The Inspired Life
The Inspired Life
From Courts to Culinary Creations
What if your passion could lead you to a more fulfilling life? Meet Pragati, a phenomenal chef who left behind a career in law to follow her true calling in the culinary world. Growing up in a family of activists, Pragati initially pursued law to make a societal impact, but found herself yearning for a different kind of satisfaction—one that she discovered in the kitchen. Our paths crossed through a mutual friend, leading to a fruitful collaboration and a lasting friendship. Join us as Pragati shares her inspiring journey and the pivotal moments that led her to become a celebrated chef.
In this episode, we confront the gender biases that permeate the culinary industry, particularly in India. Pragati and I discuss the disheartening societal perceptions that view women's cooking as mere duty while elevating men as artists. I share my own professional growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, which unexpectedly put me in leadership roles that demanded my full engagement. Together, we highlight the stark contrasts and emerging changes in household dynamics, like my husband finally learning to cook. We also touch on the resilience required for women to thrive in male-dominated kitchens and the broader workplace.
Finally, we explore "The Long Table," Pragati's farm-to-table dining concept that brings an intimate and seasonal culinary experience to life. From a mango-themed menu to future plans for rustic dining experiences at a family-owned organic farm, Pragati's passion for locally-sourced ingredients shines through. We discuss the importance of hands-on kitchen experience for aspiring chefs and the efforts to balance demanding careers with personal lives. Packed with personal anecdotes and professional insights, this episode is a treasure trove for anyone passionate about food and equality.
If you like what you hear, subscribe and follow us on Spotify, iTunes and Amazonmusic. A new episode will come out every 1st and 15th of a month. You can also follow us on Instagram on theinspiredlifepodcast. If you want to mail me to discuss some of the things we are talking here or have a story to share on this podcast, email me at theinspiredlifeindia@gmail.com. This is Deepika and I thank you for listening.
Hi, welcome to the Inspired Life Podcast. I'm Deepika, and with me today is Pragati, who's a chef. Hi, pragati, welcome to the podcast. Hi Deepika, it's an honor to be here, thank you. Thank you for making time. We've been doing this back and forth, I know, for months, months. Yes, I think you were the first one I got in touch with regards to this season, sure, which is not a doctor, not an engineer. So the whole idea of the season is to talk to individuals who have not chosen the run-of-the-mill career options and see how it's going for all of us.
Speaker 2:I'm'm part of that whole Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, I you know, whenever I think about making friends or talking, you know, meeting new people, which I love doing, I you're one of the first people who comes in my mind because in the recent times it's so fun. The way we met and you know I was I got in touch with one of my very close friends, friend, because I was organizing her 30th birthday party. So I got in touch with one of my very close friends, friend, because I was organizing her 30th birthday party. So I got in touch with her friend who which she recommended, because he's somebody who is good with video editing and I had to make her birthday, surprise birthday video. So he was supposed to help me.
Speaker 1:And I have never met him. It was all through whatsapp. He couldn't make it to the birthday party in the end, so I've never met him. But thanks was all through WhatsApp. He couldn't make it to the birthday party in the end, so I've never met him. But thanks to me not just keeping it to. You know, just oh, can you do this editing for me and actually be chatty and friendly? And you know we had a little rapport going. In a few months he gets in touch saying that, hey, so somebody is interested in bringing together food and fitness. Would you be interested? I'm like, hey, that was an idea I had for years and I've not been able to and cut to chase. In three days I meet you and look at this that's crazy how it worked out.
Speaker 2:I too had just put out feelers saying does anyone know anybody who's in the fitness industry who might be interested in doing this collaboration with me and a friend of mine who you hadn't even heard of?
Speaker 2:at that point yeah said yeah, I know someone who knows someone. It just worked out and it was so great because you were the first person I spoke to about the concept. Yeah, and you were so gung-ho and we did such a successful first event together and it was just, it was such a ball and I'm so glad that we then became friends and have remained so since I know and I am so glad for we then became friends and have remained so since.
Speaker 1:I know, and I'm so glad for not just the crunch brunch, because that was something like I had. I said earlier too, that was an idea I had for years, but I just couldn't get around to making it happen. Sure, and a, I got to be a part of it, and b uh, you know, I get to eat some amazing food thanks to becoming your friend.
Speaker 2:It's always fun to feed people.
Speaker 1:I understand that feeling. It's fun on the other side to get to eat all of it. But, pragati, this is not your initial career choice, right being in the culinary world. So tell me, how did it all?
