Delicious and Simple - Australian Lamington Cakes

Here is a WOW recipe for impressing your kids or Guests, in just about 5 minutes with some really easy cooking time and method. Simple Ingredients, available at all stores.

So, the Australian Lamington cake gets its name from being a speciality of Australia. Pound cakes coated with chocolate ganache and a good sprinkle of desiccated coconut.

Well, I just cut the method short by buying off the shelf pound cakes from the store. I bought tiny plain pound cakes that will serve off as a quick bite for desserts. Ofcourse, if you are enthusiastic enough, please try out baking a pound cake from scratch, which is quite easy as well.

So here goes my Ingredients list:

1.  A Loaf or pack of ready made store bought pound cake
2. 200 grams of dark unsweetened chocolate
3. A tea spoon of vanilla essence
4. 2 cups of dessicated coconut, dried
5. A cup of heavy cream OR half a cup of condensed milk

In a large saucepan place the dark chocolate, cream and vanilla essence. Place this saucepan on a vessel of boiling water. The bottom of the saucepan must not touch the water. Start whisking the 3 ingredients together till they get into a flowing consistency. Turn off the heat and let cool.

Arrange the pound cakes on a large tray. Coat 3 sides of the cake with the chocolate icing OR ganache. Sprinkle coconut on the chocolate coating. Lamington cake is ready.

Sweet & Spicy Dip/Chinese Sauce

One of my favourite flavors and cuisine is Chinese...I love Asian flavors and especially chinese for the strong Garlic tinge in the food.

Needless to say Chinese dips go very well with Raw salads as well as party starters. Here is one such Asian inspired Chinese dip that can get your party rolling.

Here goes the recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 Tsp Red Chilli flakes
1  Tsp Finely chopped garlic
1 Tsp lemon
1 Tsp Chinese Hot & Sweet Chili Sauce
1 Tbsp Corn Starch
1/2 Tsp Salt
Sugar or honey are desired
1/4 cup water

In a saucepan, bring water, sugar and lemon to a good boil.  Now at chopped garlic, red chilli flakes, salt, Chinese Sauce and mix well. Let the garlic cook well and the flavor blend in. At this time, dissolve the corn starch in 3 tablespoons of water and keep aside. Once garlic has cooked, add the corn starch liquid into the saucepan and keep stirring to desired consistency. Top it up with some good quality vinegar. 

A greek Fava for a glowing Skin!

When I was travelling in Greece, I was not searching for Greek Gods, rather I was searching for Greek goddesses. And I found. Not just one or two, so many of them, so beautiful and such a great complexion.  One of the secrets that they revealed was the consumption of Fava. A Fava is just loads of split yellow peas, cooked and smashed into a fine paste. Usually eaten with Pita breads, with a liberal topping of onions and olive oil.

Here goes the recipe for the Fava, that I made using Indian ingredients:

Ingredients:

A cup of yellow split peas
4 gloves of garlic
Salt
1 tablespoon of vinegar
Pepper as desired
Spring onions - half a cup

In a large pan, boil together, the yellow split peas, garlic and spring onions with a good sprinkle of olive oil. Once boiled nicely, let it to cool. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor along with lemon juice. Serve with raw onions cut finely and a good drizzle of olive oil.

Skordalia - A Greek alternative to Hummus!

When they say Skordalia the greek dip can give Hummus a run for its money, they are not kidding. While Hummus is a more adult version of a dip, I found a new recipe in Skordalia that is perfect for potato lovers and both adults and kids would savour it alike. Potato, garlic and a lime zing are 3 killer combos that I personally love with fritters.

I bumped upon this recipe during my Greece travels, in one of home cooks' house. Here is a recipe that is simple, quick to make and goes so well with Pita OR Spicy Indian snacks to even out the Zing on your tongue.

Ingredients: (for one cup of Skordalia)

1. 2 medium sized Potatoes
2. 4 cloves of garlic
3. 1/2 cup of pure olive oil ( the more authentic the oil is, the closer to home the flavor will be)
3. salt and pepper to taste
5. A tablespoon of lemon juice.
6. A handful of walnuts and almonds

Method:

Boil the potatoes to a point where they can be nicely mashed into a smooth paste. Skordalia has to be really smooth and thin, So please take care to boil a little extra to mash them. Push the potatoes through a sieve or a potato ricer. Crush the garlic along with salt into a smooth paste. Mix the potatoes and garlic paste and add in the lemon juice. Add additional salt and pepper as needed.  Grind walnuts and almonds to a crumble and top up the dip with this. An alternate variation was to grind almonds with the garlic, potatoes paste with generous oil.  I purposefully avoided the use of vinegar, some variations add vinegar during the last stages of the grinding though.

I used a Indian mixer to mix the potatoes and garlic and then added some hot water to make them thin. When serving, add a little bit more olive oil and serve.

Spinach-Pineapple-Pomo smoothie

Ingredients

Spinach - 1/2 Cup
Ginger - A tea spoon, grated
PineApple - 1/2 Cup
Banana - 2
Soaked Oats - 1/2 cup
Dates - 4
Pomogranate seeds - 1 cup
Thick Yogurt chilled - 2 cups

Prepare 3 different layers of thick smoothie by blending seperately:

1. Spinach, Ginger, PineApple & Yogurt
2. Banana, Oats, Dates and Yogurt
3. Pomo seeds, Yogurt and optional Beetroot

In a tall glass, layer each of the smoothie in any combination that you like. Serve chilled.

