A new platform offers food entrepreneurs the opportunity to showcase their passion and learn under the best chefs in the industry
A place where you have a kitchen space, raw materials and a restaurant set up — all you need is a brilliant idea to run the eating joint for a certain time period. The Trial, a company which will provide the infrastructure to budding chefs at minimal investment is offering just the opportunity that many in the hospitality industry are looking out for. What’s more, these chefs would be mentored by international chefs such as Hari Nayak, Adam Simmonds, Arun Tyagi along with The Trial team.
“We as a team have been pondering about this idea since long. The problem in our country is that while the technology startups are getting a lot of funding and sponsorship, the food sector does not get enough funding and support to reach a bigger level. So, we though that this would be a great platform as the concept has never been tried before in India and abroad. At one point, only two concepts will be adhered to in the kitchen,” says Gaurav Mehta, Director, The Trial.
Adds Chef Simmonds, “I think the platform for young talent in India or in the United Kingdom is pretty much the same. The youth wants to experiment and hence, this is a good way of getting youngsters involved into the culinary industry and draw leaders from there.” The idea is to set up incubations for chefs who have great concepts but due to limited execution don’t venture into the field. Accordingly, some entities would be selected and educated to create recipes which could help them set up kitchens where they can practice and utilise a co-working facility. The chefs can also get a few mentoring tips from the company’s core team of mentors and if the feedback from customers on their products is good then they will go ahead and help them get funded.
The launch of this innovative concept through social media has garnered about 25-30 entries from all across India particularly from Pune, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata and has received a positive response.
“For a period of six months, the plan is to to integrate a lot of things in business where on one side there are chefs and on the other there are professional recommendations and funds collections. How successful the chefs are depends on how well they adapt and their commitment towards the mentoring that they receive and the various ways they are able to execute each idea,” said Mehta . So if everything goes well, the team would help them fund their dream and introduce their concept to the world. Says celebrity chef, Hari Nayak: “It’s about supporting these people in the right direction and also giving them the flexibility to develop their own style. We have to allow them comfort and liberty to do it with other aspects.”
The idea was to get top notch mentors like Nayak and Simmonds. The team decided to bring chefs who have been part of this business and training as they would have faced similar issues in the past. Says Nayak, “We will be focusing not only on the food, but giving them a holistic view of the business to ensure that they do well.”
The candidates would be asked to send in their entries and submit their ideas so that their progress can be viewed and critiqued for their shortcomings. A place would be set up in the next one month in Gurugram and Delhi with three kitchens. Bengaluru is the next stop. The format would work on the concept of home delivery trials and then get involved in marketing. There are also plans to start a Trial Show on YouTube, which would be a platform of whatever is being done behind the scenes.
Says Nayak, “We believe that Indian audience is ready for this concept. It is exciting to see this concept build up gradually in a place like India which will offer a whole lot of opportunities for the local talent to do something new. I wish we had something similar 10-15 years back when we wanted to try something new.”
Statistics show 60 per cent of the Indian population is below 35 years. And with the kind of global exposure, they are aware of various cuisines, love experimenting and they do not want to get into a staid 9-5 job. They would rather experiment or look at different aspects of life.
“Healthier cooking is going to be the next trend in the forthcoming years. Indian food can be unhealthy because it is quiet greasy and heavy. So making Indian or any other cuisine healthier is what will be the focus. Cooking over fire and grilling with less oil will be the rage,” says Nayak.