Speaker 2:start. It's a long story. All start it's a long story. So I became a chef only at the age of 25-26.
Speaker 2:Before that, I was in a totally different world. I grew up not even realizing that something like this was an option, because, having grown up partly in Hyderabad and partly in Delhi, of course almost everybody around me aspired to be an engineer or a doctor, or then there were a couple of other professions that were also socially acceptable at that time, one of which I ended up choosing, which was lawyer. Yeah, so I happened to grow up in a family that was very sort of inclined towards activism. My dad was a lawyer turned journalist, so he never actually practiced law. He was a lawyer turned journalist, so he never actually practiced law. He was a writer, but he was very, you know, focused on social issues and human rights and stuff like that. And just growing up in that environment, I became very interested in all of that as well, which is why I gravitated towards the law and I didn't even think I would ever do anything else. It was something I was so geared towards for many years of my life.
Speaker 2:When I didn't get into the national law school of my choice, I then went to a very prestigious college in Delhi University, and did an undergrad and said, okay, I will then do a postgrad in law, and that's what I did.
Speaker 2:So I studied for six years. I did three years of history and three years of law and I became a lawyer. Yeah, and then, maybe two years later, I decided that it was no longer for me, because when I entered that field, I entered with such a rosy picture of what it means to be a lawyer, how, you know, we get to wield so much power and in terms of, you know, affecting change and improving society and, you know, just bettering people's lives lives. That was very much the idea behind being a lawyer, and I did sort of manage to do that for a very limited period of time. I was doing work that genuinely mattered, that was making a difference, it was really very soul satisfying, but unfortunately the trade-off was it wasn't remunerative like it just it was barely getting me through the month yeah um, when I chose that kind of offbeat path within law right.
Speaker 2:So then I was forced to sort of migrate to a more conventional legal path which I was not happy with at all, like that was not satisfying my soul, that was only putting food on the table and um. I was terribly unhappy in those circumstances and I was escaping into the world of cooking to get through my day. That was my stress relief. I would come home in the evenings and I would cook up a storm and then the next day I would pack that and take it to work and feeding my colleagues at lunchtime and they would all be so excited oh, what have you made?
Speaker 1:today.
Speaker 2:And that had just become the highlight of my day. So over time, I realized there's something very wrong with that picture. You know that something I had worked so hard for for so many years wasn't bringing me joy, yeah. But what had first started off as a hobby and then become a passion, yeah, was what was literally getting me through my day. And it was then that a conversation I had with my mother, who was very encouraging in terms of if this is what I wanted to do, yeah, I should get to it immediately and not put it off, which was my original plan I thought I'm a lawyer, I'm in a path that will eventually lead to a lot of money, let me just stick it out in the field, let me make a bunch of money and then, and, and by say 40 or something, I will retire from law yeah and open a restaurant was was my plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and my mother pointed out how do you know that you will be alive till then? You know this is what you want to do. Yeah, do it now. Yeah, and it was. It was with her encouragement that I took the very big step of quitting such a well-established field, which gives you so much security and stuff like that and just is more socially acceptable yeah, and to dive into a field which really lacks a lot of those markers. You know, when I became a chef, so many people who were very close to me and who otherwise have a lot of respect for me were like, what are you doing? Like what is the issue? Why have you quit this field? So some people might not have said it so at the time, but later I've heard things like oh, maybe she just couldn't cut it out in the field, etc.
Speaker 2:So all sorts of questions have been raised, all sorts of allegations have been made, but, thanks to the support primarily of my mother, I was to sort of you know, put that aside and just focus on what was bringing me happiness. So I then moved to New York where I studied. I went to culinary school, I became a chef, I started working in the industry and I have just not looked back since. I am so happy in this field that I've chosen. It's a very difficult field to make my way through. There are a lot of challenges that come with it, but it's been worth it to me. I have loved being in it and I'm very happy to stick it out. Law will remain a fallback option. If I'm ever destitute and on the streets and I need to make money, I know that I can just dust off my whole law degree and you know, yeah, I'll make money.
Speaker 1:I totally get you because when I made the shift and honestly I made multiple shifts in the last almost 20 years now, because I finished my master's in 2006 and after that, every few years, I always was unhappy. In first of all, when I went to get a job, I got a shocker. Because you that's when you realize that if you don't choose to become a doctor and still pursue medical science in India or you know sciences in India, the remuneration is almost nothing. You don't get paid, there's barely anything. Job satisfaction is next to nothing. And I did a lot of shifts over the years, tried my hand in a lot of things. Some was a choice, some was you know. The situation threw me into that work, so I would just take it up and do it.
