City home chefs turn passion for food into careers

The class 4 student from the city has now launched her own food brand, Four Seasons Pastry, making her one among the youngest entrepreneurs in the city. At the third edition of Ministry of Home Chefs, a platform for home chefs, and entrepreneurs to introduce themselves to the city’s gourmands, there are several food enthusiasts like Vinusha taking plunge into entrepreneurship.

The young baker will be presenting her range of cupcakes inspired by the four seasons — summer, winter, autumn and spring. “The summer cupcakes will be orange-flavoured, with a green frosting, while the winter one will have vanilla frosting and snowflakes. Cupcakes with autumn theme will be of chocolate flavour with fallen leaves, while spring will be floral,” she tells DT Next. Vinusha is also elated to run a business with her favourite bakes. “I feel very happy to have my own business. Many children just go to school, come back home, do their homework and sleep. I’m excited to have the opportunity to learn more about baking through my business. I plan to sell my cupcakes online by baking them right at home,” she elaborates.

The ongoing gathering of home chefs, bakers and small establishments from across the city is being organised by the food venture Eat Pay Love as a festive edition ahead of Diwali. While a few home cooks are turning entrepreneurs using the platform as a launch pad, a few other existing ones are hoping to gain exposure. The food products being showcased include cookies, cakes, desserts, pickles, chutneys, ice creams, marinades, Bengali meals, artisan breads, Goan delicacies, bagels, nut-based butters, organic produce and more.

“There are also a few software and human resources (HR) professionals, who have a passion for food participating in the event. They want to pursue their food calling. Ever since we held the first edition of our platform in 2018, we have seen food entrepreneurs on the rise. We see many people getting back to heirloom recipes and trying to revive them through their businesses,” say Munira Daniel and Batul Turab, the co-founders of Eat Pay Love.

The Gourmet Granny is one such new food brand hitting the market, offering authentic Goan and Portuguese cuisines to Chennaiites. Run by daughter-in-law and mother-in-law duo, Mignonne Thomas and Jennifer Thomas, the home-based food outlet will be making Goan and Anglo-Indian delicacies like chicken vindaloo, fish croquettes, bebinca and fruit cakes. “My mother-in-law Jennifer is an Anglo-Indian, while I am a Goan — we hail from Mumbai, but have been living in Chennai for many years. When we found that no one in Chennai was serving Goan or Anglo-Indian foods, we decided to launch our own business to cater these foods,” remarks Mignonne.

The third edition of Ministry of Home Chefs will be held from 1 pm to 9 pm on September 15 at Novotel Chennai OMR at Shollinganallur.