Son takes on many roles to help mother's cooking enterprise succeed

By Pamela Cotant

n

Huma Siddiqui acquired the perfect partner for White Jasmine, a business that revolves around her Pakistani heritage and the flavors of her native cuisine.

The business grew out of Siddiqui's love of cooking with spice and a desire to share her family's recipes and the rituals, traditions and customs of her culture.

Through White Jasmine, Siddiqui hosts a TV show, holds cooking classes and sells a line of spices and tea, a book, scarves, home d�cor and other gift items.

It was only natural for her 23-year-old son, Samir Karimi, to jump in and make it a family business.

"Food has been a very big part of our lives," said Siddiqui, company president. "He knows all of that stuff and what it means to have a home-cooked meal and what I am trying to promote. He already believes in it."

Siddiqui and Karimi say they share the same passion.

"It's a family legacy is what it is," said Karimi, vice president of sales.

Born and raised in Pakistan, Siddiqui got married and moved to Africa, where she lived for about five years before moving to England and then to Mount Horeb where she still lives. Siddiqui, who is now divorced, also has a daughter, Sabah, 26.

While Siddiqui started doing cooking classes as a hobby, she actually launched her business about a year later with a Web site.

Created in 2004, the site introduced her line of spices and "Jasmine in Her Hair," Siddiqui's book that offers recipes and a snapshot of Pakistani life.

Karimi got involved very quickly when she started participating in the Madison Food and Wine show.

"When I was carrying all these boxes, he would come and help me," she said.

Then he would stay at the show and help with the sampling and sales.

Siddiqui, 48, president of the company, said she has always been close to her son so she started talking to him about the business and plans to launch her TV show.

It's called White Jasmine Everyday Cooking and airs on Channel 15.

"He said, 'Mom, I can do this,'" she said. "So he actually is the producer of my show."

Karimi is executive producer of the cooking show besides being involved in the sales side of the business.

Ryan Miskoski, a good friend of Karimi's since childhood, also works in the business now as production manager.

He works with Karimi to film the cooking show.

Siddiqui will often send her ideas to Karimi and Ryan in an e-mail and suggest they meet to discuss them.

"Sometimes they joke about it. They get these e-mails at 2 in the morning (which means) mom is still working," Siddiqui said. "They always make a note of it. They look at the time of those e-mails."

In addition, the business has an advisory board made up of three people from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), which is part of the local Small Business Administration.

As the business has grown, others have joined in. Karimi's girlfriend, Rachel Gallup, assists with production of the TV show and recently went along to a food show in California.

Miskoski's wife, Lyndsey, has a similar role.

"These are all people that mean something to one another," Karimi said. "Having all this assistance is really a blessing right now."

Despite the closeness with her son and some teasing and bantering, Siddiqui has tried to create a certain professional distance.

"The business has to be a little bit separated otherwise it can become a little bit complicated," she said.

The two keep their roles defined, which Siddiqui considers a key to their success.

Siddiqui said Karimi and Miskoski also respect that she is the president of the company and will make some decisions based on her experience and vision.

While mother and son have similar interests and goals, they may look at things from a different perspective and that can be valuable, Karimi said.

He sees it as differing on
smaller details of the bigger picture. Siddiqui also has a job as a certified public accountant and her son works for an accounting firm while going to school for accounting.

Karimi sees his pursuit to become a certified public accountant as a personal goal.

White Jasmine is something else.

"It's become really a life journey," Karimi said. "The business is more where my heart is."

madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved.