Wednesday, April 15, 2015

FOODIE SPECIAL .................................. STREET FOOD SPECIAL Keep on Truckin'

 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
ETM5APR15

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