Churros Pancake with Spicy Chocolate sauce

Here is the Recipe for a guaranteed delicious Pancake:

Ingredients:

For the pancake batter:

1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1.5 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups of milk

In a large bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients - 2 eggs, butter and milk. Set aside. In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and mix them so they uniformly combine. Fold in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and bring it to the consistency of a light batter. NOT RUNNY, but light.

For the Chocolate sauce:

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of chocolate chip cookies
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1 table spoon butter
1.5 table spoon cinnamon powder
1 table spoon cayenne powder

In a medium sized sauce pan, heat water and bring it to boil. Place the chocolate chips on a small vessel container and keep it over the boiling water. The Vessel should be above the water and should not touch it. Melt the chocolate chips, stirring it in high speed, once it is completely melted, add the heavy cream and butter.  Finally add cinnamon and pepper. Mix thoroughly and take off the heat. let it cool.

Prepare the Pancakes. Pour small quantities of batter over butter on a TAWA and cook on both sides till golden crispy and fluffy.

Using a piping bag, drizzle chocolate mix over the pancakes according to your design. Alternately, one can also mix castor sugar and cinnamon and spread over the pancakes before drizzling chocolate.

Host a Lavish Dinner Party at home with Precision and Perfection - The MONICA CHANDLER style!!

Okay so you are planning a party at home. The guest list is big…Like really big. For me any guest list for more than 12 adults is a big list to be cooked at home.  Say you want to really impress them with a lavish spread of entrée, Main and Desserts, then, that needs to be executed with a clear Project Plan with clearly defined Time driven Milestones and a bunch of Helpers. Oh Yes, you need to unleash the Monica Chandler of FRIENDS fame in you! Let me tell you how.

My Menu for a dinner Party for 15 adults was like this:

Menu

4 Starters – Cajun Potatoes, Hummus and Pita Bread, Tandoori Paneer Tikka and Nachos Chips with homemade cheese dip

2 Mains – South Indian Uthappam/Sambar/Chutneys and Spinach-Corn Pulao

2 Desserts – Bread Halwa and Ice cream

The entire event needs to be done in 3 stages.

Planning:

So the first Part is about the Planning. 2 days before the day of the party, you need to finalize the menu and make a complete list of the food items that you will need. I made an excel with Columns Such as this. You know you get the idea. Take a print out of this and go stock up everything from a store that offers all this and also some Drinks a day before.

Cajun Potato	Aloo
	Mayonnese
Cheese DIP	Nachos, Cheese
Hummus/DIP	Hummus, Pita bread
Tandoori Paneer	Paneer
	Olive oil
	Capsicum
	Lemon
	Garlic
	Oil
	Skewer sticks
Uthappam	Dosa batter
Veg Pulao	Spring Onion
	Pudina
Halwa	Butter, Bread
	Milkmaid
	Cream Cheese
	Curd

The second part of the plan is then to decide the number of people you need to help. Here in Bangalore, the maids show a really long face if you will make them work for long hours. So, I decided to time shift with 2 cooks – One for the first half of the cooking AND another one for the second half. This is also a good disaster management plan in case one does not show up. In fact, you will need to book 3 cooks and give them specific time-slots to act like a relay cooking.  The third one is just for contingency. And one helper to do the tables, plates etc.

Execution

Now when it comes to execution, my usual order of preparation goes like this – Desserts, Main, then starters.

If your party starts at 7, and if guests are punctual, then you need to start cooking from 3 p.m.  The first item that I cooked was the bread halwa, at which I am a pro and got it ready the first thing. Then comes the main – Since I am a south Indian, I play to my strengths – As a tambram [Tamil Brahmin], I don’t experiment so much with North Indian Punjabi OR Shahi Paneer style stuff. I stick to my zone.

So the next set started with making sambar, two chutneys and the Green pulao. This took about 1.5 hours of time for my cook who is an expert at this.

By now the time was 5:30. Time to look at the starters.

Now most starters have to be served hot and others started just about when the guests are ready to eat. Hence I divided my starters into two types. Ready to serve & Cook & Serve. The ready to serve were good to go to table as soon as the guests came. This for me were Hummus and Nachos. The long action ones were the paneer tikka and Cajun Potatoes. So I had to get the basic elements ready. By now my first cook was out of the house. Enter the second cook.

 Boil and fry the potatoes and get the Cajun mix done. Marinate paneer and keep them ready in fridge.

By now, the house needs to be clean and the tables/Plates/Napkins, Spoons and fork had to be set. The helper is needed now.

Dinner Time

As soon as considerable number of guests arrive, you need to get the food going. Especially long parties that roll up well into the night require a lot of food, drinks and games. Hence we started with making the cheese dip for the Nachos which is a 5-minute affair. Once this was done, Hummus and Nachos were out.  Then we started with the Paneer Tikka and Dressing up the Cajun mix. This sucked up enough time with guests around. And once all starters were out to the table, my cook made an exit too.

Once you make a great impression with starters, you need to keep the tempo up with your mains. People like Sambar to be hot so it had to be re-heated and served. Finally, when dessert was served, I had to congratulate myself on a project well executed.

But no it does not end here. The worst part of the party is the cleaning up to do post this. 

Now how to clean your house like a Martha Stewart is for my next blog! 

2 minute cheese dip - restaurant style!

So, I am a fan of quick recipes. Anything that takes time and effort is not my forte. So there is this party going on in our house and we ran out of appetizers. I had to make a quick dip for nachos, I found this brilliant recipe on the net and here it goes.

