It's a wonderful story. Malaysian-born Will Chew came to Sheffield to study Music Psychology. He missed his mother's cooking so much he shipped some ingredients to the UK and experimented in his kitchen, creating the tasty chilli paste he grew up with and loved.
Now Will's business, Mak Tok, sells four tasty flavours of delicious pastes to chilli-loving food aficionados directly, online and through supermarkets. And last week Will's unusual musical appearance on BBC's Dragons' Den resulted in a £50,000 investment from newest Dragon Sara Davies.
Will joined me in the radio studio on Friday for the latest Business Live radio show.
He describes the amazing story behind the business and its recipe, the challenges involved in growth and moving to a manufacturer, why working on a market stall proved essential, the lean marketing approaches which worked for Mak Tok, and the opportunities and benefits for the business now he's working with Dragons' Den investor Sara Davies.
Here's the podcast. Timings and shownotes at https://www.jamieveitch.co.uk/2019/09/will-chew-mak-tok