Speaker 1:But when I, even before shifting and becoming a fitness coach, I was working in a startup which was a health tech, which is right my alley right there despite that, I had family members asking so unless you are in a big company with a certain positions or you're a doctor or an engineer, there isn't a lot of respect, especially from the older generation, like our parent generation in our country. Asian society is still very stuck on that. Absolutely so definitely. That was I totally get it and you know, even now I I keep thinking things don't work out. I can just switch all this I'm doing into my resume like I'm like the best employee you can have and I can get a job.
Speaker 1:I might not reach a position I would have reached normally at this age. But you know what? I can always get food on the table. You know I can always do that Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I completely relate. Just having that at the back of your mind always. Just because you know society sort of drills it in you that what you're doing is so unconventional. You know there's so many challenges they I feel like society is not rooting for you. Yeah, right, but just because you're doing something so offbeat, so you definitely always have that subconsciously. Yeah, you're like, okay, I always have that fallback option. No.
Speaker 1:I totally get you know, like what you said about later, you heard how people were saying maybe she was not cut out for it. I heard the same things about my own cousin saying that oh, what's she up to now? Has she quit again? Like you know, she's not. You know she can't really do in the corporate world. It won't. You know clearly she can't keep up. The fact is, I think it's much easier to do that again.
Speaker 1:Grass is yeah but, I'm like you know the, the security which comes like. In the last podcast also I spoke about the same thing, like in COVID, my husband and I felt it so strongly being in industries which are not run of the mill so you weren't getting a salary if things shut down. You, you just shut down and you sat home with zero income. And that leads to I do understand a lot of people give up because it's it's hard. It's hard if let's. You know, honestly, we have had the privilege to be able to make these choices. Yeah, because we had the support of family financially otherwise, and that gives us the courage to go and give these tries. If you don't have, then yeah, you can have all the dreams you want in the world, but you'll have to stick to what absolutely.
Speaker 2:I would not have been able to do this if not for the privilege that I was, you know, luckily born with it's. It's just what it is. Otherwise I would have had to stick it out as a lawyer. I wouldn't have had a choice in the matter. Yeah, you know, but I feel like what I've done, hopefully, is I have made the best of the privilege that I was afforded.
Speaker 1:Exactly that's the best any of us can do.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah and you know, and not um sort of rubbish, other people pointing out that I have privilege. Yes, I do have privilege and I'm trying to make the best of it that I can.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, likewise. Yeah, same thing. We are very well aware of the privilege we have at home too, mostly from my husband's family, and that's why we're able to take all these little risks and give it a try, and I don't take it for granted. And I don't take it for granted and I don't again totally respect every other struggle. Everybody else is going a hundred percent coming to struggle. Now, being a woman? Yes, was it harder in this field because it's kind of male dominated all these years? Oh, absolutely. How was your experience in?
Speaker 2:your perspective. So as as a chef, as somebody whose work it is to cook, what I have, what I have noticed especially in Indian, more so than anywhere else, I feel is that when a woman cooks, it is out of duty. It is to feed her family. It is you know, it's just expected of her. But when a man cooks, he is an artist, he is doing you know, he's making a contribution, he is doing something that is worth commending, etc. Has very much been the conventional mindset in India.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that hasn't changed of course there's been a wave of women chefs who really pioneered and led the way. But that change in mindset hasn't quite trickled down all the way. You know, in certain sections of society, sure, it's still accepted and it's great, but in a lot of others I have heard from so many like well-wishers and family friends, etc. You know what is this? Who makes these kind of decisions? Look at how well educated you are and at the end of the day, you're cooking.
Speaker 2:Kind of stuff right right so that's from the external side, but internally, within the industry, my career trajectory was such. You mentioned covid. It's a very strange thing to say, but my career actually benefited immensely from covid. It's just. It's pure luck and the circumstances that I happened to find myself in. So what happened is I graduated from culinary school in 2019 and I worked there briefly in New York, but because it was Trump's America and even though I had job offers, nobody was willing to sponsor my visa Right, so I had to move back to India in at the end of 2019.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had my first job at the end of 2019 in India, which spilled over into the beginning of 2020, but that was like a training position, and soon after that I got my first official, proper job yeah not as a trainee or an intern or whatever in a kitchen in Delhi, and this was in March of 2020 that I started this job, at the beginning of March, and they hired me at a position that already was much above what somebody with my level of experience in the industry would have gotten. And I actually only managed to get that job because I showed the previous work experience I had as putting me in a position of advantage, you know. So that job was more managerial, it had to do with, you know, quality checks and it just required a high level of organization, commitment sorry communication, attention to detail, etc. And these are all skills that I picked up as a lawyer and they were very much transferable skills to this profession. Yeah, so, because I had that advantage, they gave me a job that somebody would say at least six, seven years of work x wow, would have gotten. And I got it at six months work x right. So already they sort of started me off in a higher position.
