Mayuri is a home chef in sector 21, Noida, who braved a lot of hardship during Covid when she was forced to close her boutique and start her journey as a home chef. During this time, professionals working from home lost their jobs. However, it proved to be a blessing in disguise for many. Few discovered their hidden talent and few explored their passion.
Mayuri, who was a boutique owner also suffered financial crisis during lockdown as business was nil. She had a passion for cooking, so began exploring the option and started with home cooked savories like mathi, namak paare, tea cakes, pickles and a little later, it was tiffin. She said, her food was really praised by the customers, and that was the start of her story as a home cook.
Over a period of time, volume of ingredients changed from grams to kilograms. Initially, for her it was not easy to handle spices while adding in food and she was a little scared. “I was a little scared and hesitant if the quantity was appropriate to make the dish tasty, but somehow it turned out”.
Life took 360° turn and made me a HOME CHEF from being a designer. Since then I ve been serving food to many and also added a catering menu which caters to small parties, get-togethers etc. (Vegetarian & Non- vegetarian)
Initially we started serving three meals a day i.e. lunch, evening snack and dinner.
Now it’s just one meal—lunch, as she is all alone and have to serve tea to some corporate.
Market Growth
About market growth Mayuri said that people now prefer to buy from a home chef due to hygiene, quality ingredients, less oil and also possibility of customising your food. She said the home food market is growing due to increase in number of people who prefer to indulge in healthy eating.
Delivery and Pricing
It is mostly through third party now though initially she used to do it on her own. Mayuri says, when orders were less, it was easy to distribute on one’s own, but with increase in orders, a delivery man has been hired who goes from home to home. As for pricing, she has kept the prices affordable as is catering to the middle class. She buys from Blinkit with no compromise on the quality. She expects a 30% margins on her prices and in bulk orders, the margin could even be 50%. Non-vegetarian could even give you a better margin than a vegetarian.
Marketing
Marketing models could be through the word of the mouth, WhatsApp group of the sector or through the Instagram.
As a last word, Mayuri says that from here she would like to start a cloud kitchen and later a café or a restaurant.
