PETALING JAYA: Seremban-born Mariae Hackett is making her country proud by having her Malaysian sauces on the shelves of a major consumer cooperative-run supermarket chain in the UK, where she now lives with her husband Gerard Hackett.
She said the British can now enjoy quick and easy-to-make Malaysian food by incorporating her award-winning sauces produced by Dapur Mariae, a food business she runs with Gerard.
This month, Dapur Mariae’s Spicy Sambal Sauce and curry paste have been placed on the shelves of Co-op chain managed by Co-operative Group Limited.
Mariae said the deal with Co-op was sealed in 2020 after the couple won an award for their curry paste. However, because of the Covid-19 outbreak, marketing of its products was delayed as the retailing industry slowed down during the pandemic.
In 2018, the couple’s peanut sauce and sambal paste won two awards.
“A lot of people were struggling in 2020, but God was so kind to us that year as we managed to win at the UK’s Quality Food Awards and Co-op’s Small Producer Quality Food Awards, which is a collaboration with the former,” she told theSun.
It was their win at Co-op’s Small Producer Quality Food Awards that ensured their products a place on the shelves of Co-op’s supermarket listing. Winning the award also earned them the opportunity to be part of Co-op’s “Apiary’s scheme”, which is an incubator that provides guidance, mentorship, and training to small and medium businesses as well as retail listing. Only nine businesses were admitted into the scheme.
“Authentic Malaysian food can be tricky to find, especially outside of London. At the same time, the process to make most of our food can be tedious with a lot of steps involved. I figured why not make something easy to eat and versatile enough to pair with other foods?”
Before Dapur Mariae products were put on Co-op’s shelves, Mariae, a former nurse, and Gerard, an ex-chef, made their sauces at home and supplied them in small batches to local markets, farm shops, and butchers.
“In 2020, I was doing a lot of takeaways and food deliveries from home. Even though the jars hadn’t hit the shelves yet, people could buy them directly from me. So our products made a name for us, and even those who weren’t aware of us got to know us,” Mariae said, adding that she eventually stopped making the sauces at home and worked with a manufacturer to mass-produce 6,000 units of their products for Co-op to test.
She also established her website to expand her customer base to ensure that the British people throughout the country could have easy access to her products.
“The British are getting more adventurous with their tastebuds, and they are becoming bored with the regular Asian foods such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. They are looking for something more that packs a punch. Even elderly people here are not scared to try new things,” she said.
Mariae and her husband took a leap of faith by quitting their jobs to focus on their business.
“The plan is now to expand our product range. I will work on making Devil’s Curry Paste to pay homage to my heritage, as my mother is a Eurasian. Consumers can just add the paste to a saucepan, put in the required water, chicken, and potatoes and it is done.”
Another product that the couple are working on, to be released next summer, is a dry marinate for barbecue and grilled food.
Mariae, who met her husband in her final year at a nursing school, said back then, Gerard had never tasted Malaysian food.
“But the minute he tried what I cooked, he fell in love with it.”
