3 Indian food entrepreneurs on how to set up a successful business
Kainaz Messman Harchandrai of Theobroma
Aspiring to set up your own food business? Take your tips from The Bohri Kitchen’s Munaf Kapadia, Swati Snacks’ Asha Jhaveri and Theobroma’s Kainaz Messman Harchandrai
A lot of successful food business stories have their origins in the backyard, or more accurately, in home kitchens. A former marketing consultant at Google who went on to found The Bohri Kitchen, Munaf Kapadia; a woman who was terrible at mathematics but now runs Swati Snacks, Asha Jhaveri; and an ex-pastry chef at The Oberoi, who gave up her dream job because of a crippling back injury and started Theobroma, Kainaz Messman Harchandrai, come together to reveal their secret sauce to making it big in India’s culinary landscape. Scroll ahead to know more about their success stories, and their best tips for aspiring food entrepreneurs.
Munaf Kapadia of The Bohri Kitchen
Munaf Kapadia, the 31-year-old founder of The Bohri Kitchen, conceived the idea for his big break when he started inviting friends and family over for a taste of his native Dawoodi Bohri community’s food. The idea sprang up as a panacea for his regular fights with his mom over the television remote, as the latter yearned to watch saas-bahu sitcoms to fill up her free time. Kapadia seized this moment to not only leverage his mom’s talent as a chef, but also to fulfil his lifelong dream of popularising his community’s exquisite cuisine. He started organising small eating parties on Facebook to feast on the ‘thaal’, a large steel plate offering the diverse dishes of the Dawoodi Bohri community. On the plate are a namak dani (salt container), kharaas (savoury appetisers), meethas (desserts—which are interestingly eaten in between courses), pre-jaman and jaman (main course), followed by paan, and accompanied by a wide variety of condiments. To say that this is a four-course meal would be an understatement; it’s better described as a culinary rollercoaster.
Despite the growing popularity of his brand, things took a downturn for Kapadia in 2016, when the entrepreneur went bankrupt just two years into starting his venture. “I was in the process of applying to jobs and shutting down The Bohri Kitchen when I received a call from Forbes, saying that they want to feature me on their 30 Under 30 List. The lady on the other end told me something that got me through those times. She told me that I wasn’t chosen for the cover because of my net worth, but because of the perceived social impact I’ve created; the way people are talking about Bohri food because of how I’ve disrupted the space. And for Forbes, that was more valuable than how much money I made. They told me that there's a very good chance for me to fail like any entrepreneur; but if I do succeed, I’ll end up doing something revolutionary. They wanted to call dibs on that,” Kapadia explained.
For Kapadia, money is an essential ingredient to keep the business running, but hardly a measure of success. “Because of The Bohri Kitchen, today, I have access to politicians, CEOs, institutions and what not. I have also become the secretary of the Colaba Residents Association. If I’m even able to make a dent in society through my role there, that to me is success. It’s achieving a positive impact at scale.”
Asha Jhaveri of Swati Snacks
Another serial entrepreneur who started out with building on her mom’s recipes and 35 years later, has a globally renowned brand, is Asha Jhaveri, founder of the heritage mom-and-pop-style restaurant, Swati Snacks. What started as seven-to-eight chaat items by her mom fifty years ago is now a household name renowned for it’s home-style, fuss-free Indian dishes, in particular the Panki—savoury ice flour pancakes steamed in banana leaves. Today, this go-to restaurant in Mumbai plays with Gujarati, Marwari and Maharashtrian cuisines for its menu. The Dahi Batata Puri; Fada Ni Khichdi (porridge made from broken wheat); and Srikhand, Bedai Roti (a kind of puri) and Aloo Shak come highly recommended.
When she started out, mathematics and accounts were Jhaveri's demons. Over a Dahi Batata Puri at Swati Snacks, her son-in-law, Karan Shah, explained how, back in the day, her churn rate at the customer billing counter balance was so slow that her staff used to get impatient and frustrated. Today, Jhaveri feels fortunate enough to be able to delegate all the departments to her trustworthy team, while she solely focuses on tasting and innovating the food.