Ingredients

Butter - 4 table spoon
All purpose flour - 4 table spoon
1 cup of whole milk
A block of mozzarella cheese

Method

In a flat bottom pan, melt the butter and add the same amount of flour and mix it well. The flour will show some foams and at that time add milk. Once the flour gets fully absorbed in the milk, grate the cheese block over this. Keep stirring till the whole mixture thickens to the desired consistency. Enjoy with a veggie platter OR chips.

Crispy and easy waffle recipe!

To make waffles the way the actual American grand mothers make, I had to pick up the recipe NOT from famous food blogs, but from personal blogs created by foodie lovers who actually live there and make it every weekend. Authentic recipes are passed along generations and no five star hotel can match this taste.

Recipes are as much about procedure as much about the ingredients and the portions.I picked up this recipe from a very good blog in Pinterest and tried it, sharing the same here.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Milk - 1 and 3/4 cup

Eggs - 2

Baking Powder - 1 tablespoon

Sugar - 2 tablespoons

Butter - 2 tablespoons

Salt - A pinch

Procedure

Beat the 2 eggs separately until really fluffy and light.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg, whisking continuously, followed by the milk and finally, the butter. Mix till all ingredients come together forming a thick batter. Let this rest for 5 minutes.  At the same time, heat the waffle iron coating with a spray of butter or cooking oil. Let the iron heat up for 5 minutes.

Pour the waffle batter onto the iron, spreading it evenly. Follow the instructions as per the manufacturer. The waffle should look crispy golden brown and it is ready to eat.

I found this to be as good as the one with yeast as well. But this one turned out to be just perfect.

Hawaiian style piña colada smoothie!

hey peeps! I am back with a recipe post today after a long time. I just hit upon this really kick-ass Piña colada smoothie! I love pineapples in all forms and it is one of favourite tropical fruits. And this smoothie simply kick started my Sunday on a good high on pineapples.

For this recipe, you can just use pineapples with coconut milk OR add a dash of banana to this mixture if you would prefer. I added bananas and it kind of evened out the strong tangy taste of pineapple, but you could totally do this without the bananas as well.

For this recipe, I made fresh coconut milk and used it with chilling or storing because I feel that refrigerating spoils the taste.

Now here goes the recipe:

IngredientS

- 2 cups of pineapple chunks
- 1 cup of coconut milk
- 1/2 to 1 cup of diced banana
- 2 table spoons of honey OR sugar as needed

Blend all the ingredients together along with ice and serve chilled.

Mud Cake in A Mug!

Well it has been a long time since I posted a recipe. In some random search for easy recipes I hit up on this yummy Mud cake recipe that could be made in a mug.

Recipe:
Approx. Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons of All purpose flour
2 tablespoons of cocoa-powder
6 tablespoons of granulated Sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 tea spoon of salt
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon of vinegar
4 tablespoons of water


Pick a microwave safe mug and grease the sides with enough oil. Put the first 5 ingredients into the mug and mix really well. Make 2 depressions and pour in the vinegar and oil into each of these depressions. Mix thoroughly. Cover the top with water.

Pre-heat Microwave oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Once the corners start to give away from the sides of the cup, remove it and invert the cup upside down onto a plate. The center of the cake remains molten and wet. Delicious and quick mud cake is now ready.

Street food sometimes beats Fine dining restaurants in taste and here is why!

I have paraded many restaurants based on the high five ratings on Zomato and social media. Barring a few good ones that got their due ratings, most other restaurants and outlets had highly over-rated stars. Not only did such visits burnt a big hole in my pocket, they did not leave my tongue wagging for more. I have kind of shunned social media recommendations for dining out and strictly go by what similar minded foodies recommend in blogs OR food sites....

I also find street food OR rather these non fuzzy food outlets with absolutely no spend on digital OR social media marketing attracting more repeat customers. And the taste is also very unique and not easily repeatable...

Here is what I have found as top reasons why street food is more authentic than fine dining restaurants:

1. The Chef and the owners are deep rooted into the cuisine and the Nativity of the place that they represent the food from. They are very passionate about recreating the experience of what they once at from their mother's kitchen. They rely less on technology - and more on actual manual labor and effort in creating the food. Even now in our native, a electrical mixer is avoided and the hand grinder is preferred in making every chutney OR spice varieties.

2. Every native cuisine has a few techniques that are to be adhered to bring out an unique taste. After all, cooking is a culmination of many chemical reactions and missing out one step and doing it later can completely alter the taste. And so with the quantity as well. This is where our local Chefs from the native have some secret, undocumented techniques that they adopt in their day to day cooking. No recipe book OR a culinary degree can teach this essential need in cooking.

3. The sourcing...which is the most important part of cooking. The small vendors have a well connected eco-system of local suppliers which bring them near native ingredients in their cooking combined with almost no refrigeration and freezing of food. This totally brings out the freshness in the food which is completely lost out in fine dining restaurants.

We also see this trend among diners, where the search for best street food continues as fervently as ever. Television Programmes that exactly meet this demand such as Highway On My Plate and Street food around the world rock on TRP ratings and provide us great insights as well. This is what we need to eat - Authentic, Local, Tasty and Affordable Food.

 

Milkshake Madness - Creamy oreo goodness!

Hey there! Its been a while since I blogged and today's blog is about a super simple recipe. I am not the one who cooks intense food. My patience threshold is so poor that whatever I cook has to get done in max 30 minutes. Anything that takes more time ends up looking like anything but food!

