Papad Chai: Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 41- Vinika Lakhiani

Dinning at a restaurant is preferable than to order on phone. Unless you are a food critic, or a known personality in the food industry, the food that arrives at your table at home from a restaurant may not meet its standards. Because, a special attention is paid on presentation and packing only when sending it with some purpose of good review, but for the common person, the service is completely different and mediocre.

In restaurants, different types of gravies are already pre-prepared, so all they do is to just stir fry the meat/veggies, add the prepared gravy and pack. Different kinds of sauces, such as chilly sauce, sweet sauce, vinegar, pickle etc are packed and you just have to adjust the taste as per your choice. Depending on courier service, (ranging from 35-45 minutes,) the food that arrives is lukewarm, has lost its crispiness, the veggies are completely soaked into gravy and it has no visual delight. The containers are filled upto brim, tightly packed, so very messy sometimes. Reheating is not a good option and the family is impatient and hungry.

Of course, the pandemic has been the biggest blow to their business but then ordering food from home-chef is the better option. There are been high rise in home-chefs and many of them have upgraded themselves to a professional level. Some of them have adhered to their traditional cuisine, some for cultural, some for vegan, some for only salads, and some as per preferential cuisine, if you order one day in advance, that is. But one thing you are sure, that the food you ordered was cooked specially for you.

Vinika Lakiani of ‘Vini’s Soul Food’ started her home-food business in July 2021

Vinika specialises in multi-cuisine food. She has items from different cuisines on her menu, such as Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Sindhi and of course Indian. She is very passionate about desserts and recently, she has expanded into making Indian mithais as well. Especially since the pandemic started, she hoped to prepare everything that she used to crave for at home.

Growing up, her mother would cook delicious homemade meals for the family.

“I was very lucky that my mother was an excellent cook. She taught me the basics and I also ended up learning how to cook well. My mother and my mother in law have been my biggest role models when it comes to cooking” she says.

“I then got married to my husband, who was a huge foodie. He pushed me to try out new dishes and that is when I began to enjoy learning new recipes. We used to travel frequently; hence, I ended up exploring various cuisines and trying out new food that I had never even heard of before. Food became my passion!” she beams

She remembers of the time, many years ago when she had travelled to Seoul in South Korea for the first time. Her husband took her to a small restaurant for lunch in one of the markets over there. There was a huge wok kept above a flame on the centre of the table. She had never seen anything like that before. An extremely delicious meal was being prepared right in front of them.

"It ended up tasting just as amazing as the entire process and experience! Cooking food on the table itself in a restaurant was a totally new concept to me! The dish was called Jjigae. It is a Korean curry with noodles and vegetables in it. It is served with rice and side dishes like kimchi" she brightens up

After her trip to Korea, she fell in love with Korean food. “I am proud that I learned how to cook many Korean dishes and now it is a part of our regular meals at home.” She says

Vinika is happy to share the recipe of Sail Pav that is normally enjoyed in every Sindhi homes during breakfast.

1. In a mixer, take 3cups of coriander leaves, 9-10 cloves of garlic, 4-5 chopped green chillies, one sliced onion, 1tbsp turmeric powder, 1tbsp coriander powder and salt.

2. Add very little water and grind it to a paste.

3. Next take a pan or kadai and put 2 tbsp oil.

4. Add the masala paste and saute for few minutes.

5. Add about 3 cups of water and give it a boil.

6. Add 1tbsp tamarind pulp and mix.

7. Taste the gravy and adjust with salt and red chilli powder if want more spicy.

8. Once its boils, break the bread (Pav) in half and add in the pan and let it soak well.

9. Lower the flame, cover, let cook for 5 - 7 minutes and if need more water then add little.

10. Serve hot.