This woman entrepreneur’s platform offers authentic, regional food cooked by home chefs
Mumbai-based Savithri Swaminathan started Authentic Food Stories – a platform that works with home chefs to bring 20 authentic, regional cuisines to discerning foodies.
Savithri Swaminathan lived in four countries in 10 years as her husband had a transferable job in an MNC. She became a foodie with a fondness for Indian cuisine and the sheer variety it offers.
“We returned to Mumbai with huge expectations of experiencing that food diversity literally every day - but we were quite disappointed to see most restaurants offering the lowest common denominator that appeals to the majority,” she says.
In a country where the cuisine changes every few kilometres, the family was struggling to find authentic Andhra food in the city.
“In this cosmopolitan city, you are likely to be neighbours with Telugites living in your own building who are cooking that very Andhra cuisine at their homes for their families. What if you could access that? What if that Telugu family was willing to cook a little extra, without stretching their kitchen ecosystem too much, and that extra was available for us to order? That’s how the idea began in my head - and soon it occupied me so much that I decided to quit my job at Hindustan Unilever and pursue my passion for food,” she explains.
Savithri wanted to provide foodies with access to good home-made food instead of having to order from restaurants, both to get better quality of food and also to get more variety of food.
Raised in a family of government employees, Savithri moved around India because of her father’s transferable job, which resulted in her studying in seven schools across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
“While I did complain while growing up about lack of stability, and the need to make new friends every time, this moving around gave me a great exposure to different kinds of people and their lifestyles, and I could appreciate the diversity that exists just within South of India,” she says.
She broke the family mould and pursued a busines degree from IIM Bangalore, following which she followed the corporate route with stints in Hindustan Unilever, Unilver, Mindshare, and others.
Real, authentic food
As the idea for germinated, Savithri decided to do a pilot to check the waters. She started with the building she lived in, in Mumbai.
She elaborates, “I did a bit of groundwork and formed a small group of home chefs. The day I sent a message, announcing the launch of the service, I had 100 queries within an hour wanting more information, wanting to order, wanting to join as a chef, asking for more cuisines, etc. I knew then that the idea had merit. I launched and worked on the pilot for about six months, sharpening the offering and the strategies, and finally registered Authentic Food Stories in March 2019.”
Authentic Food Stories offers real, authentic food from different parts of India, often lost cuisines, cooked at home, by the home chef, accessible to others. This is done via a tech platform that connects home chefs who are experts in different regional cuisines (and are willing to cook at home) with customers who want that authentic food.
“We offer the entire range of dishes from daily fresh food (starters, main course, desserts, and beverages) to accompaniments (idli dosa batters, chutneys, podis, pickles, dips, sauces, etc) to party food (housewarming, religious functions, weekend get togethers, birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions) to festival special food (special food like modaks during Ganapati; gujiyas and puranpoli during holi; faral and laddoos during Diwali, for thanksgiving and Christmas, etc.) to baked products (from a panel of home bakers who can do any kind of customised cakes and other baked items for any occasions).”
For the love of regional food
AFS’ target audience, according to Savithri, is affluent (and/or upwardly mobile) people living in large cities who are discerning about food quality and value authenticity .
“Such people are usually willing to try food from different regions, both national and international, and also crave for food from their childhood.”
It offers 20 cuisines that include Punjabi, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Marwari, Maharashtrian, Sindhi, Delhi, Eastern UP, Bihari, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Kerala, Kannadiga, Andhra, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Continental, Indo Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and East Indian.
Its revenue model is quite simple. Chefs are paid for their efforts with a margin added.
Extras charges for delivery, etc., are paid by the customers.
Savithri says, the competition is fierce and comes from different corners - restaurants, eating out, even home cooked food, friendly neighbourhood chef aunty, bakeries, pickle stores, the maharaj who comes home to cook for occasions, etc.
“They all compete with us at different price points and on different occasions. Our strategy is quite simple: compete by providing unmatched quality of food, which can be tailor-made for an occasion,” she adds.
As a solo founder, Savithri invested Rs 20 lakh initially for building the tech product. Currently, all earnings are invested back into the business.
“The business has been more than doubling every year - and that with just one person team. Key occasions like Diwali, Christmas, and Raksha Bandhan have seen exponential growth because people gift our home made offerings to their friends and family,” she says.
Currently available in Mumbai, Thane, and Navi Mumbai, AFS had a soft launch in Bengaluru earlier this year.
“We are also able to deliver non perishable items anywhere in India. In the future, we plan to onboard more chefs in Mumbai, build what we launched in Bengaluru, expand to other cities, and expand to more cuisines,” she says.
Edited by Megha Reddy