When Nicholas Paul set up Prime Deli, Chennai’s first gourmet meat and cheese store, a decade ago, he offered 30 different types of cheese. However, he knew of only three varieties. It took just a week of watching, reading and researching for him to know all about the Dutch gouda, Greek feta, British cheddar, Danish blue cheese, Italian mozzarella and many more that graced the shelves of his store. “I am passionate about everything to do with food; I love to read food, watch food, eat food, cook food, sell and talk food,” grins Nicholas.
His personal and professional interests have taken him across the world to source food. He’s gone to Japan to see where oysters are farmed and harvested, travelled to Chile to see fresh salmon being processed, watched the making of foie gras in France and experienced cheese-making first-hand in Spanish and Italian factories.
Nicholas, though, didn’t always know that his passion for food would fuel his professional plans. When he was fresh out of college, he dabbled in selling appliances and fitness equipment for several years before he turned to food products. In 1998, when people here hadn’t yet heard about herbs like oregano, basil and thyme, he started repackaging them to supply to the then recently-opened pizza outlets, cafes and five-star hotels. The herb business took him to Sri Lanka, where he collaborated with Keells food products and started importing frozen sausages, ham and bacon to cities across India. “Dealing with frozen food was not so easy back in 2000 because India was not prepared with warehousing and logistics. Supermarkets didn’t have enough freezers to store these products, and that’s still a problem,” he says.
In 2009, Nicholas launched his own brand, Tannys, which brought processed meat and seafood into many households in India. Even as he plans to expand this brand and Indianise it to include ready-to-cook products, he’s launched a new venture. The idea stemmed from the many limitations of the physical store — lack of space leading to clutter, insufficient storage facilities, too many brands to accommodate. Nicholas decided to take his business online to capitalise on the e-commerce boom, and has launched coldkart.com, a temperature-controlled online store. “We are going to have everything that goes into a refrigerator, from dosa batter to Australian lamb,” explains Nicholas, adding that he’s backed by his knowledge and experience in the frozen foods business and existing infrastructure.
Delivering the products at the right temperature is the biggest challenge. As the distributors of brands like Haagen-Dazs, London Dairy, Danone Yogurt and McCain Foods, his company, Tan Business Ventures, already has a dozen refrigerated vehicles that deliver from warehouses to supermarkets, hotels and restaurants, which can now deliver directly to individual consumers. “So now, instead of having a customer pick it up from a store, have it melt, take it home and refreeze the product, it is delivered directly at their doorstep at the right temperature.”
The online medium offers many possibilities. Pork and beef, which are often not stocked in local stores, will be easily available. Local brands to exotic foreign ones can be found in a single place, and home chefs, who usually lack avenues to sell their products, will be provided a platform here, along with technical support to package and promote their products. He soon plans to expand and make the online store available in Banaglore, Hyderabad and Cochin, where he already has infrastructural support.
“Ten years ago, customers had many questions about gourmet products and their uses. But now, the well-travelled and tech-savvy consumers demand specific Italian, Moroccan and South American products to use in their kitchen,” says Nicholas. Each home has a master-chef now, and from children to men, everyone has found their way into the kitchen.
Erstwhile exotic products are now common — people stock their pantries with mozzarella because they make pizzas at home, parmesan for pasta, feta to use in salads and mascarpone to make tiramisu.
Nicholas, too, is a big fan of cooking and usually makes a meal every day. “I might make grills, whip up some pasta, make some Thai curry or maybe cook some Chinese.” He usually has friends over each week just so that he can cook them something, though, he chuckles, they worry when they invite him over for a meal, because he likes to tamper with the menu. His passion for food has shaped many innovative ventures, and his retirement plan, whenever that happens, he says, is to open a restaurant to indulge in more cooking.
