Neighbor Auria Abraham Wins Taste Of NYC, Now Heads To Largest Specialty Food Trade Show In The U.S.

A big congratulations is in order for neighbor Auria Abraham, the force behind Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen, who is one of four winners in the “Taste of NYC: Fancy Food Fellowship,” a city-sponsored competition that sends specialty foods manufacturers to an internationally recognized trade show this summer.

The city Economic Development Corporation unveiled the four winners today in the competition that focused on immigrant entrepreneurs: Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen, City Saucery, Port Morris Distillery and Spoonable — all of which won an NYCEDC sponsored booth at the Specialty Food Association’s (SFA) Summer Fancy Food Show, which is being held at the Jacob Javits Center from June 28-30.

“It’s such an honor to be picked by NYCEDC for this Fellowship,” Auria Abraham said in a press release. “New York City is such a wonderful place to build a food business for so many reasons, and this is the icing on the cake. With this opportunity, we hope to reach a wider audience, build the business and be able to return the love and support that this great city has shown us.”

Auria’s no stranger to stardom – she was on the show “Chopped” last year, appeared on the program “Frankie Cooks” twice this year, and her Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen was named a nominee in the 2014 Martha Steward American Made program. Plus, she’s always a favorite at our neighborhood’s Flatbush Frolic!

She’s especially well known for her hot chilli sambal (you can nab it at the Brooklyn ARTery) — which she was inspired to start making in the U.S. after she moved from Malaysia to New York, and immediately began missing her mom’s sambal.

Explaining to the EDC how Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen got its start, our neighbor said:

It was the dead of winter in NY…and I missed my Mum’s sambal. I called Mum and got a quick refresher on her sambal recipe. It was a typical ‘Mum’ recipe. No weights or measures, no exact method, everything by feel, look, and taste.

So, week after week I’d make a large batch of it, and it never seemed to last long enough. We were putting it on everything: eggs, sandwiches, noodles, bbq, pizza!

After a while, it dawned on me that I would need to make more! I began doing some research and figured out how to scale up the recipe.

Quickly, Auria noticed there wasn’t a single U.S. artisan maker of Malaysian food products, and Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen was born!

To learn more about Auria, you can see a nice Q&A the EDC did with her here, as well as read her blog and follow her on Facebook.

Many congratulations to Auria — and good luck!