Bhaskar and Daksha’s ancestry is from Gujarat and Rajesthan in India, although both were born and raised in Africa.

From Africa, Daksha moved to England and Bhaskar moved to Canada. They met in England and had a whirlwind romance and got married in 1984 and settled in Williams Lake, British Columbia where their 3 children were born. Once their children moved away to University, they moved to Victoria BC, to live and grow their business.

Daksha started teaching Indian cuisine 22 years ago and found that people fell in love with her flavours and style of cooking. Her students insisted on recipes and spices so they could enjoy Daksha’s recipes in their home. Daksha put together her first Combo Kit by stapling her recipes and the seven packages of spices and spice blends together in a Ziploc bag.

This provided her customers the recipes and spices they would need to make any of the recipes in her Combo Kit. Needless to say the response was amazing. That’s when Daksha’s Gourmet Spices was born in 1996.

Daksha and Bhaskar do this by carefully selecting the freshest spices, then sieving them three times to remove any dust or gluten. The spices are then put on trays and sifted through to remove any impurities.

Clean spices are then measured and blended using recipes that have been handed down over generations in Daksha’s family. These blends are then ground to perfection, packaged and ready to enjoy.

With the cleaned spices and freshly ground spice blends Bhaskar and Daksha have created a variety of delicious Curry Mixes. They also make a Chai Spice along with a Chai Latté. The Chai Spice recipe has been in their family for over 300 hundred years. Bhaskar and Daksha are always creating and coming up with new products, mixes and recipes.

Visit the shop to pick up one of Daksha's best-selling cookbooks.

"My inspiration came a lot earlier in my life, when I lived in India and spent my school holidays in my grandmother's village in Gujarat. She taught me how to:

• buy spices from the local markets, by choosing the best quality spices
• clean whole spices, by using sieves and hoopras (open ended tray made of straw)
• remove any impurities by putting the spices on stainless steel trays and picking them out by hand
• put ancient blends together, such as garam masala, thana jeeroo, chai spice
• grind the spice blends

My grandmother was a very highly regarded herbalist, chiropractor and all round doctor. People came from all walks of life with their ailments. She taught me the Ayurvedic qualities of the spices and blends and how to use them with various food groups."

What is Daksha's Favourite?

"Daal and Vindaloo. Daal is comfort food for me, I can have Daal for lunch or supper. Vindaloo, is a bit hotter, but that lime juice is so good. I especially love the lamb Vindaloo.

My favourite however, is watching my family’s reaction to my new recipes and their honest opinion. After all, they have helped tremendously to perfect my recipes."

Our visit to India brought back many memories of my grandmother and grandfather and the precious time we had together in the village. I was and am still amazed at the freshness of the vegetables, spices, lentils and legumes.

Seeing the cart full of fresh green chillies, cilantro, okra and so many varieties of eggplant brought back flavours of my grandmother’s cooking. Throughout our trip, especially in Rajesthan, the cuisine was delicious, fresh tasting and well presented. I had the pleasure of meeting amazing Chefs who showed us how they made some of their signature dishes.

"The best part of my trip to India was to watch my family fall in love with India as I did when I first visited India many years ago."

I especially remember our Chef on board our luxurious House Boat on the backwaters of Kerela, he prepared amazing meals for us in the 2 days of our trip, using fresh local ingredients. One dish in particular was fish from the Lake cooked with spices, garlic and pan fried. It was delicious!

One of my favourite meals were Dosas. In one of the resorts a chef showed us how they made the Dosas paper thin, and how they folded the delicious filling into the dosa without breaking the crispy dosa shell.

"My passion is to share with the world my recipes and blends of spices enjoyed by my family for centuries. My aim is to give the world an alternate healthy choice of eating."