How The Pandemic Struck Businesses Of Women Home Chefs In India
Most food businesses took a huge hit once the COVID-19 pandemic started tearing through India. Several popular home chefs, with no institutional or financial backing, found their resilience tested in unprecedented ways. By April, most of them knew that with social gatherings out of question for a long time, they may not be able to host pop-ups nor will they receive catering orders like before. Survival thus, became a challenge.
While the first two months were spent in anxiety, anticipating the return to normalcy, most of these food entrepreneurs were ready with an alternate plan by the time the first relaxation of norms was announced. Many had utilised the time at hand to reconsider their strategies and reinvent their image. Those who have been able to pivot quickly and creatively have, in fact, found themselves doing better than before. Several others have used this period as one of self-reflection and realigning of priorities, choosing to take a break.
Here, we speak to some of the most popular home chefs across cities to find out how they have adapted to the “new normal”.
GITIKA’S PAKGHOR
In March, with the spring festival of Bihu a few weeks away, Gitika Saikia had several pop-ups planned across Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. For the authentic Tribal Assamese meal experience, she had procured a variety of local ingredients, such as red ant eggs, silkworm pupae, elephant apple, jackfruit seeds, among other items. So when the lockdown was announced mid-March and the home delivery meal orders and pop-ups were called off, Gitika found herself sitting on a stockpile of perishable ingredients in Mumbai and those collected by her folks in Assam.
“Both my parents and in-laws have farms back in Assam, which are the primary sources for the ingredients I use in my meals. The rest of it is procured from the local market, which they then send to me via air,” says the Mumbai-based home chef as she recollects the ingredients that eventually had to be disposed...
