City firm offers comfort food through cloud kitchens

For advertising executive Sonali M, every day’s lunch is delivered to her at her workplace by one of the food delivery platforms — a choice she makes depending on what dish she’s in the mood for. “I look for something simple and home-style to eat, as I live away from my parents,” says Sonali, 27. Realising the requirement of comfort food among many such millennials and working professionals in the city, Sketch, a Chennai-based firm has opened its cloud kitchens a few months ago. A cloud kitchen is one that takes orders only through online food ordering platforms, and offers no dine-in facility.

“Our cloud kitchens cater to our three brands — Curry on Fire by Sketch (with Chinese, Thai and other Asian cuisines), Mirchi Bazaar by Sketch (offering north Indian food) and South Market by Sketch (south Indian food). We currently have two kitchens in Anna Nagar and Nungambakkam, out of which food for all the three cloud kitchens is prepared. We are soon opening another cloud kitchen in Adyar by the end of November and are also planning the next one on Greams Road,” says Suraj Malhotra, the head of marketing at Olive and Twist Hospitality, which runs Sketch. Olive and Twist Hospitality, which is one of the brands owned by the Apollo Sindoori hospitality group, also runs Canvas by Sketch, a cafe in Alwarpet.

Being cloud kitchens, one can find these brands — Curry on Fire, Mirchi Bazaar and South Market — only on food ordering platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and Dunzo. The order placed will be delivered by the delivery apps themselves within a five-kilometer radius, allowing the kitchens to focus on their food. “When people prefer to dine out, they want to be experimental, but when it comes to ordering in, they don’t want to step outside their comfort zone,” adds Suraj. Hence Sketch’s executive chef Arul Santhosh has decided to offer dishes like momos, vegetable Manchurian, and combos like Thai curry with rice and Chinese-style noodles with gravy at Curry on Fire. At South Market, you can expect dishes like kothu idiyappam, tomato rice, sambar rice and podi rice with a side of home-style lady’s finger poriyal or mutton chukka and chips. While at Mirchi Bazaar, one can find tikkas, dum biryanis, naans and pulaos.

“Though there is a challenge of deep discounts on the online food platforms, our aim is to bring in new customers and turn them into repeat customers. Which is why we’re ensuring our food is top-notch. Each of our dishes is made to order to ensure quality is maintained. We’re also offering combos for families of two, four or eight, to order in during festive times,” asserts Farhaz Ahammed, the head of sales for Olive and Twist.

A cloud kitchen incurs a mere one-tenth of the investment required by a 2,500 square-foot-sized restaurant, shares Feroz Khan, the vice president operations for the group. “There is a huge requirement online for quality comfort food. We are working towards making it accessible acrossthe city through our cloud kitchens,” says Feroz.

The brand’s plan is to have a total of seven cloud kitchens by December-end, and expand to other cities as well in future. “We conduct our research on what kinds of cuisines people prefer in different localities of the city and decide the location for the kitchens based on that. For instance, Nungambakkam has a lot of north Indian residents, and OMR (with its migrant population) has a lot of demand for ordering in,” remarks Suraj.