That said, making milkshakes [OR for that matter anything sweet - Desserts] is my favorite hobby. My hunt for tasty and quirky milkshakes continues and this time I tried OREO cookies milkshake.
Sooper Simple to make and tasting outright delicious, is this awesome shake!

Here goes the recipe for the milkshake:

Ingredients

1. 6 Oreo cookies chocolate filled. Apart from this, Keep 4-6 cookies for decorations. Keep them crumbled/Powdered OR as it is.

2. 2 cups vanilla ice cream

3. 1 cup of milk

4. Optional  1/2 cup of sugar - I avoided the sugar because Oreo and Vanilla ice cream already had a lot of sugar

5. 4 tablespoons of chocolate sauce

6. 2 spoons Peanut Butter - Optional. Makes the milkshake more creamier and gives it a nutty flavor

6. Sweetened Whipped cream - vanilla flavored

Grind all ingredients in the blender except the whipped cream. Pour into a tall glass till it fills to 3/4th. Above this level, fill with whipped cream. On top of the whipped cream, Place 2 Oreo cookies OR spread crumbled Oreo Cookies on top of the whipped cream. Serve chilled. Enjoy!

Can farm to fork truly succeed in India?

The farm to Fork Concept has been trending for a very long time now. Farm to fork, very simply put, is the concept of producing food consumables that are locally grown, processed, stored and used in food preparation and delivery. The reason this concept has become very popular is because of the number ONE paramter that drives the success of food industry. Food Safety.  Farm to fork implies that the food is locally sourced, garden fresh with no artificial preservatives being added in the process and hence is purest to consume.  Food prepared using this concept is much safer to consume in comparison to food prepared using processed, preserved ingredients that we normally find in restaurants. Because the ingredients are sourced almost everyday and not stored, the food is expensive as well.

Indian metros have seen the greatest surge in eating out patterns in the last 3 years, with an increase of nearly 60% in QSRs and an increase of 30% in fine dining eating out.  Little however is known that, unless a restaurant openly declares otherwise, the use of MSG, Aritifical sweeteners, Synthetic transfats, High fructose corn syrup, food preservatives are all way common ingredients in their food. These, however,  have been declared as the worst food ingredients to consume. Hence it is not only natural but it is a must that we consume Farm to Fork Food.

In USA, one of the greatest success stories of this concept, the Chipotle food chain had to shutdown nearly 30 of its units across USA because of customer complaints of food borne diseases after eating there. If this can happen in a country where the food regulations, food safety and penalty are so high, then what about Indian food chains that promote this concept?

In India, customer sentiments about food safety is quite relaxed - we do not shy away from eating at street vendors that do not follow any safety norms whatsoever. We are more towards taste and prize than we are towards safety.

With this kind of customer preference and with a very lax service providers base in food supply chain, I would say we are far away from Farm To Fork Concept succeeding in India. We need some trendsetters who can establish a successful way of accomplishing this in India. And then we eat raw greens directly. For this we need to work closely with farmers and some genuine food operators. Until then, Vada Pav Should do.
 

Quirkly Milkshake in less than 5 minutes!

I was browsing Pinterest casually today, as I always do to keep in check with food trends and innovative cooking.

I hit upon Milkshakes and Smoothies, which is my all time favorite topic to browse, along with desserts and sweets.

The timing could not have been perfect. I bumped upon some really good milkshake ideas and what was best about picking it from Pinterest was that the decorations and accompaniments made the dessert so tempting and also quirky.

Here is a milkshake that I tried and it tasted absoultey YUM! Enjoy it at your home during this hot Summer!

1. 6 Large Table spoons of Nutella [More nutella if the consistency should be thicker]
2. 6 large Table spoons of Praline Ice-cream [Usually Vanilla ice-cream is suggested, but this is what I had]
3. 4 Cups of Milk
4. A shot of Vodka [Optional]

Blend all the ingredients with a hand blender till the contents become frothy! Serve it Chilled!

Any recipe would end here. But what I learnt is that professional cooks go that extra mile to make what they create more visually appealing and the creativity comes as much in plating [in this case should we call it glassing?!] as much as it goes into making of the food.

So to follow the same, I took a glass and coated the rim with Hersheys chocolate sauce and dipped the rim in some chocolate raisins and the result was fantabulous!

And the best part is this can be done in less than 5 minutes.

QSR Lessons - A few tips to Optimize Costs and generate more Profit!

A restaurant business must run very tight on costs. A typical formula that I follow in splitting the costs Vs Revenue for a ballpark calculation is:

1. Food Costs = 25% of the revenue
2. Salary Costs = Another 25% of the revenue
3. Opex Costs = 25% of the left over revenue
4. Profit = 25% of the rest in a best case scenario. Profit could vary from 15% to 25% depending on the revenue and other variables that may be.

In any scenario, it is very important to keep the cost in control. Unlike other businesses, the more revenue a food business creates, the food costs increase proportionately.  Here are a few tips to keep costs in Control.

1. Do not run your business 24x7:
              One of the important tricks is to observe and identify the lean days and lean periods where customer inflow is so less that the salary costs and OPex are more than the revenue that you make. There is simply no point in keeping your outlet open for just one or two customers. Pick a time in the day where you will be off and also a day in a week where you will be off. This saves a huge amount of OPex and inventory in control.  By limiting your working hours, one also eliminates salary costs by avoiding shift staff and leveraging limited staff for the entire day.

2. Create a Hype - Serve your best Dishes for Limited Hours:
              If you are known in your area for a very unique USP item or Items, then make sure it is available only for a limited period. Two advantages with this approach: 1. You continue to build peak foot fall during those hours and make sure you sell the full stock and cover your costs in this rush 2. You know exactly how much to make and sell, bringing in a lot of predictability into the entire food making process.

