With a small dream of serving pure Ghar ka Khana to every individual who doesn’t have the access to homely food on daily basis. Desi Rasoi was started in November 2018 by Tushar Kapoor.
The Idea
Born and brought up in the city of hardcore foodies (Kolkata), Tushar Kapoor a young Punjabi guy and a hardcore foodie himself started his journey into the world of food, with a Tiffin Service/Cloud Kitchen, Desi Rasoi.
Tushar had have the idea of Desi Rasoi while one of his train journeys, where a co passenger shares with him, his experience or I can say his pain of residing in some Paying Guest Accommodation and eating food rich in oil & butter regularly, that made his health suffered alot and landed him to a hospital.
Tushar then realized that this must be the story of lots of people who are staying far away from home, or the ones who doesn’t have time to cook, or doesn\’t have the access to homely food on daily basis.
He made up his mind to set up a cloud kitchen/tiffin service to serve pure homely food to the office goers, the one residing in PGs or are far away from their home, keeping health parameters in priority.
Research challenges
With this small vision, he began experimenting with different cuisines that can be prepared using minimal oil or ghee and can deliver a feeling of Maa ke Haath Ka Khana.
It took him a year to research different cuisines and finally came up with a fact that Marwari/Rajasthani thali is the best and simplest thali that can be served on daily basis, it has got plenty of flavors too good to resist and most importantly, it can be cooked in less ghee or oil. He even decided to hire chefs and cook from the state (Rajasthan) itself, as they can only deliver that exact flavor.
He even decided to serve a complete meal/thali only, at Desi Rasoi. Though challenging to sell just one variety in such a competitive market, but Tushar made it clear that he won\’t compromise with his vision. Vision of providing complete meal of Chapatis, Sabzis, Dal, Rice, Salad, Papad & Pickle. He even decided to keep the cost of the thali as the cheapest one so that everyone can afford it.
Journey
His experiment and research finally fetch him excellent results as from the first day itself he started grabbing orders. From 100 thalis in the very 1st month to 200 thalis (double) in the second month, Desi Rasoi started getting noticed and appreciation.
But surviving in the tough competitive food market with just a single variety was really a tough nut to crack, and Tushar soon started observing this as well.He then thought to create one more variety of thali and termed it Mini Thali specially designed for PGS & Students. This time his experiment again got success and he started receiving bulk orders.
He even set up a marketing team to promote his food among corporate employees/office goers. Since the day of inception, Tushar has decided to make his food/thali reach up to every corner of Kolkata irrespective of the location or distance, and for that he hired a huge team of delivery boys too.
His vision and luck both worked finally & so does his tasty food and his Desi Rasoi has successfully celebrated its 1st Anniversary on November 2019, with inbox full of testimonials of satisfied clients.
Set Backs or hurdles
No mountain is easier to climb. Whoever has said this, has said fact. It wasn\’t an easy journey at all for Tushar Kapoor. Initially he suffered huge losses as the demand of food rich in oil or ghee was pretty more than his simple meal of Roti Sabzi.
Secondly staff retention was quiet tough as everyone from the food industry knows this pain of retaining food delivery staff. He even outsourced his delivery to several delivery groups and even steps out himself sometimes for delivery but always kept client at his priority.
But as we say slow and steady win the race! Gradually people started acknowledging Desi Rasoi and he started receiving bulk orders of minimum 100 thalis per day.
He still has a dream of setting 5 more cloud kitchens in different location of Kolkata under his brand Desi Rasoi.
If it is to be its up to me- Tushar Kapoor.