6 epic Covid pandemic turnaround stories from the Indian food industry which could be just the sign that you were looking for.

Read on. Stories of courageous and valiant food ahead.

I have said this before and will say it again that 2020 was the year of the home chef in the world of Indian food in my book. This was the year when newbie solo entrepreneurs looked the Covid pandemic in the eye and cocked a snook at it by chasing their dreams to start their home catering businesses. It takes a lot of courage to do so in such trying times where one was bombarded by news of businesses going astray and job losses and the such. Especially for those with no past experience.

However, I must stress that the challenge for established and successful brands in these Covid time was equally daunting, if not more. It is not easy to give up a proven way of working and completely re-invent oneself. Often starting at ground zero. In this article, I wanted to tell you the story of some who did so. To celebrate their achievements and to find inspiration in the process.

1. Laying all cards on the table: The Table

I recently interviewed Gauri Devidayal for my chat series #foodocracyforher. She and her, husband, Jay Yousuf, are the owners of The Table restaurant in Mumbai’s Colaba. The Table has just completed ten years of its existence and it is fair to say that within these ten years, it has become one of the most talked about restaurants in the city and to many industry watchers, the face of the new restaurant dining-scape of Mumbai.

The Table was one of the first restaurants in Mumbai to shut down when the Covid pandemic reared its ugly head. A statement of the team’s commitment to the safety of both their customers and their staff. They took baby steps to resume operations once things began to ease. They started with deliveries from Mag Street Kitchen (their patisserie brand) and Iktara (opened just before the lockdown & featuring Indian food by chef Amninder Sandhu through delivery), then came popular dishes from The Table and even from Miss T, a restaurant they had shut a while back. They began delivering to Alibagh, where many of Mumbai’s high profile folks had gone to quarantine themselves. “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” as Gauri wryly said in the interview. The Table has recently re-opened for dining.

What pulled them through these tough times, said Gauri, was members of the staff coming together to deliver as one. “Even a non-chef like me would sit at Mag Street Kitchen to help pack the food,” said Gauri. “Jay and I completely backed our chefs and staff and their plans to take on the situation we found ourselves in.”

When I asked her if there was a sense of ‘purpose’ that drove them, Gauri told me that she and Jay had recently come to the realisation that what excited them the most was creating new experiences around the world of food. The opening of the Mag Street Kitchen studio in the desolate lands of Reay Road in 2016, was the first manifestation of this.

I reckon that this spirit ensured that they did not get tied down to the tried and tested way of doing things and were instead able to go back to the drawing board and come up with new ways of taking their business ahead during the pandemic. The latest instance being the launch of their gourmet pizza delivery outfit, Mag St Toppings Pizza.

2. Powered by biryani and pulao. ITC Hotels

‘Reboot’ is the word that chef Manisha Bhasin of the ITC Hotels group used when I asked her about the ITC Hotel group’s ‘biryani and pulao’ offer. A project where they took a collection of biryanis and pulaos from ITC Hotels banquet menus from across the country and offered them in a takeaway and delivery format through their hotels in 6 cities in India. A first ever initiative for the group. With a packaging and pricing model which was far removed from the genteel world of their Dum Pukht restaurants and the Awadhi gosht biryani there, of which I am one of the countless devotees.

“We knew that we had to think differently. The times called for a reboot. We spotted an opportunity in our biryanis and took the delivery route to reach out to customers as footfall in the hotel had stopped because of the lockdown. This was a completely new market which called for innovations in packaging and cooking methods and standardisation across the cities in which the menu is on offer. It was a team effort,” said chef Manisha. “The senior management was committed to making this work.” (paraphrased)

From whatever little I know of how they work, large hotel chains are like battle-ships and are not the most fleet footed when it comes to change and this biryani story was a wonderful example of how hotel chains across the country have embraced change in their own ways to start afresh during the pandemic.

The pandemic also saw examples of successful chef entrepreneurs doing things that they had never done before when faced with a dead end. A bit like a test match campion going back to club cricket to make his way back after losing his place in the team for no fault of his. Three examples come to mind.