Speaker 2:And then COVID happened and that place, like the rest of the world, had to shut down. But because we were a French patisserie that was also making breads etc. We were an essential good, right. So they managed to give us the license to open up again at the peak of COVID and in those circumstances they needed people to come back and there was a huge crunch of labor. So they almost halved the workforce. So whoever was left was suddenly given a lot more responsibility and I went from a position of somebody who would need six, seven years work x to somebody who would need 15 years work x within a year. Oh wow, because they just ended up giving me so much responsibility. Yeah, and luckily I was able to rise to the challenge. I had to learn a lot on the job. I of course made mistakes along the way, yeah, but I managed to put something together and do the job they needed me to do.
Speaker 1:So by the time I left that position, I was in a place where, you know, I was much better off than somebody with my level of work x oh, I can relate to that too, because COVID, while initially shut down, my husband and my both work and we both were just literally sitting at home playing cards all day, because that's how we were entertaining ourselves, playing all these cards and other board games and things like that. But again, covid online training went up. So, uh, I think in the two months we were just sitting around, but then my work just picked up. I became so busy and my husband had to learn how to cook, finally good after all these years and uh, he's an expert in something he calls bhindi team piazza.
Speaker 2:Oh, all he does is put lots of onions and caramelizes it, so obviously everything tastes good after that. Yeah, sure that sounds great.
Speaker 1:But also you know, like you were saying, we were talking about it being a male-dominated field. Yes, you know it's very interesting because I am also very interested in food. So I do read and watch these documentaries about how things have changed, or you know how the culinary world is changing and things like that. This very interesting thing I came across where the conversation was about why women were not part of the workforce A the patriarchy. So women are busy cooking at home and the men are out. But very funnily, the whole idea was women can't deal with that kind of stress and pressure cooking for you know large numbers. What do you think has been happening in all the family kitchens for all?
Speaker 2:these years. It's ridiculous, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1:like the joint families still date. Some of the families just so huge. There are women are sitting in the kitchen morning to night. I know families where they start at 5 am, they end at 1 am because there are male members are coming back from work and they're still cooking and prepping for next day. So the whole idea that men who are not, who shy away and run away from doing this duty. Like my husband, it took 15 years for me to finally get him to start cooking, which he claims he was cooking as a student in Australia. They were all his roommates talk about. You know he makes an amazing chicken curry which I haven't tasted till date and he claims hey, I just put things and put ready-made masala in the cooker. I did that. So they were probably starved students who would like anything.
Speaker 1:But the fact is men run away and shy away from these responsibilities. I wouldn't say they're running away. It's not introduced to them most times. Yeah Right, it's not a part of their upbringing. But funnily, when it comes to a profession, men are considered superior in that versus women who have. I was forced into cooking when I was 12. Literally forced, because my mom and dad went to work and I needed to learn how to make basic stuff. My sister is like four years younger than I, so you know you want to be able to make dal chawal if my mom couldn't cook that day and I'd hated it. But thankfully I picked up and I loved, and my house is full of also a lot of books, cooking books and because my dad is from hospitality and so you know I picked it up. But the fact is women are pretty much forced, at least even till date, maybe not in the urban setting, so much so anymore, but still are majority of the women. But men are the first choice when it comes to the profession, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's just the sad reality, thankfully in our houses yeah we have.
Speaker 2:I was raised along with my brother. Both of us were told you have to be able to fend for yourself. So that's definitely a change that's very recently happening, but even in this industry, almost everybody I have ever worked with in this industry was a man. Yeah, so, as I was saying earlier, I was very early put in a position of management. I was managing a team of 18 chefs. Out of 18, one was a woman and 17 were men, and even that one I managed to hire much later. So when I was at that younger age, put in such a high position of power, the issue of lack of respect for me, respect for my authority, was something I faced again and again and again. And I continued to face till as recently as last month when I started my own business and I was undisputedly the boss Right, but still an employee that I hired was being extremely disrespectful of my authority. Yeah, now I can't attribute all of that disrespect to me being a woman. Maybe some people are just disrespectful of authority.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I know for a fact that when I was at my job in Delhi and managing so many men, yeah, the fact that I was a young woman who suddenly came and started, you know, giving them instructions and holding them accountable, was something they resented. Yes, yes, and that's just. It's a sad fact of the industry. Yeah, it is changing because there are more and more women coming to positions of power. It is slowly getting normalized but.
