There is a memory Goral Rajesh keeps coming back to.
Her grandmother in the kitchen, the smell of something warm and sweet filling the house, and a group of children — including Goral — lurking nearby, waiting for their chance.
“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!” she says, laughing at the memory.
Goral Rajesh runs Rasoi Studio from her home kitchen in Bengaluru.
That grandmother’s kitchen is a long way from Bengaluru, where Goral now runs ‘Rasoi Studio’ out of her home. But the laddus she makes today — with jaggery, honey, dates, millets, and ghee — carry the same logic her grandmother worked with: real ingredients, made with care, for people who actually matter to you.
Two years in, Rasoi Studio serves more than 300 families through WhatsApp. It sells an average of two kilograms of laddus a day.
‘I wanted to build something of my own’
Goral’s relationship with food did not begin in any romantic way.
“I had a difficult childhood. But that made me very resilient. I had to take responsibility for caring for my mother and younger sister, and supporting the family financially early in life,” she says.
From Class 3, she was the one buying groceries and vegetables for the family. The responsibility gave her something she would only understand much later: a deep instinct for good ingredients, and what it feels like when they are missing.
Goral Rajesh registered Rasoi Studio two years ago after years of cooking at home.
During her Class 10 vacation, financial pressures meant she took over cooking for the family entirely. “What started as a necessity slowly became a life skill, and eventually a passion,” she says.
In Classes 11 and 12, she studied a vocational course in Food and Nutrition and attended workshops on food preservation. She later pursued a BA from Gujarat University — a BSc in Food and Nutrition was not available to her at the time, a gap she still rues, as it meant she could not practise as a dietician.
Rasoi Studio began with theplas, snacks, and two types of laddus.
But one afternoon at a school entrepreneurship exhibition planted a seed that would take years to grow.
“I heard an inspiring talk by Ullasben Zaveri, founder of Gujju Masala, whose spice brand from Ahmedabad was exporting across the world. Her story sparked a dream in my heart that one day I too would build something of my own,” says Goral.
The aptitude test that changed things
Life moved on. Goral got married to Rajesh, whom she had known as a neighbour in Ahmedabad. “When he proposed, I told him I came with a lot of baggage. He replied, ‘I know you will stand by me whatever happens. I want you as my partner,'” she recalls.
After marriage, the kitchen became a place of exploration. Rajesh is from Kerala, so the couple’s cooking ranged from Gujarati staples to Kerala cuisine to Indian and international dishes. When their daughter Aesha was growing up, Goral channelled her food instincts into wholesome school lunchboxes. Friends and neighbours started noticing the laddus she made — recipes shaped by her grandmother’s techniques and tips.
Rasoi Studio makes products to order and delivers them to Bengaluru customers.
She also worked for a period in HR consultancy, but left when Aesha was approaching Class 12. When she tried to return to the workforce afterwards, she found the door had narrowed.
“It became difficult for me to get back into the industry. People I knew offered consultancy roles, but not full-time employment. This began to bother me,” she says.
Around this time, therapy helped her process her childhood and redirect her energy. A close friend suggested an aptitude test. “That small step became a turning point. It reconnected me with who I truly am: resourceful, people-driven, and unafraid to take calculated risks. An entrepreneur at heart,” she says.
Her sister said it plainest. “She reminded me that my cooking brings people joy and that connecting with people is my strength. She said, ‘It’s time to turn this into something of your own,’ and that’s how it all began.”
Rasoi Studio also prepares gift hampers for customers and special orders.
Rasoi Studio was registered two years ago. The first products were fresh theplas (flatbreads from Gujarat), snacks, and two types of laddus.
The laddus took over quickly.
No maida, and no exceptions
Walk into a shop at 4 pm and try to find a snack that does not have refined sugar, maida, or preservatives. Goral tried this on a trek to Uttarakhand and found mostly sugar-heavy options.
“That’s when I decided to provide through Rasoi Studio what I could not find in the market,” she says.
The menu now includes dry fruit bites, millet-bajraladdus, sprouted ragi laddus, besanladdus, flaxseed laddus, sattu-makhanaladdus, atte ki pinni (whole wheat sweet from Punjab, made with ghee and jaggery), and rose-fig laddus made with dates. There are also choco protein bars made with dates and peanuts, protein bars with almonds, and two types of granola.
Rasoi Studio packages its laddus in cardboard boxes with paper tape.
Products are priced between Rs 300 and Rs 700 for 250 gm.
“In our cooking, maida and preservatives are completely ruled out. We use sugar in only one product, besan laddu. Still, our besan laddus have only 20 percent sugar compared to laddus available in the market, which have around 50 percent sugar,” she says. A sattu laddu is available for those who want to skip sugar entirely.
