If food is an expression of love, a food business is, at its heart, a love story. And these women are proof that love has no bar.
For most people, the twilight years of life are meant to relax, put one’s feet up, and enjoy one’s remaining years. They’re hardly a time for the hustle and daily grind of setting up a whole new business. But these women are not most people. At 68, 77, even 90 years old, they set up food businesses that have become the talk of India. Their motivations may differ – for some, a lockdown activity, for others, a lifelong regret of never having earned their own money. But all of them have one thing in common – drive, talent, and a real love for food and feeding people. If food is an expression of love, a food business is, at its heart, a love story. And these women are proof that love has no bar. This Mothers’ Day, we bring you the stories of these women who inspire with their empires.
Urmila Asher, Gujju Ben Na Nasta
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“A hustler all her life” is how her grandson and business partner Harsh describes Urmila Asher, the talent behind Mumbai-based Gujju Ben Na Nasta, which, as the name describes, offers a range of Gujarati snacks. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, the 77-year-old who lives in a chawl in Mumbai and used to be a cook for NRI families in London and the US, began to make pickles just for the family. But what began as a lockdown activity has now turned into a full-fledged business, complete with a retail store, a cloud kitchen, a YouTube channel with more than 26K subscribers, and travelling to deliver TEDx talks.
During the lockdown, Harsh, who’d had to close down his luxury bike rental and corporate gifting businesses, noticed his grandma’s tenacity and keenness to stay active in the kitchen, and, given the wave of home-cooking enterprises that marked the first lockdown, he smelt a business opportunity. He asked her if she’d like to turn it into a business, and sent out a WhatsApp message blast about homemade pickles for sale. Within 20-25 days, the duo had sold almost 450 kg of pickles. Now, having expanded to a range of snacks such as dhokla, khandvi, gathia, chakli, thepla, and more, they have trained more staffers so that Urmila can relax a bit and focus on the YouTube channel instead of being in the kitchen for 15 hours a day, while Harsh focuses on the business and marketing. Future plans for this dadi include retailing on Amazon and Flipkart, and making Gujju Ben Na Nasta a household name while continuing to do the thing she loves – cook and provide for her family. (98213 24901; gujjubennanasta.in)
Harbhajan Kaur, Harbhajan’s
“Vela baithna bimari da ghar hai” (To sit idle is to invite disease) is something Harbhajan Kaur says frequently. The 95-year-old is a living advertisement for her words, given that she is the talent behind the much-loved Harbhajan’s – Bachpan Yaad Aajaye, a five-year-old Chandigarh-based business that started, as all the best things do, over a cup of tea. Sitting with her daughter on her 90th birthday, Harbhajan could reminisce about many things in life – her childhood in Punjab’s Tarn Taran Sahib filled with delicious food made by her mother and meetha made by her father, her marriage to a Punjab Services officer, the charmed life they led post his retirement in the 1980s in Chandigarh when they enjoyed going out to explore new restaurants and dishes (she tried a soufflé for the first time) and she would always ask for the recipes and try them out at home.
But the widow who had been educated only till the eighth grade also voiced her one lingering regret – that she had never earned her own money. Her daughter asked why she couldn’t start now. She’d been cooking since she was a child and she was passionate and curious about new recipes, so it made perfect sense. Once Harbhajan said yes, the entire family then swung into action – reaching out to home chefs and food bazaar organisers and making sure she had all the ingredients she needed so she could just focus on the thing she loves – cooking. Her first product (for a pop-up) and her bestseller is the besan ki barfi, based on a 100-year-old recipe handed down from her father, but she also makes seasonal sherbets, pickles, chutneys. Some press interest followed, including an interview that was shared on social media by Anand Mahindra, which went viral and prompted the family to build her online and retail presence. During the pandemic, with the help of her grandson who is a trained chef and granddaughter who’s a designer, plus the rest of the family, the venture became more business-oriented, even retailing on Amazon. (Instagram: @harbhajansmadewithlove)
Iti Misra, home cook
The 81-year-old never saw cooking as anything but a hobby, and she still doesn’t. “The only difference is that now, with pop-ups, restaurant collaborations, and curated at-home dining experiences, my hobby funds itself,” she laughs. When she worked in the sales team at British Airways in Kolkata and personnel management in Hindustan Lever, she would only cook for family and friends who loved her food. They’d urge her to get into catering but she was never really interested.