Speaker 2:I think it might take another generation or two easily for us to get rid of, yeah, whatever this resentment and stigma, etc is attached.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so women in workplaces still not something. They are not really highly regarded. Still, in my last job again, I was handling the operations of the company and at one point my team including the field staff and everything we had a lot of field workers and stuff was close to I think 60, 70 people, so it was a huge team. I had direct reportees, I think eight or nine people, who were all young boys, because we hired young boys who would be on the bike and meet all the field executives and stuff like that field staff. I never faced anything from my team. All those I call them kids still, but you know they're much younger than me at that time. They all have their own families, I guess now, but they all were very respectful, very, very eager to learn, very eager to. You know, the whole idea is somebody is senior for a reason and I need to learn from her. That was there. But I felt that with peers with peers right I did feel that with not all my, I think, that company, I had one of the best team, not only mine, but overall all the employees, we.
Speaker 1:It was a startup so we started as I was employee number two so by the time I quit it was, you know, we had 36 employees, so we're very close-knit because we're still very small. But did have one or two characters where you could feel you're not taken seriously. A because you're a woman. B just because you know you're probably not as old as they think you should be in that position. And I remember my boss one day at a party we used to I don't know why we used to have so many parties, but you know one of those post work dinners. After a couple of drinks he said and I don't know if it was a compliment or not, didn't really feel very great to me, but he was like you know, deepika, when I hired you, I wasn't sure how you will be able to handle a team of men Like I didn't think you would be up to it. But you know, I'm so surprised you are doing such a great job of it. I'm like so you hired me?
Speaker 1:with a certainty that I will be failing and thinking the the idea was your idea of me failing was not to do with my experience, with my knowledge or my capabilities. It was the fact that I was a woman and I might not be able to handle men in the company. Again, any workforce, predominantly it's men. It was the same in that company too. I don't think we shied away from hiring women. A lot of women, including me, at a higher position. There are a lot of them. But, yes, that's the reality of the workforce all over the world, it's predominantly men still.
Speaker 1:And you know, I don't think I had a lot of struggle with a lot of people, but yeah, but I think that was the issue is even one or two people when they make you feel like that, it just, it just puts you down for a bit.
Speaker 1:And when my immediate boss, who is the CEO and founder of the company, says that I think he was complimenting me, but it just feels so horrible because if you had questioned my experience, that's okay, because I'm eager to, I was eager to learn, I'm still eager to learn. But just for the fact, something I can't change, something honestly I'm very proud about, I'm very proud to be a woman, I think, oh god, please, I, I'm so much more capable not tooting my own horn, but I think all of us women have. Because of the society's design, we are dealt with a lot of unsavory cards very early in life and we are, I think, much more well prepared to deal with things than otherwise. So, yeah, so that, I think, is a very sad reality of society overall, and I'm sure every woman I talk to will have stories to tell about discrimination in some way they felt at work, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's something I felt in my previous profession as well. I was, of course, very young there, but what I felt was, as a woman, to be taken seriously, you had to be really senior. Yeah, like it was only the women who were fully grey. Grey, yeah, those were just immensely respected and taken very seriously, whereas the younger women were typically dismissed. Yeah, uh, but there there are still a lot more women lawyers than there are women chefs, yeah, and even there's something really small. Um, people think I'm being really nitpicky about it, but for me it's just a conditioning thing. In the kitchens, at every place that I have worked at where I was in a position of power, so many people end up calling me ma'am yeah, whereas the male chef is called chef. But I am ma'am and I would always correct them yeah, saying if he is chef, I am also chef. True, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So it's a really small thing, but it just betrays like a certain conditioning which I'm trying to to, you know, do my bit to reverse no, like I have last year, I've been trying to let my hair gray for this same matter, because when I go for meetings and stuff, uh people, if they don't know how old you are they they think, ah, this is you know, she wouldn't really know much. And they don't know how old you are, they think, ah, this is you know, she wouldn't really know much. And they don't take me seriously. I'm like maybe if I have more grey hair, then people will take me seriously.
Speaker 2:You also just look much younger than your age. Yeah, that isn't working out well for me, right?
