How women are transforming their homes into profitable enterprises
In India, thousands of women have turned their kitchens into businesses to help support their families. Some of them have developed into prosperous full-fledged enterprises. How do cloud kitchens operate, what are the requirements for starting one, and how much money do the women involved make?
Written by Prateek Chakraborty When Sharmi Adhikary gets home from work each Friday in Noida, she immediately starts planning a feast. She stops for a moment, tucks the pallu of her saree, and walks inside the kitchen. Over the next two days, she will be doing pure magic for complete strangers, so she knows she must be well-prepared.
Delicious, genuine Bengali cuisine prepared in the spotless, pleasant kitchen of her 2BHK home on the 18th floor is delivered throughout Noida, Gurgaon and Delhi. Popularity grows as the scents float and spread.
One of the millions of Indian women who have commercialised their kitchen is the freelance lifestyle columnist and social media influencer, age 40. Thanks to the delivery platforms, the cloud kitchen industry, which boomed during the Covid-induced lockdown, has only become greater.
For many housewives, the kitchen serves as their financial hub. They have a loyal client base because to their unique touch in each dish and effective digital ordering mechanisms. The hearty food that once sufficed for a family now nourishes dozens of people yearning for real home cooking.
While some women have part-time jobs to help support their families, others have found success and expanded their businesses to become legitimate businesses.
Meenakshi Arya, 51, from Lucknow, has also turned her passion for cooking into a modest business. She began "Punjabi Kadhai" in the midst of the epidemic.
Food services were initially provided to Covid patients during the lockdown, but today's operation has expanded in breadth and quantity. The lockdown, which saw many firms on the verge of going out of business, helped cloud kitchens.
HOW THE CLOUD KITCHEN WAS BLESSED BY LOCKDOWN
While Meenakshi from Lucknow focuses in paneer lababdar, poha, and upma, Sharmi from Noida specialises in shorshe ilish (mustard hilsa) and kosha mangsho (mutton curry). Their cloud kitchen began at the same time as the Covid shutdown, despite the fact that their recipes were different.
These companies benefited from the forced closure of restaurants and the following shift to home delivery or takeaway. At that time, individuals were hesitant to dine out and occasionally treated themselves to takeaway.
Cloud kitchens, often referred to as ghost kitchens or virtual kitchens, are commercial kitchens where food is prepared and cooked only for delivery.
For Indian women looking to launch their own business in the midst of the pandemic-caused economic slump, these cloud kitchens have proven to be a godsend. It provided them with a stage on which to display their culinary prowess, deliver lucrative dinners, and get around conventional boundaries in the hospitality sector.
Cloud kitchens catered to the culinary preferences of a varied consumer base with essentially no capital investment and operational costs in comparison to brick and mortar eateries. Therefore, Meenakshi's clients seek solace in her home-made aloo paranthas if Sharmi's customers wish to taste her speciality katlar tel jhaal (a type of hot fish dish).
UBER HELPED WITH DELIVERY IN BHOLA
Her husband would go and bring the food when Sharmi had just begun. She now relies on a person who lives close and works for Uber.
Meenakshi had to rely on her husband and children for deliveries at first, but now she utilises the Swiggy Genie or the Porter app.
Shiksha Khandelwal, an Agra-based home cook who distributes her goods in other Indian towns, must, however, rely increasingly on courier services.
Anishka's Kitchen, a highly successful bespoke cloud kitchen established by Shiksha, a former IT worker from Kolkata, delivers hearty, home-cooked meals.
She tried to turn her love of cooking into a business because there weren't many job options in Agra for IT specialists. In addition to the typical vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals, she also sells foods like pickles, murabba, and papad that have a long shelf life. Shiksha has cleverly utilised courier services to send her pickles and papads to locations like Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chandigarh. Her small firm has now developed into a full-fledged operation with a lineup of more than 200 products.