But about five years ago, someone she knew introduced her to Traveling Spoon, a California-based portal that sets up unique local dining experiences for tourists in different parts of the world, such as eating and cooking with a home chef. Iti was initially wary of letting people into her home, but eventually, signed up to be a host and invite people to her Kolkata house. Then came collaborations with some of India’s best restaurants (Monkey Bar, The Bombay Canteen, Bengaluru Oota Company), that featured her daab chingri, shukto, beguni bhaja, cholar dal and other classic Bengali fare. Now, since Covid, she has not done any pop-ups or at-home experiences, but what she does miss is meeting new people. “That was one of the best parts – to meet so many people from all over the world.” (Instagram: @cheffingtonpost)
Pratibha Kanoi, Mommy’s Kitchen
A lockdown activity to stave off loneliness and boredom, especially after her husband had passed away a few years prior, has now made Pratibha Kanoi the go-to for Amitabh Bachchan, Sonali Bendre, Akshay Kumar, Devendra Fadnavis, Supriya Sule, Pinky Reddy, and a host of other well-heeled folks, as well as a growing name in Kolkata and Bengaluru.
While business smarts and some good networking helped, it is largely down to the 68-year-old homemaker’s sheer talent in the kitchen. Her children suggested that she turn her hobby into a business and within a week, they helped her set up the basics of Mommy’s Kitchen – ordering boxes, getting delivery mechanisms in place, putting the word out. Her daughter, in fact, runs Mommy’s Kitchen in Bengaluru, while the kitchens in Kolkata and Mumbai are run by trained staff. But Pratibha isn’t one to just focus on the cooking aspect and leave the commercials to her kids – she’s got a sharp eye on the business side of things, she’s even appeared on Shark Tank, and has big plans to open cloud kitchens across India. Ask her what makes her four types of pasta and six types of thin-crust square-cut pizza (all vegetarian, she says firmly) special and she really has no idea. “It’s nothing, I’ve not done anything, I don’t know what it is that they love so much, but it’s God’s miracle.” (mommys.kitchen)
Meenakshi Meyappan, The Bangala
In the early 2000s, Meenkashi Meyappan, then in her 60s, set up The Bangala, the first heritage hotel in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu. At 88 now, she’s still actively involved in the running of the place and a force to reckon with. Chettinad is known for its heritage mansions that used to be family homes, one of which is now The Bangala.
It was Meenakshi who turned the family property into a major reason that tourists visit Karaikudi, and while it is gorgeous, with antique furniture and beautifully tiled old-school flooring paired with a lovely pool and spa, the big draw at The Bangala is the stellar Chettinad cuisine on offer. The in-house restaurant, which consistently finds a place on top restaurant lists including Conde Nast Traveller’s own, offers up dishes like chilli garlic fish, prawn curry, spiced kingfish, okra with tamarind and shallots, crab rasam, chicken with black pepper, and many that might seem unexpected, but actually make sense, given the region’s trading history.
The truly surprising thing? Meenakshi, who is widely considered Chettinad cuisine’s best ambassador, doesn’t even cook. She knows the food inside out though, as she does the intricacies of running a successful hospitality venture without compromising on why she started it in the first place – to really bring out the nuances of the region. And her work goes beyond the hotel – she has also authored books including The Bangala Table and Mansions of Chettinad. (thebangala.com)
Radha Daga, Triguni Eze Eats
Chances are you’ve sent a silent thank you to her from 37,000 feet, even if you didn’t know it. That eight-minute upma that’s been the saviour of those who’ve had to take a 6am flight? That’s the brainchild of 80-year-old Radha Daga, who started her brand, Triguni Eze Eats, a little over 10 years ago. A former textile exporter, she came across a mgazine ad for ready-to-eat pasta that just needed hot water and wondered why that couldn’t be applied to other foods. She first tried with idlis, but when that didn’t work, she tried lemon rice, biryani, and tamarind rice, which hit the mark. She put her entrepreneurial skills to use and in 2012, IndiGo came calling for her biryani and later, upma. Today, the airline is her single biggest client, contributing to more than 80 percent of her sales, though her products are retailed on Amazon as well as in stores. Some of her other products include dal chawal, poha, rajma chawal, and pongal sambar, and now she even supplies food to the IRCTC for train travellers. (ezeeats.com)
Kokila Parekh, KT Masala
While the lockdown took away jobs from many people, it also provided an opportunity to those with the drive and means to make it happen. And that opportunity was clearly age-agnostic, as in the case of Kokila Parekh, an 81-year-old from Mumbai. Watch any masala chai ad and you can almost smell the rejuvenation that the drinkers of the spicy tea claim to feel with just one sip.
Kokila’s chai masala, a blend of ginger, cardamom, lemon, and other magical things in her secret combination, seems to have that effect on people too. Any guest at her home would marvel at her tea, and would be sent back armed with a packet of her spice mix. But it was during the first year of the pandemic that Kokila decided she wanted to try going commercial with it. Her son Tushar helped her set up the basics – a commercial-sized grinder, branded sealable packaging, deals with spice sellers for bulk quantities – and thus KT (Kokila Tushar) was born. Now shipping across India, KT is looking to take this all-natural spice mix global.