Speaker 1:now at work. No, I seriously. Sometimes it frustrates me. I don't want to look younger than I am. People don't take me seriously. You know, if you give it as a compliment, hey, you can pass away as a late 20s or early 30s.
Speaker 2:It's great that way.
Speaker 1:But if I'm looking late 20s or early 30s, nobody's going to be ready to give me the kind of respect, responsibility or partnership I'm demanding. Absolutely Because I'm demanding all of that? Because I have a certain amount of experience and knowledge, and that's a part of it is because of the age I am and I've done this for like almost 20 years now. So, wow, yeah, another two years will be 20 years of working. So, yeah, I think this conversation, if we continue, it's forever, because, yeah, well, there's a lot to say on the matter.
Speaker 1:hopefully in in five years we talk again, because I don't see things changing earlier than that but in five years, hopefully, things will be a little more better, if not overall, in our respective fields, because you know you are doing some amazing work and uh, which I want to get to now, and uh, you know I'm hoping to do a lot more work and which hopefully will put us at a spot where, as women, we get I don't want to say command or demand we receive the kind of respect and, you know, a position that we should get for the amount of experience and knowledge and the work and the skills we are bringing in. Absolutely, here's hoping, coming to the amazing projects that you're doing. Yes, right, I just wanted, I wanted to be the last thing I talk about, saying hey guys, look at this, but it's so exciting because of all, and especially sitting in your house looking at all the books here. I'm just making mental notes saying I need to buy this one too I need to buy some of them.
Speaker 1:I have some, most of them I don't, but I also don't have space in my house for any more books.
Speaker 2:But talk to me about the long table okay, so the long table is something that's been a long time in the making. Yeah, it's a passion project of mine. I feel very strongly about in terms of food, just taking the best quality ingredients that are available to you, doing as little as is required to them to present them in a really beautiful way. Yeah, so that is simply the ethos of the long table. We are offering an experiential dining setting. So it's very small, it's very intimate, it's for up to 10 people at a time here in this space. Yeah, we're also looking to partner with restaurants and stuff like that, in which case we'll make it bigger and it'll reach a wider audience. Yeah, but here it's a very intimate dining experience.
Speaker 2:We're cooking literally in front of you, yeah, and you know everything is being served to you fresh, and a lot of the produce we are growing ourselves, we're sourcing it from other farms from around the city, yeah, and um, where what we're bringing to you are different seasonal menus on some theme or the other, um, and we're serving it to you in a tasting menu format. So small portions but multiple courses, yeah, so by the end of it, you've tried a lot of different kinds of food, hopefully a lot of different cuisines and you've seen, uh say, this time we're doing a mango menu, so we're offering seven courses of food and two non-alcoholic beverages. So by the end of it you have had mango in nine different ways, using five, six different varieties of mango. And you know, the idea is not for you to get palate fatigue. It doesn't feel like you're just having the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 2:It's all very different. It's from different parts of the world. So this mango menu of ours, we're covering a lot of asian countries, we're doing three dishes from india and we're also looking at mexico and stuff that. So parts of the world where they do grow and use mango in their food. So that's, that's the idea behind the long table. We're very new. Yeah, we officially launched just last weekend. Yeah, which is the middle of june is when we've officially launched um, so there's a long way still to go. We've only done the one menu so far which we're discontinuing this weekend. Yeah, because mango season is getting old. Yeah, but we're going to be coming back next month with a lot of new, exciting menus on different themes. Yeah, so stay tuned absolutely.
Speaker 1:I've been looking, of course, looking at all the pictures on instagram. Thanks to instagram and the food looks amazing.
Speaker 1:I missed your tasting because I was traveling but I really look forward to eating them and, of course, taking all those pictures. They look so beautiful and that's the thing about food also. Right, like you start with your eyes. You want your eyes, your nose and everything, while I can't smell them, but I can see them and they look amazing and I can't wait to try, and more so when my son comes back home next time. I really want, because this time you started just up, sure, when we were already leaving him. Yeah, he would, more than my husband, he would, I think so I'll just keep my husband, okay sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I look forward to it every podcast. Why do I ditch my husband?
Speaker 2:so much poor thing. Every time he hears he'll be like why is he trying? No, abhinav, I'll take you along.
Speaker 1:So no, but my son would really. He's a big MasterChef Australia fan. That's why he began. Amazing, and he would say things like when he was seven, eight, like this dish needs a little balancing, oh my gosh Wow.