3. Avoid middlemen in material Sourcing:

The less the number of players that are involved in the supply chain, the better the profits. Direct from farm is not just a health fad, it is very important to eliminate the greedy sourcing partners who take their cut of profit. This is applicable for every aspect of sourcing that you do on a day to day basis.  Many food businesses, by adopting direct to table policy have been able to pass on the value back to the customers by keeping the cost on the menu very competitive without compromising on quality. This in turn attracts more customers. This is a cycle. Stick to it.

 

Coffee love and the trends that will make us want more!

A coffee is a delight. South Indians like me are very used to a rich filter coffee that is made from coffee powder, custom roasted and combined under our personal supervision at a nearby Coffee Day OR Leo Coffee. For South Indians, a cup of morning Coffee is a ritual that is as sacred and as indispensable as the morning mantras that we chant.

When I first tasted the many coffee variations at Kalmane Coffee in Bangalore, I was swept off my feet. The rich coffee variations of the Mysore kings with cardamom, Cinnamon and other such spice additions were sure a delight to sip up once in a while. I go coffee hunting for multiple South Indian variations. I am generally not a fan of Barista OR Star Bucks where the froth is more and there is more water than Coffee.

Now there is some great news for all Coffee lovers. Restaurant and food trend analysis predict that Quality Coffee at a premium is back as a favorite among customers. Customers do not want just any coffee, but Rich, premium coffee that is custom made with many variations and flavors from many countries such as Ethiopian, Irish, Asian etc. Coffee is now becoming an experience in itself.

If you are looking at opening a QSR serving coffee, this might just be the right time for you.

A few business ideas for a Coffee joint:

1. Curated Coffee: Deliver Curated Coffee beans and Coffee powder online. Craft Coffee is a great business model to follow. Though Cafe coffee day has an online delivery model, the customer base is too huge in India and can definitely accomodate another 10 players in this space if they provide good quality coffee. The online model should let the customer choose the exact ingrediends and beans and create an engaging experience.

2.  Nitro Coffee: Have you heard Nitro Coffee? A super twist to Black coffee lovers, this Nitrogen infused Coffee promises to be a rich and Coffee from a Tap that is served Chilled. This is a rich and hot trend and if offered in QSRs along with some quick food, this will be major consumable for many years.


3. Indian Version of Star Bucks: And I dont mean serving what StarBucks serves in the Americas or the Europe. We want a stylish version of our local Street side Coffee vendor serving "Kaapi". In Indian streets, across Kerala, Tamil nadu and Karnataka we can find a 15 different variations of making coffee either with an Instant powder Or a filter coffee OR a mix of both. I have watched the programme "Food Mad" where they go on a coffee trail to Kerala and find restaurant that serves a 3 layer coffee with decoction, froth and milk on top that brings together a one of its kind coffee taste. Similarly in 
Tamil nadu, coffee is largely made with Buffalo Milk and it is served with    multiple repeated layers of decoction on milk. Kumbakonam Is another famous place for coffee.
Apparently the kings of Mysore in Karanataka were so addicted to rich additions to their home grown beans which Kalmane Coffee serves.

By 2020, coffee Cult will be back and we coffee lovers will neither have it Black or white BUT our favorite Brown Filter Kaapi with Beans imported from Ethiopia!

Cutting right into our sweet tooth are these delicious trends!

 

The Indian foodie loves desserts. Indian tradition has it that we have more than 100 plus distinct sweet variations. Now that is a huge contribution from India to the rest of the world. Our adoption of the western desserts such as Cakes and Cake pops have added to the rich spread of desserts that we so enjoy to have in parties!

And we see some very interesting trends that twist the dessert platter:

 

1. Tea infused Sweet somethings

We have seen Coffee infused desserts and caked, but on the rise is Tea Infusion in desserts. Green Tea ice-cream, Rhubarbs infused with Earl Grey Tea, MatCha Green Donuts, Chamoile Tea Cookies, Chai Chocolate Stables and the list just goes on.

 

 

 

2. Quirky ice creams

Long gone were the days of the Single Scoop plain ice-creams.  We have already seen Stoners and Cream Stones trending well in India with customizable variations added to a plain flavor to create a WOWing ice-cream experience. But what we see here is a change in basic ice-cream flavors. Fruits are entering heavily into the ice-cream where ice-creams are made with the freshest seasonal fruits. Not to forget other flavors such as Pan, Lemon Grass, popcorn, Gulab/Rose into the flavor. Ice creams Just got bigger and more Quirky. Bina’s Homemade Ice-cream in Mumbai is a telling tale of the future Trend in this space.

 

3. Go Hybrid

In Dessert land, Fusion is called as Hybrid.  An interesting trend to watch out for, where ice-creams sandwiched between Donuts and Cookies as a base are making a major headway. What is more delightful is the Donut Cone, where Donut base is used to Fill in a delicious ice cream scoop. Thai fusion has Ice-cream in a Coconut, Ice-cream filled Tacos, Gulab Jamun ice-cream are just the tip if this huge Ice-Cream-Berg.

 

 

4. Sugar and Spice

Well its not all sweet anymore. Customers are beginning to develop a liking for spiking up their sweet somethings with spices and ofcourse Beer, Wine and Vodka. The Margarita cupcake includes lime, tequila, triple sec and fleur de sel. Cinnamon and Ginger are becoming common spices in Cheesecakes, Ice-creams along with Chilli.