Consistency in food quality is probably the single most important indicator of success for Asha Jhaveri, whose restaurant’s loyal fan base is unparalleled. Her devoted customers are attached to their favourite comfort dishes and expect a certain taste when they visit Swati Snacks. “You’d be really surprised. If one day something is a little off, for instance if the puri is a little fatter than usual, we get complaints immediately. This gives us more onus to make sure that before the food reaches the table, it tastes exactly the same. It’s a good and bad thing to have a reputation,” said Shah. Did you know that since the past 35 years, Jhaveri has been tasting the food prepared by her chefs herself to ensure consistency?
Kainaz Messman Harchandrai of Theobroma
When 23-year-old Kainaz Messman Harchandrai was at the peak of her career as a pastry chef for The Oberoi, she was diagnosed with a back injury that changed her life, leaving her unable to work a chef’s maddening hours and constantly bend over her work. What started out as a sweet gesture for a pregnant lady in her apartment building, went on to become the name that many around the country now associate with dessert, Theobrama. The brand popularised brownies in India, which were only considered as a Western dessert earlier. Theobroma now has outlets across Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, and Messman Harchandrai is all set to inspire existing and aspiring entrepreneurs around the world with her upcoming autobiography, Baking a Dream, co-authored by her sister, Tina Messman Wykes.
When Messman Harchandrai informed her employers at The Oberoi of her back injury, they offered her a parallel position in a managerial role. After some introspection, she realised that she couldn’t imagine doing anything but cooking. “It just wasn’t acceptable to me that I wasn’t cooking. So I had to find an answer that was acceptable, which meant starting my own neighbourhood cafe,” she explained. Messman Harchandrai’s tragic experience led to her to pay extra care to health and safety procedures for her team members at Theobroma, whether it be the temperatures they work in or the personal hygiene they’re expected to maintain. She added, “I couldn’t be happier that we’re on this journey to install proper systems and procedures for health and safety, because I don’t want anyone else to have a bad back and say, ‘when I was at Theobroma, I messed up my back.’”
Asked about how she measures success, Messman Harchandrai said she doesn’t think she’s in the business for food, but that of happiness. “I have never chased after success, and I do not quantify it. My aim is to make everyone around me happy through food. That includes my family, my guests, my employees, and all my stakeholders. I do not think I can ever say I am successful; it is a journey and I’m asking myself the same question everyday: ‘how many people have I made happy today?’”
Want to make it big in the food industry? Follow these tips:
Do it for the journey, not the destination
Asked about his upcoming autobiography, The Guy Who Quit Google to Sell Samosas, commissioned by Harper Collins, Munaf Kapadia said that he honestly isn’t sure how many copies will sell, but is thrilled at the experience of writing an autobiography nonetheless. And it’s the same attitude he wants you to adopt towards an entrepreneurial undertaking. “Don’t do it because you want to open a 100 outlets or become the next Riyaz Amlani. Do it for the fact that it is very exciting to feed your first ten customers and your next hundred customers. You’re very excited to go in the kitchen and innovate on dishes and recipes. You’re curious about what happens when you call people and ask them for feedback. You’re very intrigued about how you handle a P&L for a delivery kitchen or a restaurant. You’re curious about hiring people and dealing with their tantrums. Do it because you’re very, very excited about building a brand, not a successful restaurant. Look forward to these individual milestones,” he advises.
Always be true to your business
Messman Harchandrai explains that a lot of people believe, much like she did in her initial days, that opening one’s business means setting their own hours, having flexibility, taking time off for vacations whenever you want, and not working as hard as an employed professional. “The truth is you'll work much harder than you ever did when it’s your own business. When you’re working for someone else, you have to do just that job. But when you’re working for yourself, you have to do everything—at least till you can afford to get good help,” says Messman Harchandrai.
Be consistent and focus on the food
“Even if you’re consistently bad, but you have a market for a bad pizza, it works. But if you suddenly become a good pizza, you’re going to lose that market. So, be consistent and maintain the quality of your food,” advises Shah.
