Chew on this; it’s good food for thought. Food satiates hunger and when used entrepreneurially it empowers as experienced by Chitra Krishnan through her catering unit, ‘Food For Thought’, in Journalist Nagar on Pipeline Road.
“Virtually everything comes down to food,” says Chitra, the young CEO. Her tryst with food began after a reversal in life set her in search “literally for a means of survival.”
She began taking small orders for snacks working out of a rented apartment in a high-rise building. Over a few years, as delivery orders and helping hands increased, she moved for additional space to the ground floor of the building. Very often she found herself on the bus ferrying orders, packets of batter, and snacks, delivering them to supermarkets and stores across the city. “I have done all that and more,” she says recounting the time when the going was tough.
Today, with 10 permanent staff and two part-time staff, all women, daily Chitra supplies breakfast to patients of the Government Medical College Hospital in Kalamassery, besides catering orders- snacks, meals- that often run into several thousands resulting in expansion and rebranding. ‘Food For Thought’ reopened with multi-operations. Noticed for having arrived on the scene and for displaying gritty staying power, Chitra is now often sought out to give motivational talks.
“I began all wrong. I had no idea or experience. It was learning on the go,” she says. Chitra quit her teaching job at Vidyodaya School, and while contemplating her next step, met a Canadian couple Robert Bailey and Laura who were in the city to film home style cooking.
With them she began filming the strength of traditional cuisine as prepared in regular households. At the time she already had her fledgling catering unit and this interaction motivated her further. The couple named her “the Martha Stewart of India,” encouraging her to work harder. It was the right push at the time, believes Chitra, till then having moved several rented houses, running home and taking care of family. She contemplated leaving the city and beginning afresh but the food orders kept coming and kept her afloat.
‘Food For Thought’ works on the principle of empowerment of women, something that’s close to Chitra’s heart. She believes firmly in the fact, from her experiences, that a little help, not necessarily financial, is all what one needs to move on. Her own case is an example for others .
From taking orders, as small as five samosas, to now having automated snack producing machines, idli-dosa batter machines, machinery for packaging and freezers, her professional kitchen is set on 11 cents of land. Chitra has enrolled women from nearby who can walk to work. “No hartals, no bus strikes, nothing comes in our way. We open at 5 a.m. Our breakfast service to the hospital, a Rotary Initiative, is ready by 7 a.m. It is the most humbling experience when people queue up for it. We have to reach food to people. The catering unit is our lifeline.”
The kitchen has areas demarcated for catering, for daily breakfast, in-house party orders, office lunches, and snacks orders. Besides the kitchen, the venue has a bright and inviting Meet and Eat area that can accommodate small groups. “It’s a hangout place.”
The Cook and Learn Section is where Chitra holds cookery classes, again with a difference. Clients are encouraged to shop for ingredients along with her, while she takes them to markets teaching them to source the best products. Cooking is completely hands on, and what Chitra stresses on, again a derivative of her life principles, is waste management, reuse, and recycle. “I emphasise on cooking correct portions, never extra, which means less refrigeration, less wastage, and no packing in plastic. These are all taught in the cookery sessions.”
Catering and takeaway is the backbone of the enterprise. It is this that generates money and gives jobs to the women. The local vegetable vendor and corner store are roped in and women who make snacks at home are offered a rack to retail their confections and snacks. “I am just getting that organised, but I want my place to be one which ignites a spark in people looking for direction. I found help thus and I can do so for others,” she says.
Based on that is the Inspire and Empower section of her outfit that she believes to be the most significant. This is where Chitra uses her food network model to motivate others.
A birthday breakfast sponsored by a family had the kids cook and serve patients at the hospital inspiring them; and another, an alumni reunion where friends met up at ‘Food For Thought’ thrilled by the stories of the women working there, who have braved unforeseen circumstances and built a life for themselves and for those dependant on them. “It’s incredible that there are so many good people all around,” says Chitra looking ahead.
A dancer and an artist who put her talent behind to forge a life, Chitra recently got back on stage, grateful to her young teacher who encouraged her to begin afresh. “It’s that - one helping hand touches another,” she says and that’s some food for thought.