Move away Cereals, Quirky Veggie Dishes are becoming mainstream!

Whatever happens in the US or the west soon catches up in India. Usually finds it route to India Via Mumbai and spreads as fast to Bengaluru, the NRI capital of India and from there all over.  The Paleo diet that has become a massive people's movement now in India was popularized by the Americans.  The biggest element of Paleo diet is to avoid Cereeals and dairy and largely thrive on Plants, Fruits, Nuts, Meat etc. No Sugar, Refined Oils and Flour.  This trend has also resulted in the large scale leverage of Vegetables as a base to make noodles, Waffles, Buns etc. Spiralizer has become a big hit Kitchen aid in many restaurants lately. I found a whole lot of recipes when searching for Sprializer dishes:

http://inspiralized.com/2014/05/15/the-best-beginner-recipes-for-the-spiralizer/

Whats more, the food trends of 2016 and beyond predicts the serving of Plant based food variations over cereal/Pulse based creations. I have seen Buns, Rice, Noodles, Tarts being created out of spiralized veggie variations...The pics below of the actual creations are simply mind blowing!

What this spiralizing trend could do to the Indian food industry? Here are some healthy Variations for the diet conscious Indian foodies:

1. Vada Pav - Spiral Vada made from noodles and potato instead of flour
2. Briyani - Ambur Dum briyani might as well get prepared to serve briyani variations made from spiralizers
3. Dosa - A mix of spiralized veggies and a little wheat flour could create a magical healthy variation of the regular dosa
4. Paranthas and Kulchas stuffed with raw veggie variations of Paleo base instead of fried stuffings

Healthy eating is the new normal and the Indian Urban crowd is already avoiding heavily prized and unhealthy eating as a regular habit when it comes to dining outside.  Latching on this, Restaurants are frankly admitting the use of GMO or MSGs in their food and vouching to replace them with fresh farm produces and natural ingredients. Some of them declare the calorie count as part of the menu so the end user know precisely what they put in their mouth. For such restaurants that serve honest and healthy food, this trend among consumers is a breakthrough and a huge opportunity!

Thinking of starting a QSR chain? Have you checklisted these?

Food and Restaurant trends for 2016 reports that more and more people prefer Quick Service restaurants with local flavors, fancy menu at a reasonable prize than a fine dining experience.  The Indian QSR market is expected to touch a whopping 25000 Cr by 2020, surging up with revenues growing at a rate of 25% per year.  Reports say that an average Indian middle class family eats 8 times a month outside is in a Quick Service Restaurant {QSR}! In India we have seen a rapid growth of US origin QSRs such as McD, Burger King, Dominos as well as our own popular ones such as Faasos, Goli Vada pav to name a few.

So what differentiates a QSR from other restaurants? A lot of budding entrepreneurs in the food business have this big dream of running a QSR chain. Here are the top 5 Checklists for a successful QSR Plan

1. A centralized recipe management system: When you dine in a QSR, there is no difference in taste no matter where it is located.  The taste and recipe has to be repeatable in not just 10 or 100 but in 1000s of joints. Standardization and the ability to train towards this is a make or break factor. Find that particular recipe management system that will work for your business, fine tune it, use it.

2. Scalability: The second element to establish is scalability. Can you scale such that you can start and run at the rate of 30-40 new outlets every year? To start 100 outlets with a Powerpoint impressed VC fund is quite simple, but that is just expansion. What one needs to achieve in scalability is growth with profits. This is where very standardized cost and inventory management along with strict practices will play a key role. And this where most QSR fail to show profits.

3. The choices on Location: Can you be so smart about your location choice for about a 100 outlets? Can every single Location be a money spinner? Who is taking that decision for you? And how do you know it is time to close an outlet? As the Boss of your business, you need to have statistics and analytics helping you to measure the ROI of each location and take decisions before they drown the entire business. As a rule of thumb, the poor money makers should not be more than 20% of your total outlets.

4. Less On Menu is High on Profit: Are you having too many lists on your menu?  A QSR menu should  have 5-8 items on the food and Entree menu and around 3-4 on drinks/desserts. Anything more than that will drag your cost down. Even the main dishes should be variations of a single food item. For example, Faaso's differentiates only on the ingredients - it does not deviate from Rolls and serve vada pav. The rule of the game is to stick to just one common base and play around with the rest. Pizza hut literally shot themselves in the foot by launching a briyani which did not gel well with the theme at all. The less menu directly favors your ability to scale and control costs

5. Speed of delivery: Be it in dine eating or door delivery services, QSRs cannot take more than the committed time. Have you computed your delivery times based on the processes that you have established earlier? Can you deliver in that time? What can go wrong and how will you mitigate the risks? Have you found the right logistics, location wise to deliver on time? Enough fleet? Good partners for food delivery? How much is the commission bleeding on delivery? All these have to be factored into your delivery cycle and should translate into customer delight Every time. This makes a big difference in bringing repeat customers to your doorstep.

These 5 elements factored well in a Business Plan along with some good recipe ideas can bring you the much desired VC funding!

 

Food Tech Startups are killing our Food Services Ethics and here's how!

I am all about honest cooking and good Food.  Fresh food made from local produce, made with no preservatives and eaten immediately after cooking. In our family run food business back there in Madurai, we still use wood fire cooking and there are no refrigererators to store left over stuff.  Over 80 years, we have learnt the art of managing our kitchen and food preparation so well that left overs are very less. Almost NIL. The food is absolutely delicious as is.

