Ashish Kapadia, Sejal Catering Services, Mumbai

Fire is lit as early as 0400hrs in the morning at Ashish Kapadia’s home in Mumbai. No, there is no water problem and he doesn’t have to travel for 2hrs to reach his office. In fact his modest flat in Tardeo is his office and kitchen is the work-station. His Sejal Catering Services prepares and packs 200 tiffins for lunch on a daily basis.

And what it takes to prepare 200 dabbas?

Here’s few statistics: 50kg of vegetables, 800 chapattis, 8kg of rice and wheat are consumed on a daily basis.

It must be a daily grind. “Not at all! I am very happy and contended with my catering business,” says Kapadia, who was Brach Manager in Hindfret- a clearing and handling agent of global shipping company MSC- till seven years ago. “That itch to do something on your own was always there,” says Kapadia.

In 1994, Kapadia put in Rs15,000 to buy some kitchenware and set-up a small kitchen at his home. “I started with 4-5 dabbas. My first few clients were Parsis,” says Kapadia. He continued with his job to cover his kitchen cost. In 1997, an advertorial in Times of India helped him increase his dabba count to 20. After 4 years, he finally quit his job and got into this business full-time.

Ashish first client was a law firm called Amarchand Mangaldas in South Mumbai. Now, he supplies tiffins for Rs50 and Rs60 respectively. 40% of his clients are corporates and individuals constitute the balance 60%. What more, 60 customers have been using Sejal tiffin for past ten years continuously.

What makes them loyal to Sejal in this fickle tiffin business?

“Repetition of taste or menu is a big spoiler. I make sure that we have new menu for at least 20 continuous days unlike other tiffin services, where vegetables are repeated twice or thrice in a week. Besides, I use very little oil and food is not at all spicy,” says Kapadia. “ But there is one more reason why people stick around with me; I talk to them in my free time, discussing their professional and personal life and sharing their joys and sorrows. They think of me as an extended family.”

However, the business has its flip side too. “Ours is a labour-intensive industry and I am heavily dependent on the traditional dabbawalas to deliver the tiffins to my customers. Last year, on the occasion of Rakhsbandhan festival, they didn’t turn up in the morning and 175 tiffins had gone waste,” says Kapadia.

Kapadia follows a unique practice, unheard of any food catering company. Once the dabbas come back from the customers in the evening, he checks each one of them for left-overs. If he finds food left in any particular dabba, he immediately calls up the customer to know the reason. “ I ask them if the quantity is more than their appetite so that I can reduce it next time. Else, I request them not to waste the food,” says Kapadia. “Your waste could have been somebody’s meal.”

Kapadia is now planning to start his own snack business, which has been part of his tiffin menu and is very popular with his customers.

“I am in no hurry to increase the dabba count or expand the business. When I left the job, all I wanted was to be happy and contented with life. I have achieved this only goal of my life,” says a visibly relaxed Kapadia.

Tips for people who want to start the tiffin service from home:

“Cook food with lot of love and affection. Customers can smell and taste your love in the food,” says Kapadia.