Angelo Gonsalves is quite partial to the art of preservation. Preserving his grandmother's time honoured recipes Angelo has turned a hobby into a successful enterprise. After a while spent perfecting the recipes and techniques, Angelo has a cult following for those who hanker for homemade good quality smoked and cured meats and other such delicacies which were once commonplace in a bygone era.

What is the single most important reason for your success?
There is no single reason. I believe innovation, heaps of enjoyment in what I do and the desire to preserve a bit of our cooking heritage have all contributed to my relative success.

How did you come up with this idea?
Food has always been of interest to me. The first idea came out of the need to have some good milk wine, salt beef and cured bacon for Christmas. I also had my grandmother's recipe book which was like an almanac as it had so many tips, hints and good old fashioned food which is hard to find now. I started working on some products like salt beef and cured bacon which I found were not readily available in the market. After refining the process and developing the product I shared it with a few friends who were thrilled to be able to taste something they liked and like me they couldn’t get.

How do you balance work, life and friends?
All my work involves family anyway and I am a firm believer that 24 hours is more than enough time to do all my work, so I tend to manage to juggle family and work rather well.

What were your most difficult obstacles when starting your business?
I found it very difficult to get quality ingredients like saltpeter but now I have got good  suppliers. I also had to make a smoke house from scratch.

Any advice for young people who don’t have the courage to start up their business?
You are alive ! You have already started the hardest business of living without one single thought. Why think starting something is difficult if you enjoy it. It will turn out to be the reason you want to get up each day.

How old were you when you started your business?
I started Hazel's Kitchen 12 years ago.

If you could add a famous entrepreneur to your team who would it be and why?
Donald Trump would be my choice, as I like his attitude and his ability to take charge of any situation and make it work.

How did you get the capital to start up your venture?
It is all self-financed because it started off as a hobby and I didn’t need much capital other than my mother’s pots and pans and dad's nuts and bolts to make a beef press.  

What is your “Golden Rule” in business?
Keep improving as there isn’t a finish line for improvement.

Where do you hope to see your business in 5 years time?
Running my own line of authentic old recipe products and an old style restaurant.

By Tina Edward Gunawardhana