Eating is nothing less than a wholistic experience

Food is not just about satiating your taste buds and sense of gratification. Food is a wholesome element very closely tied to our health, Body and Mind.  Frozen food, with added preservatives and taste makers is a chemical Bomb. Not good food. On the same lines, a food services owner needs to connect with every customer to bring a great food experience.

Coming from a background that hails these philosphies, I am a big skeptic of technology linking to food. Offlate there has been a lot of hype, enormous funding linked to food technology startups in India.  Starting from FreshMenu, Swiggy, Tiny Owl, , SpoonJoy, Yumist, Bhukkad, Zomato....there has been an explosion of players in the entire food supply and delivery chain between 2014 and 2016.
These startups attract a lot of consumer attention by promising some spectaluar looking food, rated 5 out of 5 by some hand crafted analytics, promising delivery times within 30 minutes at a reasonable prize. There is a considerable leverage of technology to make a consumer believe this to be real. Several first hand narrative of these food delivery business have been a contrast to what these business promise.

 We are losing out on the Core Values of Eating

 But what consumers are losing out, in the name of convenience is:

• A first hand experience of the environment where the food is cooked and served. A good eating experience must also involve visuals of how and where it is cooked not a make believe experience made from websites
• Consuming a considerable amount of added preservatives to artifically maintain the freshness of food
• Consuming a considerable amount of pre-cooked frozen ingredients in the name of exotic menu
• Good restaurants serving authentic food going out of business due to messed up ratings created by technology

The good news, however, is that,  nearly 80% of them are now seeing a downfall, scrambling for money in the already very low margin food business. Delivery Commissions heavily run over the food profit margins resulting in neither the delivery nor the supply chain making the kind of money that is worth the effort. People call it flawed business models, too much competition, but the fact is - THERE IS NOT MUCH MONEY and a lot of compromise in this. 

Stick to the Core Ethics of Food Services

 Till then, a suggestion for all food startups to stand by the 3 ethics of a good food business to flourish without the support of technology or a big spend on marketing:

• Connect directly with your customers. Food is about a personal experience and an emotional connect
• Keep it fresh and real. Do not compromise on food quality by adding chemicals OR preservatives just to enhance taste. The best example is the American Mexican Grill Chipotle. Local Produce, cooked in front of your eyes, Highly prized for all that quality
• Own your business End-to-End. Cutting off from delivery keeps you in a blind spot about what customers actually think and feel about your food. A mistake by Swiggy on poor packaging directly impacts your business but you dont get the feedback. Food business is about continuous feedback and reinveting yourself.

In the end, a few players will continue to be successful and those will be the ones that are Honest and Loyal to their customers.






 

Repeat Customers hold the key to profitability for a food Startup!

For a business to thrive, the number one need is to create a loyal customer base. Customers who will repeat their purchases/visit with your brand. While this is true for any industry, food businesses depend to a very large extend on repeat customers. Studies have found that nearly 45% of  customers that come dining into a Quick Service Restaurant are repeat. This is huge.

Here are a few facts and Tips on customer loyalty:

• An increase in customer retention is directly linked to a reduction in costs. Not only do they bring you business, but also serve as marketing channels through word of mouth and a direct increase in profitability by 25% to 125%
• QSRs lose nearly 25% of our customer base every year because customers relocate, find our competition better than ours or find new eating interests. To gain that same percentage of customers back, we will need to spend a lot of money and effort. In effect losing a loyal customer base directly increases our cost which is an overhead.
• To retain existing customers, it is very important to help your customers go beyond the boundary of just satisfaction and transform this into customer loyalty.  To build that connect it is very important to know your customer base personally well and to create personalized experiences when you are a startup
• Food is tied to people emotionally. A dining/food experience needs to bring out positive emotions such as - special,valued, important, welcomed, heard, Joyful, and respected. Before your food startup becomes too big, ensure that you set in such a culture among your staff that they understand and behave as if each customer is a king/Queen. Customers love the larger than normal life experiences that they go through. Create Such emotional experiences for your customers.
• Stay Connected with your customer through Social Media, Emails, Blogs, Telephone. Social media and digital marketing that use analytics based approach to create personal and custom messages are not just a hype. They are required to keep connected to your customer every day.

Some of the best examples of  QSRs that give these delightlful & personalized experiences are Rajdhani, Stoner Ice Cream, Burger King to name a few.  So if you are a personal baker Or a personal catering service OR a QSR that sells specialized items just make sure you get an emotion ticking for the customer. That is what will set you apart from competition and take you to profitability

An entrepreneur needs to understand these cost aspects of their SMB business

All over the world and predominantly in India, 1 out of every 10 woman is establishing a business that will monetize her unique skills.  A quick sampling reveals that Baking, Craftswork, Event Management, Tailoring and food startups have all got a Female spearheading it.  When a team of men and women are involved in a startup with VC funding, there usually is a Financial Plan and a P/L associated with it. However, when individual women run the business from their home or from a small retail, usually there is not much financial planning and in a few years of incubation the business is either thrown out by a competition or the business runs into a loss. Generally in India, women aspire to do more and more of their business without looking into how the financials are performing.

Here are some tips for budding entrepreneurs to have in mind as they rise:

1. Business Plan. Never start a business without a basic financials in place. It is an absoulte must to have a Costing done and a forecasted best case and worst case scenario of how the sales could go.

2. Costing. The Costing should always involve Cost per each item sold. For instance, if you are selling Cakes, it is absoulte must to account every cost that goes into the making of "A" cake.  Without this excercise, the pricing may not always be accurate. The costing should cover every angle of cost including labor, marketing and other Operational expenses and overheads.

