Bringing Patriarchy To Its Knees: 3 Women On How They Run Their Cloud Kitchens

A cloud kitchen utilises home or commercial spaces for the purpose of preparing food for delivery or takeout, with no dine-in customers. They enable individuals to start a virtual brand at a minimal cost and pursue their passion for cooking.

These business models have been spoken about a lot since the beginning of the lockdown. But the food delivery business has been growing by leaps and bounds in comparison to the dine-in industry even before the pandemic struck. As most restaurants shut down during the COVID-19 crisis, cloud kitchens have been aiding the industry’s woes by opening up avenues for small business owners. Here are three women who run their own cloud kitchen:

Jayita Sen’s Foodness Gracious

The 52-year-old Jayita Sen was in the corporate world before she started her ownfood business.She lived in Malaysia for 10 years before she decided to shift to Gurgaon with her family.

She had to leave work because she needed a knee replacement, but the doctor urged her it was too soon to get one. She is not immobile, but finds it difficult to walk. In an inopportune time like this, she still was able to find the inspiration to cook.

Even before the pandemic, Sen’s friends encouraged her to cook for them. And after the COVID-19 lockdown when there was no food delivery, she became serious about turning her hobby into a business idea. “During the Delta wave, there were so many deaths which moved me to deliver free food for COVID-19 patients,” she said.

People appreciated her work and asked her to send them special dishes.

Being from East Bengal (now Bangladesh), she made Bangladeshi food and added a dose of Kolkatan and Malaysian cuisine to it. Each weekend she has a new menu, but her favourites such as Kolkata Biryani, Kolkata rolls, and Malay chelo kebabs are must-haves.

“Food comes through the heart, not from recipes. I learned from my next-door neighbours in Malaysia to cook their authentic cuisine. My legs may be weak, but my hands have a magic touch,” she said. Moreover, being a frequent traveller, she picked up cuisines from the different places she visited.

She said that her personality also speaks to her customers. “I especially ask couples if they have children and create kid platters to them with their names on it. For differently-abled children, I ask the colour and consistency they prefer as they are very particular about their tastes.”

Sen believes that the corporate world prepared her for deadlines and the balance she needed to maintain in her own food business. However, it comes with its downsides as people look down upon home chefs and domestic workers. “I have two ladies working for me, Rakhi and Mehbooba who are like sisters. We kick patriarchy on its knees as we earn well. Individuals working at homes, whether a house help or homemakers, deserve a salute.”

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Maya Putatunda’s Maya and Anu Cloud Kitchen

Based out of Delhi, Maya Putatunda’sfood venture began way back in 2004 when she used to do small catering for gatherings of 50 to 60 people. Her children were little and her husband used to travel a lot, which left all the homely duties on her that enabled her to only complete around 10 caterings per year.

After COVID-19 hit, she served her friends dishes throughout the lockdown who later pushed her to pursue it as a regular business. Cooking came to her effortlessly and she specialised in Bengali, Mughlai, Indio-Chinese, and North Indian cuisines. Her egg fried rice, vegetable spring rolls, chicken steamed momos, chilli chicken, kosha mangsho (roasted mutton), Bombay duck fish fry, handi chicken biryani, and laal maas (red mutton) stand out.

Initially when she started her business, her deliveries were not timely. She learned from her mistakes and circulated the menu through social media. She used to only cover East Delhi before, but since then she has expanded it till Gurgaon.

Most of her clients come through word-of-mouth and are appreciative of her non-greasy, made-to-order spice levels, healthy home-cooked food.

Whenever she gets time and less rush in deliveries, she likes to travel and explore cuisines. “Whatever I eat, I talk to the chef and learn something new to add to my list,” she said.

The flexibility of the cloud kitchen enables her to run a boutique from home where she sells silk and handloom sarees, suit pieces, and fine-cotton kurtis.

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Susmita Jana’s Fresh Food Corner

Susmita Jana started her cloud kitchen in 2021, but unlike others she had to discontinue it because her baby was just a few months old when COVID-19 struck. The rules of social distancing and the virus being more infectious for her baby, made her stop deliveries.

Post-COVID, she started a small business where she has started door-to-door delivery with her baby in her society, Lotus Panache in Noida. Instead of keeping a nanny, she is the sole caregiver of her baby.

When her baby is sleeping, she prepares her food with locally-sourced raw materials. And when she is awake, Jana takes her along for food deliveries.

Jana is a classically trained Bharatnatyam dancer, but was forced to stop her dance classes because of her pregnancy. “How would I hold sessions while being a mother of a young child? Parents of students would doubt my capabilities,” she said.

Knowing fully well about his wife’s cooking capabilities as she had completed a cooking course earlier, Jana’s husband encouraged her to start something of her own. Once it kicked off, he took care of the marketing aspect of it.

Jana creates easy-to-make posters from her phone and circulates it in WhatsApp groups. She selects a range of dishes each day from which her clients order their meals. She makes everything from dahi bhalla to chicken biryani.

“I can’t pay someone else to do delivery for me and it is difficult to do it with my child, but I wish to expand my business beyond my society once I get a delivery associate,” she said. At her child’s playschool, the teacher who is fond of her food asks Jana to cater for them, which makes her hopeful of seeing her business grow.

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