Speaker 1:And we used to find it so funny. But, like we were talking earlier about how, in your household, uh, you and your brother both had you know uh were asked to learn how to cook because that's a basic life scale and with my son I didn't have to come to the point saying you have to learn to cook, he just picked it up. He loves it, uh, super. He's a teenager now so it's a little lazy. He wants to do just the sauteing and finally someone else do the prep yeah, so he's like can I not peel garlic, can I not?
Speaker 1:uh, you're cutting onions. I'm just gonna go out and play video game till you finish. I'm like hello, you have to do all these things too, sure, but that's something. Uh, he's super interested and I think he'll really, really love the long table super I look forward to it likewise now, apart from the long table, you were also, I remember a few months ago you were talking about your farm, yes, and you had other plans with your farm and what you wanted to do, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we have a farm that has been in our family for the last 10 years just outside the city of Hyderabad and it's something we took and we've made it an organic farm in the sense it took three years just to clean the soil enough that earthworms started coming there again, stuff like that. So everything we grow we use natural methods. There's strictly no chemicals, etc. And we have a very extensive orchard. That's how we get so many varieties of mango right now that we're using, but there's also a lot of other exotic varieties of fruits that we're growing, and we have vegetable patches and we have cows and we're getting some more chickens and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So it's a full farm experience and at this farm we're soon, hopefully, going to be able to offer people the option of coming and dining there as well. So the long table will also go to the farm and do bigger experiences there, more rustic, more farm to table kind of experiences. And apart from that, we're also looking at using our produce from the farm in other ways also. So the long table is a more gourmet dining experience. So it's something you would do not necessarily every week, right.
Speaker 2:It's an occasion it's an occasions, uh, it's for occasions, it's something that's an indulgence, etc. We're also looking to hopefully cater to people's everyday needs zone, um, and we're looking to get into a slightly more health food kind of um, nice category of daily salad bowls, using again a lot of our fresh farm produce from our own farm, and we'll also tie up with, say, hydroponic farms for the leaves, etc. And that's something we're hoping to do soon as well.
Speaker 2:So it's hopefully something you'll be interested in trying yourself very much so it's something we're just looking to help people who are looking for one meal a day sorted, especially the meal when they're at work, and they don't have time to think about what they're eating, etc. We're looking to offer them something healthy but very tasty, yeah, and you know, something different from what they get everywhere else. So, looking forward to sorting that out soon.
Speaker 1:Great projects. I'm looking forward to all of them, and all the best. Thank you so much. One last question yes, now, if there are people who are interested to enter the culinary world right now and would like to try their hand and their interest is also food what would you advise them?
Speaker 2:So I mean I highly encourage people to come give it a try before they make the commitment to enter this world Because in my experience a lot of people say who are fans of MasterChef Australia and other things they have a little bit of a rosy picture of what it actually means to be a chef Because a lot of movies and TV shows so MasterChef is a reality show but a lot of like Hollywood and Bollywood movies and TV shows- have just made it look very glamorous, which it really isn't Like.
Speaker 2:Even celebrity chefs don't lead a very glamorous day-to-day life. You know it's a very hard life. It's a very hard profession. It requires a lot of sacrifice. It requires sacrifice of social life, of sleep, of just general health and well-being. Like you, and I have talked about how I struggle to maintain a modicum of a healthy lifestyle, just because this life really doesn't give you too much time and energy to you know, work on yourself. So all of that apart, just the hours you're putting in, and you know, like you don't get weekends to yourself. You don't get holidays because that is when you're working. So you don't even get to spend time with your family on, say, sundays or for Diwali or whatever, correct. So these are all sacrifices that you should be making, knowing what you're getting into.
Speaker 2:So I would highly encourage anyone who's interested in being a chef to go do an internship Anywhere that will take you. So internships are very hard. They will make you just do repetitive tasks, correct? You might spend all day peeling potatoes, yeah, but it is what it is. Okay, somebody has to do it. And because you're going to them with no experience and no skills or such correct. That's what you'll have to do, but it'll at least give you an insight into that world, into that life, because I know so many folks who do it, who do hotel management, get into it, get disillusioned and start doing something else. Yeah, so at least if you get a taste of it before you commit to it, because if you do do hotel management or go to culinary school, these are all things that require a lot of time and money, yeah, to do. So why not first get a taste of it? Like, even if you're a 16, 17 year old kid? Yeah, who wants to give this a try? Go volunteer your time at some kitchen.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe big commercial places won't take you, but smaller kitchens yeah might be okay with you and just go go spend a month, yeah, and see how it is correct and then make your decision it's like how my son wanted to.