The production happens in Goral’s home kitchen, not a factory. She is assisted by Anitha Singh, a 25-year-old from Nepal who has been with Rasoi Studio for nine months. Anitha learned the techniques by watching Goral work.
Anitha Singh has worked with Rasoi Studio for nine months in the home kitchen.
“I observed Goral madam and learnt the techniques of making laddus. I enjoy making healthy laddus, which is my primary work,” says Anitha.
The two of them work for three hours a day. Current capacity is 5 to 6 kg of laddus daily. Everything is made to order, so there is no wastage. Shelf life is around 15 days, provided no moisture gets in.
The laddu-making process includes roasting, grinding, mixing, and shaping by hand.
Getting the recipe consistent required building a proper system. “We have an SOP in place to ensure that each batch of laddus tastes the same and has the same nutritional value. We always buy ingredients from the same vendor,” says Goral. Weather affects texture — laddus get harder in winter — but the taste holds.
Goral says Rasoi Studio follows an SOP to keep each batch consistent.
She had considered buying ingredients wholesale when the venture started. She decided against it.
“We did not want to compromise on quality. We are marketing our products to people who do not mind paying a little more for good quality,” she says.
‘The 4 pm hunger has a better answer now’
Goral’s customers include senior citizens, gym-goers, new mothers, diabetics, children, and trekkers. Several doctors and nutritionists are regulars. Rasoi Studio has catered to a school function and a wedding, and serves gated communities around Jakkur Plantation Road as well as senior living communities in Bengaluru.
Madhumita Saha has been buying Rasoi Studio laddus since the venture began.
Madhumita Saha, 63, a retired IT professional, has been buying from Goral since the beginning.
“I am very particular about what I eat. I began with the dry fruit laddus. My current favourites include dry fruit laddus and sprouted ragi laddus for energy, and sattu-makhana laddus and rose-fig laddus for taste,” she says. “The ingredients are pure and fresh.”
For Madhumita, the trust is personal. “Goral is herself fitness-conscious. She has a background in food and nutrition. My faith in what she creates and produces is very high.”
Delhi-based clinical nutritionist and researcher Ishi Khosla — who founded The Celiac Society of India and recently launched Welmo, a personalised AI-based meal-planning app — sees real value in what Rasoi Studio is doing, with some important nuance.
Nutritionist Ishi Khosla says millet-based laddus can work as snacking options.
“These are healthy ingredients. They will not harm the gut unless you are intolerant to millets. These laddus are great snacking options and alternatives to other sweets. But they are rich in carbohydrates. Those who are metabolically disadvantaged, overweight, have belly fat, high insulin levels, or are diabetic need to moderate their consumption,” says Ishi.
On laddus for new mothers, especially those made with gond (an edible tree resin widely used in Indian postpartum cooking), Ishi is enthusiastic. “It is a very good idea. The gut of women undergoes negative changes post-delivery. Millets are better for them than other grains. Millet laddus are better than suji ki panjeeri and atte ki panjeeri.”
She also validates Goral’s thinking around the 4 pm window. “In one of my books, I have mentioned that 4 to 7 pm is the ‘Devil’s Hour’, the time when people reach out for unhealthy food. So, Goral’s idea of her snacks being an option to tackle 4 pm hunger and cravings is excellent.”
Rasoi Studio plans to expand into gyms, fitness centres, and corporate gifting.
Goral is already in conversation with Motherhood Hospital about supplying laddus made with gond to women who have recently delivered. Gyms, fitness centres, and corporate gifting are next on her list. For now, Rasoi Studio is B2C — she wants to grow the production team before taking on institutional supply.
“As we scale up production, I plan to hire and train others,” she says.
Packing grandma’s wisdom in every batch
Goral’s Gujarati bajra laddu is not the traditional version. She roasts the bajra in ghee before making it. “You need ghee to digest bajra,” she explains.
That kind of knowledge — when to add ghee, how long to roast, what the right proportion of nuts to flour creates — comes from years of cooking and from the kind of instincts that do not appear in any recipe book. Her grandmother’s tips, she says, are present in every batch.
The WhatsApp-led customer base has grown to more than 300 families.
“Her wisdom and generational tips continue to shape the warmth and authenticity of every recipe I make.”
She also does not over-grind or overcook. “That would destroy the texture we aim for. This also ensures that nutrition is retained.”
Rasoi Studio’s customer base grows mostly through word of mouth. The WhatsApp group now has over 300 families. Goral is in the process of bringing in someone for social media marketing. Her husband Rajesh, who works at UEI Electronics, has been a supporter since the beginning — and one of the earliest taste testers.
The next five years, she says, are about scaling production without losing what makes the laddus worth ordering. “Cooking involves emotions. We make the laddus with joy,” she says. “That’s what makes our venture special.”
In Anitha’s hands, kneading a batch of sprouted ragi laddus in a kitchen in Bengaluru, you can see exactly what she means.
