"I was in student gigs with three other lads and we tried to survive on all sorts of food," he remembers.

Then his parents started to send him little packets of curry spices for his favourite dishes with the recipes written out – for Ketan had never needed to fend for himself before.

"My mum and dad always did the cooking and I never had to bother until I went to university and wanted to replicate home flavours," he says.

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Ketan's spice packets soon acquired a modest reputation, so much so that after he graduated a friend got in touch for a recipe. "But he didn't know how to buy spices and ended up with big bags."

Ketan, now 31, gave his friend some little bags of spices "and it was then that the light lit up in my head." It could be a business.

He founded Spice-n-Tice, little boxes containing the right mix of spices for whatever dish you are cooking, together with a list of other ingredients and a recipe.

Now it has grown into a flourishing business with 19 different mixes of herbs and spices from King Prawn Curry and Methi Chicken to Chick Pea Curry and Pilau Rice, as well as Thai and Cajun dishes. Each box serves four people.

Check your spice cupboard and see what you've got. People buy spices for a recipe but they have to do so in such quantities that the remainder languish and go stale, says Ketan, 31.

He has teamed up with former Sheffield chef Kevin Woodford to promote the range.

The spice mixes cost from £1.99. Local stockists include Ibbotsons, Ashford; Bay Tree, Bawtry; Cannon Hall farm shop, Cawthorne; and Tindalls of Tideswell. www.spicentice.com

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