3. Of cookies and hot chocolates and all things snug: Pooja Dhingra’s Le 15 India

Pooja Dhingra of Le 15 Patisserie shut her flagship outlet, the Le 15 Cafe at Colaba, soon after the lockdown was imposed. She wrote about how doing so had broken her heart and yet it was a hard business decision that she had to take given the situation she was in. With footfalls ceasing, maintaining a high street retail space was just not tenable.

Pooja took some time off to introspect, to remind herself why she was in this –“to give people joy,” as she subsequently wrote. She assessed her strengths and then used her considerable social media presence to launch a project which she had been working on over the last couple of years. That of taking her Le 15 Patisserie brand into the FMCG format as Le 15 india. A lot of planning, hard work, research and development and soul searching went into it in terms of product and packaging development, building distribution channels and creating a new identity, till she was ready to go to market.

The hurt of having to close the Colaba outlet would have lingered I am sure, but with her hot chocolate mixes and ‘dipkies’ being shipped across the country, the future of brand Le 15 does not depend anymore on what was happening in the southern tip of Mumbai! Pooja had refused to be locked down (metaphorically speaking) redefined her playing ground instead.

4. Fire in the belly: Varun Inamdar’s Mumbai Local Tawa

Then there is chef Varun Inamdar and his lockdown baby, the Mumbai Local Tawa. He is someone who had worked for more than a decade as a chef in the luxury Oberoi Hotels chain. He is now a chocolatier whose products have caught the fancy of the upper echelons of Mumbai’s society and tinsel town. His cooking channels on the internet are incredibly popular. He told me that he had offers to open restaurants in high streets in places such as London and Dubai before the lockdown.

Then came the lockdown and he used the time to cool off at home. That is when he got to know of a small shop near his house in Mumbai’s Mahim, that was there for the taking. Goaded by his well wishers he launched the Mumbai Local Tawa from there. His eatery which offers a melange of dishes that are famous in the bylanes of Mumbai, but backed by high quality standards and very down to earth pricing. He lives in the vicinity of the restaurant and is personally involved in everything that comes out. A tasting that we did of his food bore testimony to that. The stamp of an accomplished chef’s hand was evident in the bold Mumbai flavours that wafted through each dish. The sort of flavours that we missed the most during the lockdown. That of the pulaos and chow and kebabs and bhunas and curries that are typical of street side tava cooking.

Varun did not have to think much when I asked him about what excited him the most about this project which is his first entrepreneurial venture in food. Pat came the reply, “being able to connect with the masses through food delivered home and receiving lots of love in the process.”

5. Kung fu fighting: Vikramjit Roy

Another remarkable ‘top chef pandemic reinvention’ that I came across was that of chef Vikramji Roy.

I have had the fortune of experiencing his beautifully plated, modernistic Asian food first at the Tian at ITC Maurya and then at POH, Mumbai. A few months down the lockdown he, along with his long time colleague Anurodh Somal, opened Hello Panda in Gurugram. A delivery only Asian food place. A bit later they opened Park Street Rolls & Biryani from Delhi, which offered the Kolkata street food dishes and the city of joy’s Chinese fare too. I ordered from both places a few times for my brother and his family in Gurgaon and it made for some rather happy meals.

The food on offer seemed to be in tune with whatever I knew of Vikramjit as a person. Earthy, grounded and built on tradition, with no compromise on quality. Yet, this was a world far removed from the high end and futuristic food that he was known for. How did this transition happen, I wondered, and put the question to Vikramjit. Here’s what I learnt.

It seems that despite being Bengali, Vikramjit had entrepreneurial aspirations. Something rare for our community! That is what made him leave the comfort of luxury hotels to work at POH with Anjan Chatterjee’s Speciality group to understand the business side of the industry and then move to Delhi and work with Ashish Kapoor in enterprises such as Whiskey Samba to understand the liquor side of the business. He then opened the Kimono Club for them, an ingredient focused Japanese restaurant….then came the lockdown.

“To be honest, I was fine being home for a bit. However, I was worried for my boys,” said Vikramjit.

This made Anurodh and him eventually liquidate their respective life savings and take up a space in a mall in Gurgaon and open Hello Panda. He called his staff back and got to work. “I focused on those in my team who were in specific financial distress to give them some support.”

