For 30 years, Kapila Devkota directed Food Safety & Quality Assurance (QA/QC) inside America's largest commercial bakeries and dairy manufacturers in New York. Every day, she formulated mass-market baked goods loaded with refined flours, added sugars, and saturated fats.
Every night, she went home and refused to feed that food to her children instead cooking nutrient-dense, ancestral Nepali meals: Dal, Bhat, Tarkari, and roasted Makai-Bhatmas.
That profound moral dissonance making ultra-processed products for the American masses by day, while relying on ancestral whole foods at night drove her to reject a quiet retirement. At age 60+, she launched Simply Vegan Inc. in New York to bring the scientific brilliance of Nepali food culture to mainstream American shelves, farmers markets, and Whole Foods channels.
In this episode of The Doers Goes to USA, host Anup Ghimire sits down with Certified Food Scientist (CFS) Kapila Devkota to decode the biochemistry of traditional Nepali snacks, what actually causes chronic lifestyle diseases in the Western diet, how the US FDA regulatory moat works, and what it really takes to export Himalayan agriculture to America.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Highlight Teaser
01:47 Introduction: Meeting Kapila Devkota in the USA
02:48 Why Start a Food Brand at Retirement Age?
03:37 The Science of Makai-Bhatmas: Complementary Amino Acids
06:02 Date-Based Sweets: Curing Sugar Cravings Without Added Sugar
09:32 Moving to America 30 Years Ago & Studying Food Science
13:07 The American Fiber Deficit: Why Meat and Burgers Have Zero Fiber
15:52 The Industrial Bakery Experience: Managing Bread Production During COVID
20:17 Sprouted Mung Beans: How Germination Multiplies Nutrient Bioavailability
24:43 Nepali Spices in the US Market: Formulating Timur Chili Oil
28:32 Redefining Success: Why Colonel Sanders Started KFC at 65
30:10 The Great Dissonance: Making Junk Food by Day, Cooking Dal-Bhat by Night
35:08 Supporting Nepali Talent: Sourcing Design and Packaging from Kathmandu
40:02 The Next Frontier: Bringing Authentic Gundruk and Fermented Foods to the US
46:57 The FDA Allergen Rulebook: Milk, Eggs, Wheat, and the New Sesame Mandate
52:17 The "Sugar Trap": Why Ultra-Processed "Fiber Drinks" Are Deceptive
55:37 Walking into Whole Foods 20 Years Ago with HACCP Safety Plans
58:43 Helping Nepali Spice Suppliers Get FDA-Registered
01:03:32 The American Sense of Humor & Closing Reflections
01:07:18 Episode Outro
🎧 Listen on audio platforms: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-99yjy-1b1d982
🎤 Host: Anup Ghimire
Founder of The Doers
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-ghimire-9366aa5a/
🎙️ Guest: Kapila Devkota
Founder & CEO
Simply Vegan Inc
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapila-devkota/
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