City-based cloud kitchen gets biryani inspiration from Chera-era perunchoru
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ingredients, there they Speaking use are for a few Girish about perunchoru, confidential says, perunchoru “We which ingredients found and we out incorporated its our biryanis. the reason and This tried behind is to when using bring we wild it understood for boar all meat types by of meat the were Cheras for too the strong — biryani, we that tried but it became several the ingredients nauseating which was to able consume. to absorb The only meat all the and ingredients it, in turn, was elevated mutton the ingredients flavour. which We use are similar used for the the thokku mutton that biryani comes for as an accompaniment along with the biryani. The spices used for perunchoru are not something you get in traditional shops but in naattu marundhu kadai
and the rice used is a mixture of mappila samba and seeraga samba rice. Our mutton Karigar perunchoru is served with a special thokku, raita and paan ladoo packed in a palm leaf box.”
Girish and Kannan had connected during the lockdown to set up a cloud restaurant, as restaurateurs were badly affected by the pandemic and the lockdown that followed it. “I run a restaurant called Fromage in Chennai; I got in touch with Kannan who is based in Thiruvannamalai during the lockdown. We connected and were looking to start a cloud restaurant. We did not want to go in for a traditional item already available in the market. Starting a biryani brand in Chennai is a scary concept as we were against huge players in the market. We wanted to be different and unique instead of trying to sell a package of biryani traditionally,” adds Girish.
In an attempt to make the packaging eco-friendly and reusable, they went to Thoothukudi where they found residents practice the art of palm leaf weaving and decided to use it for packaging. Inspired by these artisans, the duo came up with the name Karigar which translates to artisans. Explaining the story behind the packaging, Girish informs, “The packaging comes directly from the villages around Thoothukudi belt like Vembar. While travelling to Thoothukudi this time we came across only 10 per cent of the people making palm leaf boxes when compared to those making them five years ago. When we reached out to them, they mentioned that this industry had died out because of industrialisation. We went and met those artisans who made palm leaf boxes, which is when we decided the name for the brand. We finalised on this and made sure that the packaging is favourable to the customers without any loss of flavour, heat and these boxes are eco-friendly and reusable.” After working on Karigar Biryani from July last year, the duo launched the cloud kitchen on December 10, 2020.
‘Spices used for perunchoru are not something you get in traditional shops but in nattu marundhu kadai and the rice used is a mixture of mappila samba and seeraga samba rice’