Small wonder

Sudha and Neha Chandranarayanan are 'miniacs'. They sell food made from clay, down to the size of a coin, serving them on fridge magnets and keychains with a side of cuteness, writes Barkha Kumari

If you are a restless person, not many things can make you pause and wonder. But one look at Sudha and Neha Chandranarayanan’s miniature food leaves you transfixed. From the soupiness of the noodles to an air bubble on a bhatura, from shiny mustard seeds and chopped spring greens sprinkled on top of gravies to red chilli powder smattered on chips and raita, from the glazy gulab jamun to the al dente heap of rice — each detail is so life-like that it’s difficult to believe it’s made from air-dry clay, modelling tools and colours and not real vegetables, oil and condiments.

That’s the genius of this mother-daughter duo from Chennai, who make inedible food look adorable by crafting them down to the size of a coin and, at the biggest, your palm, straight out of Gulliver’s Travels, we say! The result is a business of food fridge magnets and keychains.

While 50-year-old Sudha has been making clay art for over a decade, her food miniature became a talking point in 2018. Her daughter Neha, who’s in her second year of computer science engineering, shares, “During my 18th birthday, my mother gave a dosa miniature to my friends in return gifts. They loved it. Next, they wanted my mother to make noodles, pani puri, vada pav and pav bhaji so they could gift them too. The circle of orders started expanding by word-of-mouth and we finally decided to take our business online this February.”

The lockdown did cut their nascent business short but things are back on track.

“We are getting a lot of orders, not just from India but the US, Malaysia and Singapore too, but since my mother and I make everything from our hands, we can’t accept more than 150 orders a month,” the 20-year-old shares the numbers while admitting that she does the “talking business” while her shy mother, who’s a chemistry graduate by education, is the silent designer behind their 100+ tiny food creations. As an afterthought, Neha feels the lockdown has brought people closer to food and helped their sales go up.

Sudha and Neha Chandranarayanan

She is learning the ropes of the business fast as well as the food habits of the people. “A techie from Delhi asked us to make a thali magnet with chapati, rasam, nachos and burger. How weird, I thought! On further talking, I came to know he is a North Indian while his wife is from South India and he wanted the magnet to reflect that.” She’s also learnt that non-veg food is the bae!

“We are vegetarians, so we keep the live food in front of us as a reference while clay modelling. I must say it’s very distracting (laughs). But for non-veg food, we’ve to look up online photographs. So far we’ve done chicken biryani, mutton gravy, fish fry, chicken lollipops and chicken kurma.”

She’s also stoked to clear the bad rep that millennials and Indians staying abroad have gotten. “You’d think they would order junk, modern food for gifting or décor but that’s hardly the case. They want Indian food. Recently, a man in the US ordered 100 dosa fridge magnets as gift aways for his housewarming ceremony,” she illustrates.

But how do Neha and her mum plan to stay ahead in the business as food ‘miniacs’, yes, that’s the word for miniature artists, is catching up. “This food trend is only going to grow, so we need to find our USPs. Ours lies in making series like ‘North Indian Thalis’, ‘South Indian Banana Meals’ and ‘Chaat Edition’. We also make plates of different shapes,” she signs off.