Plain popcorn. Butter popcorn. Caramel popcorn. Sure. We’ve seen it all. After all, the Indian market has come a long way from those little plastic bags of faintly stale, turmeric-stained masala popcorn that used to be a staple at movie theatres. “How about some Nalla Karam, made with Guntur chillies,” smiles restaurateur M. Mahadevan, holding out a generously spiced bowl. Still warm, it’s deliciously grainy, with an addictive spicy kick.
In the background, a team of chefs is rapidly tossing sugar-encrusted popcorn with a lemon chilly powder. Beside them, a fresh batch of corn is popping busily, filling the room with its distinctive steamy buttery scent. Once done, a chef pushes it into a bubbling vat of scalding caramel and stirs gingerly, before tumbling the mixture onto a big tray to harden. Two boys in neat matching uniforms spring into action, stirring the popcorn with big spoons so it cools quickly. Two more stand by with huge airtight plastic tubs, which they rapidly fill as soon as the popcorn is ready. Neat, quiet and earnest, they’re the reason for this venture. Soon to be launched, ‘Eddy’s Popcorn’ is more than just a shrewdly-designed snack. It’s also a project designed to provide jobs, training and funds for the Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu (SPASTN), set in a building adjacent to this kitchen.
Settling down with a tub of still warm, faintly sticky caramel popcorn generously interspersed with crunchy pecans, Mahadevan discusses his ambitious plans for the popcorn unit.
“We need to find jobs for the children once they graduate. It’s hard to find people willing to employ them as they have mental disorders or are autistic. We are creating jobs, finding them tasks that are safe and repetitive, so they can easily do them every day.”
So far, Mahadevan has about 28 of these boys working with him at the restaurants. However, he says, a lot more jobs need to be created and the popcorn project seemed like the best way forward. “I wanted to find something scalable and standardised… This has been planned for about two years,” he says, talking of how the US Trade commission helped with setting up this unit and identifying the chef who taught them the ropes. “Tim Caldwell is fabulous,” says Mahadevan, “He joined Cretors (the company that makes what’s arguably the world’s most popular popcorn machine) as an electrician. Then he started assembling machines. Finally, he launched ‘Pop It Right’ about 20 years ago, and started travelling the world teaching people how to make popcorn.”
It took time for Mahadevan to convince Caldwell to come to India. “He was in China. Then he had to go to Istanbul. We waited for four months for him to come here.” When he finally arrived, he started teaching the boys, and was so charmed by them that he asked to visit the SPASTN School. “He was to be paid $ 5,500 for five days. After spending a day at the school, he came to me and returned the cheque,” says Mahadevan, adding, “And not just that, he’s promised to come back to teach again later this year.” Right now, the boys are “still practising,” while the popcorn project is being fine-tuned. “We’re adjusting recipes, and experimenting with packaging.”
In a few weeks, Mahadevan reckons they’ll be ready to finally unveil the finished product. “It will be stocked at all the Hot Bread and French Loaf restaurants in Chennai first.” That’s 60 venues, just to begin with. And that’s not all. “I’m also sending it to Dubai. We already have space at the petrol pumps there for sandwiches from Hot Breads, so we’ll start stocking our popcorn there as well.” That’s 170 more venues. Which translates to an intimidatingly large amount of popcorn. Mahadevan shrugs, “We can easily supply it. Once the trials are over, popcorn is a science. Caramel, which takes the longest time to make, requires just 12 minutes. We’ll start opening new units, and with each unit, more jobs will be created for SPASTN.”
Back inside the kitchen, the team’s now working on cheese popcorn, and the popper is on full blast, sounding like rain on a tin roof. “We eat popcorn for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” grins chef Nathan, who’s supervising the operations. Mahadevan grabs a handful of sweet popcorn, “I’m still not tired of it,” he chuckles, “And this one is my favourite.”
