From growing up in his family’s New York restaurants to leading a $50 million food company, Sameer Malhotra has built Café Spice into one of the most recognized names in Indian cuisine. What began as a single bistro-style restaurant is now a nationally distributed brand supplying Whole Foods hot bars, private-label products, and ready-to-eat meals across the country.

In this episode of Forktales, Sameer shares how Café Spice made the leap from restaurants to large-scale manufacturing, the importance of balancing authenticity with approachability when introducing Indian flavors to American consumers, and why food demos are more powerful than discounts.