They're cooking up a storm

By establishing themselves as micro businesses, many talented women chefs across the country are now on a home run, writes Neeta Lal

After servicing the initial orders from friends and neighbours during the lockdown, many talented women home chefs across the country tasted success, literally, and are establishing themselves as micro businesses now. It’s been a fun journey, they say, as they leverage lower overhead costs, the relative ease of working from home along with people’s growing appetite for healthy, home-cooked fare. This business segment is an emerging sector in its own right, say experts, and will grow exponentially in the near and distant future.

Instrumental in the rise of these home chefs are professional delivery brands that are collaborating with them to build their businesses, develop recipes with them, work on standard operating procedures (SOPs) and occasionally pitch in with
funds too.

Conosh, a pan-India, experiential dining platform has given hundreds of home chefs a platform to showcase their food. They organise pop-ups and community dining experiences after vetting the home chefs’ food and giving them feedback. Bengaluru has seen many home chefs come under its umbrella to introduce new dishes and cuisines while sharing their food journey with like-minded people. This professional support is what motivated Conosh protégé and Bengaluru-based home chef Priyanka Jagaty, 34, to launch her business. She says public ignorance about her native Odia food upset her and this is what triggered her entrepreneurial journey. “As an Army child, I traversed across the country with my family. These multicultural experiences made me realise how little people knew about my culture and cuisine. They would talk more about popular cuisines like Punjabi or Rajasthani but never Odia!”

This blurry identity of her food was foundational to Priyanka planning her first-ever Odia pop-up for her friends and colleagues at work last year. “It wasn’t just the food that made everyone sit back in awe but also the knowledge and history behind it. Since the response to my first pop-up was hugely encouraging, I collaborated with professionals to take it to as many people as possible. The success was evident when a pure veg menu curated around Puri’s temple food got sold out as soon as it was announced.”

New Delhi-based Ruchi Mittal, who prided on herself as a baker and ran a food blog called MilesNMeals, decided to build a brand after she saw a new market for home-cooked meals during the lockdown. “Professionally I started cooking about 10 years ago, with workshops in Chennai. But commercially, I saw a major client base formed only during the lockdown,” says the 45-year-old.

Such was the allure of cooking that Mittal gave up her six-year-old medical career to focus on being a home chef. “The flavours from my mom’s kitchen always intrigued me. I would talk to her for hours about food and this curiosity continued even after I earned my medical degree. I began digging up recipes from my mom’s magazines and her food stories. Travelling too, broadened my knowledge which I incorporated in my cuisine,” explains the passionate cook.

Mittal started with Muscovado — her cakery and food factory in Chennai in 2006, where people loved her North Indian food catered to for parties. “Soon it shaped into a successful business that continued even after I returned to Delhi in 2010. I started my blog @milesnmeals where I scripted all the recipes from my travels and my mom’s cookbook. MilesNMeals is now a speciality kitchen where I introduce new cuisines, curate menus, traditional pickles as well as spices.”

According to experts, the brutal economic impact of the pandemic also prompted many home cooks to start commercial kitchens to support themselves. “As customers when we heard their stories, we were drawn to these home chefs and helped them with their businesses. A classic example of this was when we brought Bengaluru-based Saroj Didi’s Kitchen under our wings. We sold out over 100 meals within minutes. While people got to taste her authentic Mangalurean crab curry, Saroj didi could pay off her debts. It was a win-win,” concludes Neha Malik, co-founder, Conosh.

Sharmila Sinha, 60, who takes pride in her “off the grid’ cooking, says she has been a home chef all her life, but turned professional in the last seven years while teaching, writing and organising food pop-ups. She launched ‘Luchee Food’ with a nudge from her daughter-in-law in 2017.

She started doing select home deliveries during the lockdown while sourcing her ingredients from farmers and small growers. “My gastronomic journey began while growing up in Lucknow. During the cold northern winters, we would all sit on peedhas (wooden stools) in the kitchen where Maharaj Ji (our cook) would churn out warm delicacies straight from the clay and coal-fired chullah while summer meals were had in the courtyard,” Sinha recalls.