SHARMINI Thomas has been delivering Indian cookery classes and cookery demonstrations for more than 20 years.

She is a true pillar of the community, not only for her classes but also her community and charitable efforts.

Sharmini, who is up for Small Business of the Year, advocates supporting local businesses, and only works with independent local suppliers.

The principles of Sharminis Inspirational Indian Cuisine are to provide customers with an informative, fun experience that is interactive and authentic. Customers enjoy themselves and leave with the knowledge of how to recreate authentic Indian dishes at home.

Sharmini hand-grinds her own spices that provide customers with fresh, strong aromatic flavours that they cannot buy in the supermarket.

In addition to exceptional public cookery classes, Sharmini also delivers teambuilding events for corporate customers that focuses on mindfulness, cognitive development and understanding how other each other can work better as a team. Sharmini is a certified NLP practitioner and this enables her to work closely with teams and individuals at various levels and helps them understand and develop their communication skills.

An active member of Visit York, Sharmini attends and gets involved with local festivals and events.

The business believes it has potential for further growth based around community initiatives and education.