HZ Womenpreneur Awards 2026: Meet Gayathri Mruthyunjaya, Founder Of Henchu, Bringing The Soul Of 'Ghar Ka Khana' To Your Plate

At the HerZindagi Womenpreneur Awards 2026, Gayathri Mruthyunjaya, founder of Bengaluru-based food brand Henchu, took home the top honour in the Food & Beverages category, and if you know her story, it is hard to imagine a more deserving winner. What she has built is not just a food business. It is a community, a platform, and a quiet movement to bring authentic Indian home cooking back to the spotlight.

From One Kitchen To A Culinary Community

Named after the Kannada word for traditional cooking surfaces, Henchu was born from a simple but powerful belief, that the best food in the world is made at home. What started as a home kitchen experiment grew into a full-fledged food experience at Science Gallery Bengaluru. Today, Henchu operates a 24,000 sq ft Banquet Hall and Auditorium in Malleshwaram, runs a café and a collaborative food truck, and serves everything from daily rotating menus to curated event catering.

The concept is refreshingly different. Henchu's food truck is run by different mothers, each one bringing her own signature dishes, family recipes, and stories to the counter. The menu changes daily, which means customers always have something new to look forward to, much like eating at a friend's mother's house.

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What Makes Henchu Different

In a food industry dominated by cloud kitchens and quick-service chains, Henchu is deliberately doing the opposite. There are no shortcuts, no mass-produced flavours, and no standardised recipe cards designed in a corporate office.

"Every dish carries the soul of a home kitchen, made with genuine recipes, fresh ingredients, and flavours that actually remind you of home," says Gayathri. "We treat every customer like a guest at our own table."

The brand runs daily rotating menus at its café and food truck, offers thoughtfully curated catering for events and corporate clients, sells artisanal food products, and most distinctively, provides a platform for talented homemakers to showcase their culinary skills and earn a legitimate income from it.

Empowering The Women Behind The Stove

Perhaps the most compelling part of Henchu's story is not what it sells, but who it uplifts. Gayathri built Henchu with homemakers at its core, women who have spent years perfecting recipes that rarely get the recognition they deserve.

Through Henchu's homemaker collaboration model, these women earn income, gain visibility, and get to share their family recipes with an audience that genuinely values them. It is a quiet revolution happening one meal at a time.

Gayathri's vision for Henchu is bold but grounded. Over the next three years, she plans to expand café operations across Bengaluru, open cloud kitchen hubs for delivery, and eventually franchise the Henchu model to other cities, all while keeping its homegrown identity intact.

Beyond metros, she has her sights set on the global Indian diaspora, people living abroad who miss the taste of real Indian home food. On the business side, Henchu is building multiple revenue streams: café and food truck sales, corporate and wedding catering, artisanal product sales through both online and offline channels, and branded gifting hampers.

The most ambitious goal? Onboarding 500 homemakers across India within five years. "Henchu isn't just a food brand. It's a movement, and we're just getting started," says Gayathri.

Winning the HerZindagi Womenpreneur Award 2026 in the Food & Beverages category is a fitting recognition for a founder who chose purpose over shortcuts. Henchu is currently bootstrapped, operating at break-even, and steadily building the kind of loyal customer base that no marketing budget can manufacture, one home-cooked meal at a time.

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Image Courtesy: Instagram/Henchu.life