He was in Bahrain running a successful software company when one day, Rama Krishnan aka Ramki just got fed up. “I had everything…a good office, team and the works, but could not eat what I wanted,” he recalls about that day 20 years ago, “I’d never cooked before and was always dependent on the shops nearby. I craved for something Indian to eat.” And that is how, in Bahrain, about 3,422 km from his home in Chennai, his passion to cook was born.
Like most people abroad at that time, minus the comforts of the Internet and instant-knowledge gathering, Ramki purchased a couple of cookbooks to learn cooking. “It was all very daunting,” he says, “Some had elaborate four-page instructions on how to make sambar . It was time-consuming, confusing and very complicated.”
Cut to 2014. Ramki is now a familiar face in Chennai’s food circuit, having popularised the innovative OPOS (One Pot One Shot) concept and holds the record for cooking a 10-course feast for 500 people under three hours, alone. And yes, he is also the founder of Pizza Republic, among the city’s top pizzeria chains, with 15 branches across India.
After a series of blogs and posts on social media for many years, he released his first book — which is described as the world’s simplest cookbook — recently. “The response has been superb and we’re already printing a second edition that’ll be out soon,” he says.
For the uninitiated, OPOS is a technique designed to eliminate uncertainty from cooking. It strives to use just one pot and cooking is done in one shot. Recipes under this technique are just a list of ingredients that are followed by a two-word cooking method.
“I believe that cuisines are built not on local recipes but on universal themes,” he says matter-of-factly, “Each culture just interprets the theme using local ingredients into local recipes.”
Facebook favourite
Using this technique, which has been made popular in the United by Food group on Facebook, Ramki hopes to make cooking simpler for people who’ve never tried it before. “Even children have tried it out and have cooked something successfully,” he beams, “After that, when they see their mothers struggling in the kitchen in this heat, they wonder why cooking is so difficult!”
Once you learn the technique and cook your own dish, it is very liberating, says Ramki. “Bachelors abroad need not depend on anyone and can save a lot on time too,” he explains, “The feeling that you get when you know that you can feed yourself is very special. It makes you feel powerful that you are in charge of knowing what goes into your stomach.”
That is the same feeling he wants customers to have when they walk into his branches of Pizza Republic, which use the same OPOS technique and cut down on space that you usually associate with a big kitchen. “Our smallest outlet is just 24 sq. ft.,” he says proudly, “The only three major equipment you need to cook anything are a cooker, a blender and a grater. A complete kitchen set can be designed to fit in a laptop bag — that’s all you are ever going to need to cook for yourself for a lifetime.”
Currently a consultant for over 20 institutions and restaurants, Ramki’s rapid rise in the food industry has not happened without its fair share of challenges.
Whenever he posted something ‘controversial’ on the food page, he’d be inundated with comments, some of them downright nasty. Some of the ‘controversies’ he kickstarted on the group include how you can cook keerai in an open vessel, the need to wash rice before cooking it, and waiting for vegetables to soak in sambar and eat it the next day.
At his restaurants, though, there’s no next day business. Thanks to the minimalistic setting, the food is served fresh and nothing is stored for later.
“Manas, one of my cooks, has not cooked or eaten a single pizza in his life but now sells pizzas worth Rs. 10,000 at the Alwarpet outlet,” he says, “There’s no concept of a chef here; you just follow the simple instructions through OPOS and you get the desired result.”
Currently, Ramki’s life is quite chock-a-block as he’s busy setting up Bhojan Express, which will be a chain of restaurants serving South Indian cuisine done the OPOS way. “We will be serving three meals a day there for less than Rs. 100. Can you beat that?”
