Today we’d like to introduce you to Nalini Mehta.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started teaching Ayurvedic cooking 20 years ago as a culinary instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health, while still working in the fashion industry, buying and merchandising for Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and product development and sourcing for Target Corporation.
I had personally experienced the benefits of Ayurveda as a 25-year-old when my mother after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer took to eating ayurvedically. It was amazing for me to see her quality of life, and to be so spirited in the face of the fatality of the disease. It shifted my outlook on food completely.
Moonlighting between the fashion and food world, I did everything from catering private events to cooking at gourmet stores in New York as well as the kitchens of Candle Cafe and Hampton Chutney. I have been a culinary instructor at the Whole Foods Culinary Center, the Institute of Culinary Education, and The NY Open Center.
In 2010, I moved to San Francisco and started my culinary school called Route To India where culinary programs were rooted in my cultural heritage of India. We also traveled back to India on culinary trips and offered weekend yoga and culinary retreats in Sonoma, CA as well as the Art Of Living Retreat Center, Boone NC. My students are mostly folks practicing yoga or looking for holistic health and wellness.
I have been a speaker at a range of institutions including the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Rubin Museum of Art, Princeton University, Baruch College, and the United Nations. I was the recipient of the James Beard Foundation Women In Culinary Leadership Grant program in 2017 which brought me to Minneapolis.
My work with the grant entailed observing restaurants so I could perhaps open one of my own. After working with an acclaimed restauranteur, who owned 10 restaurants at the time, I found that the kitchen culture was unhealthy and I needed to find solutions for the wellness of our hospitality industry before I undertake one myself.
The one good thing that did come out of this grant though was YOGA POPS. For the longest time, Anita, my partner, had been encouraging me to package and sell food inspired by Ayurveda. This was an idea that I had resisted given my belief that all food should be enjoyed fresh. If it’s packaged, then it wouldn’t meet that basic criteria. The idea for Yoga Pops came along quite serendipitously. We had been serving them as bar snacks at our ayurvedic pop-up dinners, (to benefit the mental health of the restaurant community). Guests would ask if they could take them back home and that’s when my JBF mentor and restaurateur asked why don’t I package and sell them? They needed no preservatives and were a guilt-free snack used in Ayurveda as an energy booster for centuries, so I was finally in agreement!
We went on to be part of the Target Take Off Accelerator program in 2022 and most recently in the Lunar Sartup program. Today, we are in over 400 stores nationally in retail chains including Meijer in Michigan, Erewhon in LA, and locally in Coops and groceries stores like Buford Highway Farmers Market in Atlanta and Kowalski’s in Minneapolis.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the 25 years of being in America, I had seen yoga studios mushrooming all across NY, SF, and the rest of the country. However, Ayurveda was still considered mostly hippie, new age, and a woo-woo alternative science. I knew that if it took the likes of Madonna to popularize Yoga in the West, it would probably take some celebrities (thanks most notably to Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow) to legitimize Ayurveda while sipping chai tea and golden milk lattes!
Here’s an example: Back in 2014, when I was invited to speak about Ayurveda at the Asian Art Museum in SF I thought, yes! Finally, Ayurveda will get its due place! It was an exciting time for me. The exhibition, Yoga: The Art of Transformation, was the first major show ever mounted about the 2,500-year history of yoga. It featured over a hundred paintings, photographs, sculptures, and parallel events. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Asian Art Museum was just looking to address the correlation between Yoga and Ayurveda. My presence was a mere flash in the pan, with no serious desire to understand the depth of our rich cultural contribution. As illustrated and eloquently said by a fellow curator at the exhibition Chiraag Bhakta “The Whitewashing of #WhitePeopleDoingYoga” Yoga has been put in an ironic position: Colonized and commodified, a tradition rooted in detachment and equanimity has been hijacked by a grasping possessiveness.”
So overall the appropriation of our culture, being a minority LGBTQ, BIPOC woman has often left me as an outsider who may not have been invited to have a seat at the table. These have been some of the challenges I have faced throughout my journey. While challenges are a part of any business or life as we know it, I view life as a running stream of water. It will come across pebbles, rocks, and even boulders along the way but it doesn’t let anything stop it from flowing. It either flows over it or, turns alongside or beats over the rock and makes an imprint on it. So challenges haven’t stopped me in my journey of moving forward with passion and gusto.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Route to India, our mission is to make health accessible in delicious bites.
Plant-based, all-natural, and minimally processed, our snacks are inspired by Ayurveda, an ancient system of holistic health for the modern appetite. We believe food is medicine but we make sure it doesn’t taste like it!
Our first-to-market snack is YOGA POPS.
Yoga Pops are a delicious, light, crunchy better-for-you snack made from popped Asian water lily seeds. These ancient super seeds are hand-roasted, spiced with healthy ingredients such as turmeric, ginger, cloves, and cardamom, and packaged in small artisanal batches.
Our chef-crafted snacks are a great alternative to popcorn with half the carbs and twice the protein. Water lily seeds are known for their health benefits and have been used for centuries as part of Ayurvedic medicine to nourish the mind, body, and spirit.
Plant-based, all-natural, non-GMO, grain-free, gluten-free, allergen-free, containing all 8 essential amino acids, rich in protein, minerals, fiber, and potassium, Yoga Pops make for a great bar snack, breakfast cereal, garnish on soups and salads. An instant energy booster, it is light and easy to carry while hiking, biking, and kayaking. A perfect healthy treat post-yoga, post-workout, and in kids’ lunch boxes.
At Route to India, we believe snacking can be intentional, like meditation. Life as we know it is constantly evolving but savoring moments can reset and recharge us especially when our choices are tailored to us personally. Our mantra is Mindful Munching.
In Ayurveda, our outer landscape is a reflection of our inner landscape. We believe in the immense energy that food gives to us. As consumers, we look for organic, free-range, and other ingredient attributes in our food but we take it a step further and value the energy/mental, and physical of the person who brings all those ingredients to our plate- farmers, food service professional, and others who nourish us.
We offer a culinary program based on Ayurveda as well as offer breathing and wellness programs for our hospitable community. In terms of sustainability, a single bushel of corn requires 3000 gallons of water, while our super seeds grow in ponds and require nothing. Zero soil depletion. 25% of our profits go back towards the education of the children of our farmers.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can support us by enjoying our snacks, joining our cooking classes online or in person, or inviting your colleagues and friends for an interactive team-building retreat based on Ayurveda. Details on our website. You can come to work with us.
Help us grow our team and our business through social media and marketing as we continue to scale up our small business. Volunteer/donate to our non-profit work with the education of children in India and the mental health and wellness of our hospitality community.
Pricing:
- $5.99 YOGA POPS per pack in 4-5 flavors
- 29.99- 150/ cooking class online
- $150 Ayurveda diet and dosha consultation
- $1500- $5000 Yoga/ Culinary Retreats
- $3500 plus India Culinary Travel
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.routetoindia.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoga_pops/. and https://www.instagram.com/ayurvedawithnalini/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yogapops108/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nalini-mehta-108/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ayurvedawithnal
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt9UazLEwOX7BKS9GEPj6vg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.ca/biz/route-to-india-minneapolis-2
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C-0z56Q_4w. & https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-brands-bring-the-ancient-tradition-of-ayurveda-to-store-shelves/600273429/?refresh=true#comment