3. Inventory Management An understanding of the way the price of the inventory changes with seasons. Going back to the food business example again, there could be times when the cost of the inventory such as specific fruits, vegetables and other inventory could peak. It is important to make your business flexible to adapt to these changing market conditions and minimize the use of heavily prized items.

The second aspect is stocking up. You could very well be selling items that have a trickle of demand all through the year. OR NOT.  Businesses are very seasonal. A food business sees a great demand in weekends over weekdays. More in Festival seasons Vs Dull seasons. A Craftswork business sees a great demand during specific months of the year. Stocking up a lot of inventory not only uses your retail space but could very well make it an ordeal to preserve them. Be very smart about your inventory and it could cutback on your costs.

4. An idea of Operational Expenses.  The biggest drain on the running of your business is the operational costs. Put in simple words, this could include the eletricity charges, water charges, Gasolene charges, taxes, repairs, rents etc. While CAPex is well planned, OPex needs to be very tightly managed to run a profitable business. Keep a track of every operational expense per day and get an idea of how it changes with changing business conditions. Understand the OPex elements of your business and track it every day.

Not managing these 4 quadrants well is a sure fire way for a business to fail.

A lot of business templates are available for free in many sites. A simple excel that you custom make is also a good place to begin with. Do get use to the idea of Business Planning and Cost management. If you need any help on the basic aspects of planning for your business, I am glad to help. Please write to me.

The future of eating could very well be what these start-ups are selling!

Three start-ups have caught my eye and mind. Rightfully so because If I were to summarize 3 major food trends that will catch up India very soon, if not already, I can very well say this:

1. Indulgence without the sugar OR white Sugar replaced with healthy alternatives.
2. Food in a bottle/Box. Indians will replace large meals with single Box alternatives.
3. The replacement of dairy with products made from Nut milk

These 3 different Food Start-Ups funded outside India that have received major funding for further expansion and are being recognized for their uniqueness speak loudly for these three trends. What are these?

1. OppO - Guilt free Indulgence! - A U.K based ice cream maker that has made a breakthrough in ice creammaking by getting rid of the cream and sugar with Coconut oil and stevia leaf. Their research claims that Coconut oil adds the creamy texture required for ice cream replacing the cream and the stevia leaf replaces the sugar. Very true to their brand image, it compares with the calorie levels of just an apple. This is an amazing trend in the right direction which could let us have an ice cream treat everyday! It is sourced by Crowd funding and has received major funds to grow and expand!

2. Soylent - Free your Body! - A breakthrough drink that is now available only in USA and Canada, Soylent combines Soy proteins, Beets and Algal oil topped with Vitamins and Nutrients carries a great message for us! Which is A full day of Balanced nutrition made in 3 minutes at $3/meal. Whoa, that is one hell of a marketing genius at work there. That aside, it cleary sets in a precedence to drink wholesome One Box meals instead of eating a plate full of food.  The product is created in a very clean factory model and is all set to expand across the world.

3. Kite-Hill - Revolutionary Plant Based food. Now please dont get me all wrong that I am promoting some Farming business here. Though I would love to. Kite-Hill offers one of its kind, almond milk and/or Nut milk based variations to dairy products. Their product lines vary from yummy ricotta/Cheese/Yogurt, Cream Cheese spreads, Cheese cakes and more cheese and also Entrees!!

 

 

I would personally love to see these brands here in India and these trends adopted into our everyday lifestyles.

 

Great changes in food habits are happening and it is worth following!

I am a great fan of food! I watch only food shows on TV, I spend a minimum 30 minutes to one hour everyday reading about food, health, beauty and overall trends in this space!  I avidly read what nutritionists and health gurus eat in a day, what they do and why they are so successful in life.

Needless to say food plays an overall role in one's success in life. The more careful about your diet that you are, the more energy that is there for you to go after your life's dreams. Food can make or break you. One can get away with not excercising but never from bad eating.

Apparently, the food habits are changing to be more aligned with these thoughts and values. My typical eating in a day goes like this:

As soon as I wakeup a glass of warm water with lime and honey. After a gap of about 40 minutes a strong filter coffee with sugar. Then in an hour a bowl of fruits. If I am not having fruits then a smoothie or a vegetable juice. Then in the one hour typical south indian breakfast such as Poha, Dosa, Upma and the likes. All this is done by 8;45 a.m. Then an hour later around 10 a.m a glass of green tea. Then around 12 ish a lunch with vegetables and salads containing about 12 large spoons of rice. Then at snack time a few biscuits, fried peanuts or some such snack. Then around 6:30 dinner with 2 rotis and a vegetable.

I compared this with the notes shared by a nutritionist in one of her columns. It had exactly 4 iteams. A coffee made from almond milk in the morning followed by a veg smoothie for breakfast, a salad for lunch and some meat and veggies for dinner. Snacks had some healthy brownies or nuts and dessert had a dark chocolate unsweetened.

Clearly I was eating too much.  I now consciusly try to reduce the carb and have more fluids, more protein and more meaningful food than just carbs.

This trend could just be the beginning. We indians tend to think of large meals when we eat, while actually half of it would be enough to keep us alive. There is a major trend of having veggies in a smoothie and salads as whole means that is beginning to sneak in Indian households too! It would not be a surprise if a rice based meal or a roti based meal becomes an one time affair in Indian households. A welcome change and a step towards a healthy life and longevity!!  I would say let us be disciplined about food and let us be consistent on that!!