No Self-Respecting South Asian Cook Uses Masalas Out of a Box — Except This One

The curious case of the brand at the heart of Pakistan’s culinary conscience

Photo by Maryam Jilliani

It’s a refrain you hear often: No self-respecting South Asian cook uses pre-made masalas out of a box.

Food writers, cookbook authors, and South Asian culinary experts at-large either lament the use of pre-made masalas or act as if they simply aren’t used. Sameen Rushdie, author of “Indian Cookery,” finds the commercial, ready-made ground mixtures “unpalatable.”

Sumayya Usmani, author of the award-winning Pakistani cookbook “Summers Under the Tamarind Tree,” writes that growing up she was taught to spend money on only the best whole spices, “never ground.” Celebrity chef and prolific author Madhur Jaffrey says: “Indian cooks insist on freshly ground spices instead of a bottled mixture that is powdered and possibly stale.”

These declarations conjure an image of a South Asian housewife dutifully measuring, toasting, and grinding complex spice blends every morning, rather than of a billion-dollar South Asian packaged spice blend industry growing at a healthy clip, both within the subcontinent and overseas.

One of Pakistan’s leading global brands is in fact, Shan Foods, a company so…