Kitchen ka-ching

Thirty minutes or less. That’s how quickly food prepared by Gautam Krishnankutty gets sold out on Instagram (@gonzogarbanzo) every single time. The last time he made his special sichuan chili sauce, it sold out in seven minutes. A common refrain among his followers these days is that ordering food made by him is like playing Fastest Finger First. A known name in Bengaluru’s F&B scene, Krishnankutty entered the home cooking space last July after shuttering down his restaurants, Thulp! and Smoke Co.
“At the time, it was merely a means to pass time but now, post-pandemic, it has become a source of income,” says Krishnankutty who’s main focus is making specialty sauces and pickles. While he started off small, Krishnankutty says that he has had to ramp up the scale of things in the last few months. “Once the pandemic began, I realised that this could be something I could take to the next level,” he says of his venture where all orders are only taken via Instagram DMs and served on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Conosh, a start up in the community/social dining space, has had to rejig its offering since the lockdown began. Set up in 2019 to curate home dining experiences in Bengaluru, Delhi and NCR, the pandemic saw it switching to food deliveries via home chefs. In the last few months, says cofounder Anshumala, the home chef biz has boomed so much that the company has received close to 400 applications from aspirants. “A lot of people who weren’t cooking before are doing it but now they are thinking of selling it and earn,” she says.
The concept of a home chef has been around for aeons. And in a city like Mumbai where you are supported by an efficient dabbawala delivery system, it is a thriving business that cuts across classes. What’s interesting is the glow up the home chef business has received during the pandemic. So, where your trusted homemaker may stick to selling ‘ghar ka khana’, this new community of home chefs serves up dishes from around the world, and does a good job of it.
Food experiments
Anurag Arora, a product designer with Uber, for instance loves cooking authentic Italian fare for his customers. A keen foodie who loves organising pop-ups on his home terrace, the past few months have seen Arora don the home chef apron comfortably. “During the initial days of the lockdown I was cooking a lot and I had followers asking me for the recipes on Instagram (@ anuragarorra). While it was gratifying, I soon saw that people were comfortable with ordering from home chefs, and that’s when I decided to give it a shot,” says Arora who can cook an Agnolotti pasta and wood-fired pizza as well as he can Pakistani punjabi fare. “I am obsessed with research-based cuisines and I like introducing new dishes to people,” says Arora who has done collaborations with chefs and food experience platforms.
“Home chefs are a lot more experimental than commercial chefs. And in this period, we have been able to push them to innovate,” says Somanna Muthanna, founder of event and experiences platform Soul Company citing 14 themed dining experiences they have done so far including an All Pork Special and a curated Sunday Brunch Box. Creative offerings on one side, what has Muthanna and co. surprised is how willing the market is to pay for these good food experiences. With most dishes prepped by home chefs averaging at Rs 300 per portion or more, ordering in isn’t exactly economic. “We have been surprised. We didn’t think we had a market for this price point but I think this is happening because we have an audience who like entertaining themselves through food,” Muthanna says.
Price it right
“I think the business is lucrative if you crack the costing,” is what Anjali Ganapathy has to say about the profitability of being a home chef. Ganapathy started her venture Pigout that focussed on Coorg cuisine and culture in 2012 when the concept of a home chef was practically non-existent.Today, Ganapathy via her Instagram handle @pigout_coorgkitchen serves Coorg specialties beyond the Pandi curry to customers around Bengaluru. “Based on my experience, it is a career path that people can think of but you need to factor in eventualities like will you be ready to step out of your home and into a commercial kitchen if you get large orders,” she says. According to Conosh’s Anshumala, a niggle with Bengaluru’s home chefs is that they are getting their pricing wrong. “Imagine charging Rs 700 for a portion of biryani! Besides being consistent with quality, home chefs need to understand how to get the price right to succeed,” she adds.