For Chitra Agrawal, food has always taken center stage in her life. Her parents, immigrants who hailed from opposite sides of India, were dedicated to using family meal time as an opportunity to share their culture with their children. In the evenings, Agrawal and her brother would help her parents wash rice or roll out flatbreads for dinner.
“Food was common ground for us to really start to understand each other,” she said. “I feel like it helped me understand my parents on this whole other level.”
In 2009, Agrawal started documenting family recipes on a blog, which blossomed into a supper clubs she hosted . When guests kept asking for jars of her homemade achaar—a pickled condiment popular in Southeast Asia, but relatively unknown in America—she and her husband, food packaging designer Ben Garthus, decided to turn it into a business.
“The versions of achaar I found in stores were really sodium heavy and didn’t taste homemade,” she said, “so I started making my own using vegetables from local farmers.”
Early buzz from food publications like Saveur and Food & Wine helped Brooklyn Delhi build a cult following. Then in 2017, a double breakthrough came: Blue Apron included her achaar in meal kits, and Whole Foods began carrying her products on shelves.
Wanting to continue growing brand recognition and reach even more customers, Agrawal leaned into Amazon.
“Amazon has been a great way for people who are already shopping there to discover our brand,” she said. Since then, Brooklyn Delhi has grown from two products to 14—including chutneys, simmer sauces and heat-and-eat pouches that reflect the evolving needs of home cooks.
“It’s kind of a progression of my own lifestyle,” said Agrawal. “I started out with condiments, then had kids and needed something faster—so we made simmer sauces. And now, with two kids and even less time, we launched pouches you can heat and eat in 90 seconds.”
To build buzz around new products, Agrawal has leaned on Amazon’s Creator Connections Program, which matches sellers with influencers to create promotional content.
“We’re bootstrapped, so we don’t have the cash for big PR campaigns,” she said. “The Creator Connections program has had an immediate impact on our sales.”
She also uses Amazon Ads and Subscribe & Save to target and retain existing customers. Eleven years in, Brooklyn Delhi is a multi-million-dollar brand. Agrawal attributes that success in part to Amazon.
“Our simmer sauces have over 2,000 reviews, and our achaar has become a best-seller on Amazon—amazing for such a niche product,” she said.
Agrawal still develops recipes and shares them through Brooklyn Delhi’s blog, aiming to show how Indian flavors can become everyday staples—whether that’s a spoonful of garlic achaar on mac and cheese or korma sauce repurposed in a quick saag paneer.
“There’s room for premium Indian products in the U.S. grocery space,” she said. “And thanks to Amazon, we’ve been able to stay focused on our mission—making food that’s better for you, full of flavor, and rooted in real traditions.”