From Home Kitchen to Coles: Ballarat Food Startup Makes Middle Eastern Cooking Easy

Exotic Bazaar brings regional innovation and migrant entrepreneurship to supermarket shelves

A Ballarat-based food startup is celebrating a major milestone after Coles picked up its range of Middle Eastern recipe bases for national distribution.

Exotic Bazaar was founded by Gilava Pour, who began recipe testing in her home kitchen with a pot of Persian walnut stew and a vision to make traditional Middle Eastern meals easier to cook at home. The result is a line of 30-minute recipe bases now stocked in selected Coles stores around the country.

Each product, including Persian Walnut Chicken, Moroccan Tagine and Tunisian Shakshuka, is designed to help everyday home cooks recreate rich and authentic flavours using only simple ingredients and no hard-to-find spices. With just vegetables and protein, anyone can prepare a nourishing and culturally inspired meal in under half an hour.

“When I first moved to Australia, I loved cooking for my new friends and colleagues who were curious about the flavours I grew up with. But I noticed how hard it was to recreate those dishes from scratch,” said Pour. “I wanted to make Middle Eastern food something you could enjoy any night of the week, without the stress.”

Made in Victoria with mostly Australian ingredients, Exotic Bazaar represents more than just food. It stands for migrant and female-led entrepreneurship, regional innovation and the belief that meals can be a bridge between cultures.

"This is about more than just food. It is about representation, inclusion and showing that there is space at the Aussie table for flavours from every part of the world," Pour said.

With packaging inspired by the colourful souks of the Middle East and a mission to connect people through food, Exotic Bazaar offers more than just a meal. It is a cultural experience.

Visit exoticbazaar.com.au to learn more