If you want to make a fortune in food, forget about reading the future in coffee grounds and follow the big trends in the food service or the HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants and Café) sector. This sector is traditionally the make or break point for any food innovation and it is often the first point of contact for exciting new products. We don’t just mean cloud eggs, cronuts or Instagram friendly rainbow coloured food but also foods that are tech-forward flavor bombs like plant-based food and in the near future, cultivated meat. In the US, iconic chefs like David Chang (of Momofuku fame) have heralded the charge of products from companies like Impossible Foods in their restaurants. In a matter of a couple of years, these products went from being exclusively served in upscale restaurants to becoming ubiquitous in fast food chains. In India, will we see a similar trickle down effect from restaurants to our grocery stores and finally our homes? We pose this and many other questions about the food service world to Gauri Devidayal, the co-founder of exemplary Mumbai restaurants like The Table, Miss T and the industrial kitchen, Magazine Street Kitchen.

SHOW NOTES:

Food Matters India: Gauri Devidayal is the co-founder of the iconic Mumbai restaurants like the The Table and Miss T and the industrial kitchen, Magazine St Kitchen, under the umbrella of her company Food Matters India. A law graduate from University College London and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales, she worked as a tax consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Mumbai before turning restaurateur and founding The Table.

The Table: The Table, a celebrated restaurants in iconic Colaba neighbourhood in South Mumbai, offers globally inspired cuisine and hospitality since opening in 2011. From introducing the concept of small and large plates to providing a true farm to table experience with produce from its own farm, The Table continues to be at the forefront of Indian hospitality. With an ingredient-driven focus, global accents and nuances, the menu is a commitment to simplicity and purity of flavour, a philosophy inherited from San Francisco.

Miss T: A restaurant and cocktail lounge located behind The Taj Palace, Colaba, Miss T features cuisine inspired by the food from the Asian Golden Triangle. Launched in 2018, it is a collaboration between two of the cities premier restaurant groups - Gauri and her partner Jay Yousuf who run the The Table and Magazine St Kitchen, and Abhishek Honawar, Pankil Shah and Sumit Gambhir, the team that pioneered the casual dining space with Woodside Inn, The Pantry Café and Bombay Vintage – Café & Bar.

Magazine St Kitchen: Founded in 2016, this is a culinary playground for intimate dinners, cooking workshops and more housed in a restored heritage structure in Byculla. The Kitchen is also the base for the wholesale and retail bakery - Mag St. Bread Co and the group’s catering arm, Dining Table. This 2500 sq. ft space features a fully air conditioned kitchen outfitted with custom built cooking suites of the highest caliber. It also includes a private dining area, fully operational bakery, climate-controlled butchery suite, and walk-in cold storage and deep freezer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Eater: Achieving the Impossible: How David Chang, Michael Symon, and Chris Cosentino helped sell foodie types on the Impossible Burger

• The Economic Times: Keto to low carb diets get a leg up at 5 stars

• Food Navigator Asia: Tackling the taste-health paradox: Indian snack manufacturers advised to focus on health, nutrition and Indianness

• Quartz: For Indian consumers living a healthy life trumps travelling the world or making better friends

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