Speaker 1:Now he understands it. When he was younger, he was like I don't like. I was like you have to learn how to cook. No, you want to become, you want to be in mastership. He was like I don't like. I was like you have to learn how to cook. No, you want to become, you want to be in masterchef he's like I'll be the judge. Oh, I don't need to learn how to cook, I just tell them if it's good or not. I was like that's not how it works. What a dream life.
Speaker 1:Now he knows that's not how it works yeah, no, but I think it's a great advice that, uh, you go try it out. Uh, because my dad was in hospitality. This was something, initially, I was very interested in. I do remember telling him in high school that I wanted to go into hotel management and I wanted to become a chef, and he was just like that's a really hard life, I don't think I want you to do it. And he just dismissed it. He just and because there wasn't a lot of encouragement, I dropped it too sure, but he was like it's just a really hard life. I guess he was just talking about you know all of this and he didn't want me to. Absolutely, yeah, as a parent, I think you're 15 year, 16 year old kid, you're like, please, like I don't want I completely understand and relate to that.
Speaker 2:Most people who end up in this profession end up in it for one of two reasons either out of just deep passion yeah or out of comp, yeah, right. So it's one of the two that gets you there. So if you're wishy-washy, if you have other options and you're wishy-washy, do take your other option. Or if you're just deeply passionate and you know this is what you want to do, then I highly encourage you to do it, but just know what you're getting into.
Speaker 1:No, true, like my dad while he worked in the railways, but he was in the hospitality side and he was never around All the years he worked my dad never. I remember one holiday with my father in my college and because my mother threw a fit saying the kids have grown up First, you said the kids are young. You know they won't remember. That was a standard thing.
Speaker 2:Why do you want to go on a holiday? They won't remember, but you know they won't remember that was a standard thing.
Speaker 1:You know, why do you?
Speaker 1:have to go on holidays, they won't remember, but you know. And then we went, we did a little Jammu and all of that holiday very short, but I remember my father never being around at all, like he was always gone. He would leave home at six. He would come back by three, four, because they didn't have a dinner thing in the railways. They didn't have dinner, they had breakfast and lunch, but he was never mentally also there. I had fever. I'll never forget. Like you know, we made fun of him. But now I understand how his life was. Like I have really high fever.
Speaker 1:My mom has to go to work. She's a teacher, it's exam time, so she's not getting a leave. She tells my dad, come and check on her. He can't come and check on me because there is some vendor, gas hasn't been delivered and he's not answering his call. This is before cell phone, so he's running. He comes home and he's like, tells the neighbor and he just runs and no holiday. He didn't spend summer holidays with us. There was nothing, there was nothing. And because railways, yes, he had like evenings with us and Sundays he used to be home, but there was no holidays, there was no vacations, there was none of that. So yeah, I think, a great advice. It made me remember all of this, like, yeah, that's, that's how it was absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I feel like the work culture in India is such that generally it doesn't encourage work-life balance. But I feel like the hospitality industry in particular, yeah, kills work-life balance. But I feel like the hospitality industry in particular, yeah, kills work-life balance more than other industries, given the nature of you know the timings, etc. So at the long table, when I was hiring my team, I told them that work-life balance is a priority for me. It's why we work Monday to Saturday, yeah, and. And we are not working Sundays usually, so we'll make an exception now and then, yeah. So, because I want them and me to have our Sundays off, correct, so we're spending it with our families, yeah, so I'm trying. It's not. It might not be very sustainable In the future. If we're opening a restaurant, we won't be able to maintain this policy of ours. But for now, I'm trying my best to do what I can to maintain work-life balance, you know, and be particular about our timings and not overextend etc. As much as possible, because it's a change that needs to happen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no. I do understand because you know the timings are such Dinner has to be served, so after that you have to clear up Morning lunch. You have to come early to start the prep, and you know so it. Yeah, the industry is such and I mean, if it's diwali we are still ordering in, sometimes we are going out. It's not like, especially nowadays. Earlier diwali meant you know you are like home and now.
Speaker 1:So not so much so with nuclear families or people living away from families. It's, the industry is such and you can't really do much. But I'm so glad you're trying to make this change in whatever small ways and wherever it's possible. Yeah, so all the best Congratulations, thank you, and we really really look forward to all your projects, and thank you so much for doing this with me today. Of course it was an absolute pleasure. Thanks, raghati. Bye. Thank youcom. This is Deepika, and I thank you for listening.