{"id":10003,"date":"2020-07-24T18:51:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T13:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.22.110.190\/english\/?p=10003"},"modified":"2020-07-30T17:06:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:36:32","slug":"home-chefs-weekend-menu-are-big-hits-during-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/home-chefs-weekend-menu-are-big-hits-during-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Home chefs & weekend menu are big hits during COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

If eating healthy, nutritious home food has been the one constantly good thing about the COVID-19 situation, it has led to another good thing \u2013 the increasing popularity of home chefs and weekend menus. If one is either tired of cooking or eating home-cooked food, the next best alternative has been ordering food cooked by home chefs.<\/p>\n

Rohitashwa Guha, a software engineer from Bangalore \u2013 currently working from his Kolkata home due to the lockdown \u2013 has always been passionate about food and cooking. Encouraged by friends and family, he decided to take it up beyond hobby during the pandemic when few people are venturing out to eat at restaurants.<\/p>\n

He prepared a menu which had, among other dishes loitya shutki jhuro <\/em>(spicy, dried Bombay duck), kucho chingri bata <\/em>(shrimp paste), kancha holud aar gondho lebu mangsho<\/em> (meat cooked in tamarind and kaffir lime sauce). His weekend menu was an instant hit, and people wanted to buy more from his kitchen.<\/p>\n

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Cooked by Rohitashwa Guha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Food blogger and banker, Debjani Chatterjee Alam, who also runs her home delivery service Direct From Debjanir Rannaghar<\/em> \u2013 has a rich experience in the field. She has collaborated with restaurants and has been doing regular pop-ups and home delivery since 2018.<\/p>\n

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Debjani Chatterjee Alam in her kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rohitashwa and Debjani are both doing regular weekend pop-ups these days \u2013 like many others \u2013 who are preparing dishes that are pre-booked mostly through their personal and official social media pages and through word of mouth.
\nThe home chefs are relying on food delivery apps, delivery apps and pick-up by customers who are ordering their food. Home chefs and weekend menus are doing increasingly well in the pandemic situation, where big restaurants and five star hotels have suffered major setback. Many restaurants across the country have been either shut down or have moved to the cloud kitchen model and are struggling to make ends meet by paying huge infrastructure costs and not getting enough customers as before.<\/p>\n

The most important reason home chefs are doing increasingly well is the scale of production, and what they are choosing for the menu. Home chefs are mostly preparing weekend menus on pre-booking. A specific quantity is prepared and this avoids wastage and consequent losses. Many are cooking traditional home food \u2013 from various regions, including Bengal \u2013 that used to be frequently cooked among their parents and grandparents\u2019 generations, but what the young ones are unable to cook.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how something like loitya shutki jhuro <\/em>(spicy, dried Bombay duck) and chorbir bora<\/em> (fat fritters) or niramish mangsho<\/em> (meat cooked without onion and garlic), lau patay chingri<\/em> (prawns cooked in mustard sauce in bottle gourd leaves) are being lapped up so quickly by the food enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Overall, it is a winning model for those who are doing it just for fun and for those running it as a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI post menu on my social media page for the weekend and close the orders a few days ahead. For each item, I usually do not take orders for more than 20 portions,\u201d said Debjani.<\/p>\n

Manzilat Fatima is an experienced chef, and many are familiar with her pop up restaurant, Manzilat<\/em> which functions from Kasba. She is a descendent of Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh and her food bears the rich heritage of Awadh and its royal family. Manzilat<\/em>\u2019s kebabs, biryanis, parathas and halwas are renowned. After organising many food events in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, she had launched Manzilat<\/em> in 2014. \u201cMy takeaway was open during the lockdown, and the response was unexpectedly good since people know I cook everything on my own.\u201d Weekends in the food business are always busier days and her food during the weekends continues to be a special attraction.<\/p>\n

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Biryani from Manzilat Fatima\u2019s kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it comes to safety, people have the perception that cooking by home chefs have an edge above food cooked in restaurant kitchens. This is yet another reason the food prepared by home chefs is becoming so popular now. \u201cPeople are still ordering less food from outside due to the pandemic situation, and therefore I make it a point to ensure strictest safety measures,\u201d Debjani said.<\/p>\n

There are many home chefs across the city who have made a name for themselves in the past few months. \u201cI am very passionate about cooking and used to keep posting my recipes on social media. The encouragement of my friends and family helped me turn into a professional home chef.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From the kitchen of Debjani Chatterjee Alam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Madhushree Basu Roy and Anindya Sundar Basu, owners of pop up and home delivery with the brand name Fab Kitchen by Madhushree<\/em> started their journey from February 2020, and have received great response in the past few months. \u201cMy friends and neighbours encouraged me to start the initiative. Earlier it was limited within my neighbourhood and a few kilometres beyond that, but now we are able to reach our food throughout Kolkata,\u201d said Madhushree.<\/p>\n

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Madhushree Basu Roy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Social media has helped home chefs reach many and reviews and encouragement in the public forum also brings new customers. Sreeparna Basu and Reema Basu \u2013 both boutique owners and home chefs from Kankurgachi \u2013 launched their brand Happy Sunday Meals<\/em> during the pandemic. They say they are consciously keeping the menu affordable as the pandemic has hit people\u2019s businesses badly. \u201cWe are not compromising with quality and quantity, but we know that the price should not be too high,\u201d explained Sreeparna.<\/p>\n

A whole lot of variety is available with the home chefs. Madhushree focuses on Sri Lankan, Goan, South-East Asian cuisine as well as baked products. Reema says that she loves to \u201ccreate quality fusion food\u201d. Rohitashwa wants to continue experimenting with authentic Bengali food and Debjani loves to cook fusion Bengali and specialities in Bengali Muslim and Anglo-Indian cuisine.<\/p>\n

A regular change of menu and making set menu is also an advantage that works in favour of the home chefs. \u201cIf you like my food, it is not necessary that you will go on buying if the menu remains the same. But if the menu changes, then a customer will keep buying,\u201d said Debjani.<\/p>\n

Just like the variety one looks forward to in the home food menu!<\/p>\n

[Cover photograph from left to right:\u00a0Anindya Sundar Basu, Manzilat Fatima,\u00a0Rohitashwa Guha and\u00a0Debjani Chatterjee Alam]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home chefs are making a mark during the pandemic when big restaurants and five star hotels are running losses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":10004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,17],"tags":[383,378,246,346,282,371,330,102],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editors-choice","8":"category-food","9":"tag-buffer-zones","10":"tag-containment-zones","11":"tag-coronavirus-in-india","12":"tag-coronavirus-in-kolkata","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-lockdown-in-india","15":"tag-street-food","16":"tag-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10003"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=10003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}