The date: 13th May. The time: 8:40AM

A usual morning making sure the kids are ready for school. All done and I open the emails to see this:
“The Peterborough Small Business Awards is delighted to confirm you are a finalist for …

The Peterborough food & hospitality small business of the year 2019

With over 1000 nominations and entries it is quite an achievement to get through to the finals so a huge well done!“

The first words in my mind and on social media from us were :

ME? BANJARAA??

Was this some kind of joke? I knew it wasn’t fake as I had attended the #psba as a guest the year before. I just never thought Banjaraa would be one of the nominees! I didn’t think Banjaraa was ready for any award! It was too early! I was thinking “who voted anonymously for us?!” All these thoughts started to come to my mind and then I shared it on my personal Facebook page.

And boy was I so wrong in my thoughts! The amount of congratulations and personal messages/calls which followed were just amazing. I just wanted to provide some good food ‘1 wrap at a time’ but didn’t know I had touched and inspired so many people on our little journey.

The food & hospitality category had some great finalists. Some were new businesses like us and others have had a great reputation for years. A couple of them have become friends too who have helped/advised in our journey too.

The date came – 12th October and we were both excited and nervous. We attended as a table full of the Banjaraa tribe and I had a speech written down, just in case the nerves and emotion got the better of me!

Sadly we didn’t win, however, as far as I am concerned, Banjaraa had already won just by being a finalist in this category! It’s been a great exposure & recognition so far. Thank you to EVERYONE who has been a part of our journey and continues to do so. Thank you universe!
​
Ajay x

Just like any other new start-up, this year has had its ‘first’ in a lot of ways for our corporate and event catering business. Here are some of the firsts we would like to share with you:

Our first ever large-scale event was ‘Belton International Horse Trials’ at Belton house, Grantham. We met some fantastic people and served up plenty of our tasty Indian inspired wraps on a great day enjoyed by everyone.

We also served up some Banjaraa awesomeness at four different festivals around the Peterborough area. These were:

• St Botolph’s Festival on the Green
• Baston Car Show
• Baston in the Blitz
• Langtoft Music Festival

Thanks to the Baston and Langtoft teams for believing in us and booking us for their events!
We are already taking bookings for 2020, so please get in touch ASAP to ensure that we’ll be able to cater at your event.

We also took the horsebox to events around Peterborough, Sawtry, Wittering, and Raunds with the aim of reaching out to as many local small market towns and villages to spread some food love!

We catered for our first private party in Cambridge in the summer of 2019. Mike and his family truly enjoyed the food the Banjaraa way!

We served our first pop-up food with two awesome local micropubs; the Bumble Inn and the Wonky Donkey and it was an absolute hit at both venues.

Out first corporate event was with an awesome local Peterborough company – Coloplast for their family and friends fun day. We look forward to many more corporate gigs in the future. Contact us to receive our corporate leaflet! 

Our first wedding catering was for Reshma and Justin at a beautiful location – Langar Hall. We catered a brunch menu with delicious fillings for them and their 70 guests. A new niche for us! 

Our first wedding fayre was at ‘Hinwick Hall – Wellingborough’. We did something totally different with our mini taster bowls for the potential clients and wedding suppliers. What a location and great owners! Thanks Lavinia from ‘Events in a box’. Our next wedding fayre is at Grendon Lakes, Wellingborough! 

We catered at our first fireworks night, Baston Fireworks, and there are a few other seasonal events coming soon, which we will share in due course!

Oh! And our first finalist entrance to a local award! We are honoured to have been shortlisted for an award at the Peterborough Small Business Awards.

It has been a good learning year, loving the process, building the brand ‘1 wrap at a time’! We shall do another ‘story so far’ end of this year…

Thank you for playing your part in our journey! It’s greatly appreciated!

Dhanyawad!

Ajay