened to the Nigella Lawson of Indian food laments the fact that, despite the presence of wall-to-wall celeb-chef TV programmes in the UK, there has been a striking absence of Indian-angled programmes in recent years. "Many tv food shows are far too gimmicky and gamey. People watch the programmes but very few actually take up the recipes. Madhur Jaffrey made a mark on television for the Indian cause some years ago and there is a need for something to replace her as she concentrates more on her distinguished acting career." And with more than a broad hint to the tv programme planners, she reveals that one of her two sons is completing a food technology course at Bournemouth University. Perhaps a "mother and son show" would bring in a new tv perspective, I suggest. She smiles, preferring to answer with an enigmatic: "Who knows?" So what is the next big thing in food from India? "We have many ideas within our kitchens, including new convenient forms of packaging. It's just a question of convincing the buyers we need to move forward. I am assessing the fusion that is going on amid Indian states and how eating habits in the all-important younger generation are changing. Flavours I can always create, it's the trends and eating habits that I need to keep a keen eye on." And where will Patak's be in five years? "Kirit's vision is to be a £1bn company 10 years from now. If that is achievable, I don't know, but we will have doubled in size, I can assure you of that." But can it remain independent, given rumours that at least one North American multinational has been eyeing the firm during recent months? "Hopefully yes. We have a good management structure and we have a lot of expertise within the company. We get offers every day. But price is not everything. We don't really want to sell out. There is a lot of emotional attachment to a family business and a lot of labour and love has gone into making the products. "When Kirit's father started the firm, in 1956, he could never have imagined that it could have grown to what it is today. Our kids are quite capable of taking it forward so I would give them one shot at it." With that the interview ends. Before moving on to the next spice seller she stops to greet a grower who has travelled seven hours through the backwaters that link the Arabian Sea with the spice fields ­ just to pay his respects to "Mrs Meena". After that, it's another mobile call to Kirit in Bolton ­ where it's still raining. n {{FEATURES }}