25 July 2026

Chef Akila's Award-Winning Frozen Curries — Now in Stock at Roots & Vines

If you've been ordering Chef Akila's curries by post and paying courier fees to get them down to Devon — good news. We're now stocking them right here in the shop at 12 West Street, Tavistock. As far as we know, we're one of the first shops in the South West to carry the range, so if you've been searching for a Chef Akila stockist in Devon or Cornwall, your hunt ends here.

And if you haven't come across them yet, let us introduce you. Chef Akila is a 76-year-old grandmother, born in a South Indian village, now cooking her traditional family recipes in a five-star rated kitchen in Yorkshire. Her meals have collected more than 50 awards for taste, and there's a lovely story behind the business too — her son is an NHS consultant doctor, and together they set out to make Indian food that's genuinely good for you as well as delicious. For every meal sold, they donate a meal to a hungry child in India.

Honest ingredients, nothing hidden

This is the bit that made us want them on our shelves, because it's exactly how we think food should be done. Every curry is freshly home-cooked individually from scratch — no factory shortcuts, no "common base gravy" doing the rounds through every dish the way it does in most takeaways. The ingredients are fresh and premium, with lean cuts of Yorkshire chicken and lamb, and the recipes were developed alongside doctors and nutritionists.

There are no additives, no preservatives, and no artificial colourings or flavourings — none at all. Where commercial ready meals lean on cheap oils, and plenty of them, Chef Akila uses the least amount of the healthiest oils: cold-pressed virgin rapeseed, olive and sesame. The results speak for themselves — compared with the average supermarket or takeaway curry, these come in dramatically lower in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. Everything is then fast-frozen within minutes of cooking to lock in the taste and the nutrition, and the entire kitchen is gluten-free, so every single dish is safe for coeliacs.

In short: these are proper, slow-cooked curries, biryanis and dals made the way a grandmother makes them — and they go from freezer to fork in about ten minutes.

Our introductory range

We've started with an introductory range of Chef Akila's best sellers — chicken and lamb curries, biryanis, and some lovely vegan and vegetarian options too. We'll be extending the range depending on demand, so if there's a dish you love that isn't in the freezer yet, tell us — that's exactly how we decide what comes in next.

Order online, in the shop, or on paper — the whole range

Here's the part we're really pleased about: the Chef Akila range is now in our online shop, so you can place your order from home and collect it from the shop — no carriage charges, no waiting in for the courier, and no insulated boxes to dispose of.

And it doesn't stop at what's in the freezer today. We're running a pre-order service covering Chef Akila's complete menu: choose any dishes from the full range using our order form, and we'll add them to our weekly wholesale order for you to collect — subject to our regular ordering schedule, so allow a little time for them to arrive. If you like to stock the freezer up properly, this is the way to do it. Download the order form below, or pick one up at the counter.

Or simply pop into the shop at 12 West Street, Tavistock, or give us a ring — we'd love to introduce you to these.