The outfit took off well – “we got lot of emotional support from the Bengalis of Delhi NCR in particular who could not get enough of our pork dishes!”

They made profits in the first month itself, which they ploughed back into the salary of their employees. Entrepreneur Vir Kotak infused funds into the business and the three now have ambitious plans in the food space. The first example of this was Park Street Rolls & Biryani, and there’s a lot more in store.

6. Master Schifu is in your house: Dr Kurush Dalal

The last person I want to speak about is someone who belongs to the ‘cohort’ I belong to in a sense. What can be loosely summed up as the community of ‘content creators’ and story tellers in the food space.

I am talking of the Dr Kurush Dalal. A dear friend and a force of nature, who is an archaeologist and food cultural anthropologist. He is also a caterer who, along with his wife Rhea Mitra Dalal, runs ‘Katy’s Kitchen’. A Parsi catering outfit started by his mother, the late Dr Katy Dalal. Kurush is the go to person for myself and everyone I know who wants to know more about the world of food. He is popularly known as ‘guruji’ among his Insta-followers these days7.

Being a professor, his knowledge dissemination was largely ‘confined’ to academic circles though. He started a food studies course for a larger audience to address this a couple of years back, but the lockdown struck when he was into the second round of it. Conducting physical classes were no longer an option. They had to close the Katy’s Kitchen kitchen too and let go of most of their staff. I remember talking to him the evening he took the decision and could feel his pain. I tried to buck his spirits up through the call, but I knew that this was not easy. Deep in my heart though I knew that he would come out of the career cul de sac that he found himself in.

Emerge he indeed did, like Bheema on the battle-fields of Kurukshetra, knocking every adversity in his way. He and Rhea, along with Radhika of Mythopia, organised the ‘Studying Food Workshops’ online and they have done at least 4 rounds since the lockdown. They have together organised and run some other courses too such as ‘Food & Politics,’ ‘Diaspora food’ and the newest one coming up is called, ‘Studying desi daru.’ He has also done online workshops and lectures with organisations such as Instucen, the Asiatic Society and others. When not doing any of these, he would do Instagram live lectures such as the his very popular ‘A to Z of ingredients series (on its second season now)’.

At any point of the day these days, Kurush can be found in front of his laptop, lecturing. Being the professor that he was born to be. Except that thanks to the lockdown, he was able to connect with students who joined in from far and wide, including overseas!

“I am most thankful for all the things I have learnt post the pandemic and all the students that I have taught. I would never have had as many students in as short a span under non-pandemic conditions. I have also made a lot of friends and helped create a vibrant community of people crazy about food,” said Kurush when I asked him how the experience had been.

Meanwhile, they shifted apartments for a while and Rhea, with the support of Sallu bhai (a Katy’s Kitchen veteran cook and not the matinee idol) and Kurush, launched Katy’s Kitchen in a home chef avatar.

Going back to how Katy Mai had started it all… by doing everything herself. From her own kitchen.

“I do not have it in me to announce weekly menus online yet,” said Rhea, “but I feel fortunate that we have had a catering gig of some form or the other every weekend since we started. I could not ask for more.”

Next course?

Well, this is a story that I have been wanting to write and share with you for long.

Stories of people in the food industry who had reached the pinnacle of success in their careers and were brought back to ground zero by the pandemic. Stories of how they overcame the shock and then got up to start afresh. As much for themselves, as for their employees and suppliers and above all, for us customers. At times by working in a manner that they had not in a long time. At times by leaving their past achievements behind and starting from scratch. Resolute and determined, unhindered by any hang ups or fear.

How wonderful and inspiring is that?

I am sure that there are many more equally gallant stories. Some that come to my mind immediately are those of folks such as Pinky Chandan Dixit of Soam, Kainaz Messman of Theobroma, Aditi Handa of Baker’s Dozen, Anurita Ghoshal of Eight by Anurita Seefah and Karan of Seefah. All of whom (barring Karan of course), I have interviewed for my #foodocracyforher series.

I would like to hear of more such examples from you, for if there is one thing that we all need, it is hope!

Do watch:

Gauri Devidayal on #foodocracyforher