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VHey folks,
We are building a premium dessert bar and had hired a food scientist to help develop 7 soft-serve recipes over a 3.5-month period (₹30K/month). The agreement was verbal, backed by an email exchange that outlined the scope and payment terms.
The recipes she submitted ended up being completely off-mark. The base wasn’t stable, the texture was poor, the flavours tasted mass-market (even though we clearly stated we are building a premium brand), and worst of all, the stabiliser-emulsifier blend she recommended had artificial ingredients – when we had clearly asked for clean-label, all-natural inputs.
We didn’t have our machine at the time, so we couldn’t test the recipes properly until recently. During the machine trials, we told her we liked the texture, but also repeatedly flagged that the flavours were underwhelming. It’s only after expert reviews and blind tastings that we realised how substandard the recipes really were.
She also didn’t provide proper SOPs – no clear process guidelines, temperatures, or production instructions which is usually the industry practice.
Unfortunately, we’ve already paid her in full. We’ve asked for a refund, but she’s refusing and not taking accountability.
This whole thing has delayed our launch and cost us critical summer months.
We know we were a bit naive as first-time founders, and maybe should have been more cautious – but now we’re just looking for options.
What can we realistically do here from a legal standpoint (preferably low-cost)? Would sending a legal notice make sense here?
Appreciate any help or perspectives!
Thank you!
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