From stolen laddus to sold-out batches: Bengaluru woman builds Rasoi Studio on grandmother’s recipes

Bengaluru: For Goral Rajesh, the path to entrepreneurship started with a stolen laddu. She still remembers her grandmother’s kitchen in Gujarat — the smell of ghee and jaggery, and a gaggle of cousins waiting to snatch sweets when no one was looking.

“She was an excellent cook. We would relish the laddus, even hide and eat them. Sometimes, we would steal them, as they were in her custody!” Goral says, laughing. Years later, that memory became Rasoi Studio. From her home kitchen in Bengaluru, Goral now hand-rolls laddus using the same principle her grandmother lived by: real ingredients, made with care, for people who matter.

No refined sugar. No preservatives. Just jaggery, honey, dates, millets, and ghee. What began as favours for friends during the pandemic is now a business that serves over 300 families through WhatsApp. She averages two kilograms of laddus a day, with varieties ranging from ragi and bajra to sattu and dry fruit.

Customers place orders in a WhatsApp group. Goral cooks in small batches each week and dispatches across the city. “I started because moms wanted something honest for their kids,” she says. “Now I have grandparents ordering for their grandkids. It’s come full circle.

”Her biggest quality check remains her own childhood standard: would she have tried to steal it from her grandmother’s shelf? Rasoi Studio plans to add savoury snacks soon. But the laddus stay. As Goral puts it, “Some recipes are just too important to lose.”