STREET FOOD Keep on Truckin'
Four engineers have come together
for a startup that retails food out of a truck and brings street food to where
you are
Those of us who ever lived in a
small town will remember the sonorous sound of metal ladle striking iron
skillet of the local tikki-wallah trying to attract customers. Or the melodious
tinkle of the ice-cream cart bell or the chuski-seller's raucous cry calling
out to buy his wares.
Street food has always been a part
of our culture -even more so in smaller towns such as Ahmedabad, Bhopal,
Lucknow and Indore, where entire mar kets transform nightly into charming food
bazaars and feasts. Even a megapolis such as Mumbai has bhelpuri stalls
mushrooming on Chowpatty.
The equivalent of this in western
societies is the food truck -defined as a large vehicle equipped to cook and
sell food -though a more contemporary definition would be a mobile restaurant
or canteen.
Although food trucks began as a need
-a Texan rancher devised the chuckwagon for his cattleherders for their long
cross-country trails -they have become a gourmet addition to streetfood
staples. And now they are becoming an important part of the Indian landscape,
at a time when innovative concepts in food and dining are disrupting
traditional markets.
From pop-up restaurants, standalone
palate-centric food festivals, chai bars and artisan beer pubs to experimental
molecular cuisine, there is a quiet revolution sweeping the country. So it
isn't as if Nandita Shetty, Rohan Rajgarhia, Ankur Agarwal and Vasanth Kamath
are doing anything that hasn't been done before. Its just that they are doing
it differently.
Idliwiches, Anyone?
The four engineers founded Flavour
Labs as a boutique food and hospitality company, but their focus is food trucks
-designed and custom-fitted with state-of-the-art stainless steel kitchen
equipment. “Building the food truck was a huge challenge in functionality,
practicality, compliance and safety needs,“ says Nandita Shetty.
It was she who conceived the idea of
a food truck during Stanford Ignite, a certificate programme in innovation and
entrepreneurship offered by the Stanford Graduate School of Business in
Bengaluru in 2013.“Food is a passion,“ says Shetty.
Her background is in healthcare,
although she started out as a software engineer in Bengaluru. After a
post-graduate degree in biomedical engineering, she worked as a neuroimaging
researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston before moving back
to India. But it was volunteering with a nonprofit, Pardada Pardadi Educa
tional Society, in rural Uttar Pradesh that was life-altering. In 2012, Shetty
joined a biotech startup as business development manager.
“At Invictus Oncology, I enjoyed
working in a non-scientific role, and being part of a team that was translating
a medical breakthrough into a usable product. But when the opportunity [at
Ignite] came up, I was ready for it. The best part is that two of Flavour Lab's
co-founders are people I met at the programme: Rohan Rajgarhia was a mentor on
our team project and Vasanth Kamath was a team member,“ says Shetty.
The company's first investment was
in a food truck which served a unique cuisine. “Kobri -which means dessicated
coconut -takes its inspiration from south Indian cuisine and fuses it with
global flavours,“ says Shetty. According to their website, Kobri “brings to you
where you are...a `food truck' fun-dining experience“, with introductory
signature dishes like `idliwiches' and dosa wraps. The same truck can transform
to another avatar -Hoppers, for casual comfort food. “We can dress up the truck
any way we want!“ says Shetty.
“Apart from regular lunch services,
we do private, corporate, sporting events and festive celebrations,“ says
Shetty.“This is not a hobby or pet project. We mean business.“ Some of their
events include the Puma Urban Stampede, SERCO Trail-A-Thon, services at the
Heritage Transport museum, business parks and residential complexes.
Last week, they launched their
Facebook page and have planned a public portal.“We are figuring out how to make
use of technology in this space,“ she says. “Once we get the food right, the
process right and build a trusted brand, we will market aggressively,“ she
said.
One Step at a Time
The team's idea was to start small
and evaluate the market response before investing further. “This was our pilot.
Gurgaon was a good place to begin with -our customers understand us. There was
a young, fun aspect to it that worked well here,“ says Shetty. “We are ready
for bigger and better now. We plan to saturate Delhi-NCR first, with 4-5
trucks,“ she said. They already have a base-kitchen located out of Gurgaon that
can service up to three food trucks and are looking for funding in order to
scale up. The company is close to finalising with an angel group but being “a
bit picky. We don't want just money. We want skillsets,“ Shetty said. “After
scaling, franchising the brand will be the way to go.“
“Our food is simple but elevated.
Our differentiator -hygienic, gourmet food at an affordable price. We remove
the location aspect to food, but want to maintain high standards of quality and
consistency,“ she says. All the right noises there. But food is a tricky,
demanding business. And the lack of clear guidelines, laws and licensing rules
for such moving kitchens makes it even more challenging. Hopefully, a founding
team that comprises engineers with backgrounds in hospitality, healthcare,
corporate strategy, analytics, customer service -and affiliations with
Stanford, Cambridge, Harvard and IIT will be able to overcome the difficulties
that such ventures usually face.
Jyoti Pande Lavakare
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ETM5APR15
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