Cloud cooking land: housewives become gig-economy chefs

● Rashmi Sahijwala never expected to start working at the age of 59, let alone join India’s gig economy. Now she is part of an army of housewives turning their homes into “cloud kitchens” to feed timestarved millennials.

Asia’s third-largest economy is battling a slowdown so sharp it is creating a drag on global growth, the International Monetary Fund said this week, but there are some bright spots. The gig economy, aided by cheap mobile data and abundant labour, has flourished, opening up new markets across the vast country.

Although Indian women have long battled for access to education and employment opportunities, the biggest hurdle for many is convincing conservative families to let them leave home. But new apps such as Curryful, Homefoodi and Nanighar are tapping the skills of housewives to slice, dice and prepare meals for hungry urbanites from the comfort of their homes.

The so-called cloud kitchens — restaurants that have no physical presence and a delivery-only model — are rising in popularity as there is a boom in food delivery apps such as Swiggy and Zomato.

“We want to be the Uber of home-cooked food,” said Ben Mathew, who launched Curryful in 2018. The web entrepreneur hopes to get a million female chefs on board by 2022.

“We usually train them in processes of sanitisation, cooking, prep time and packaging … and then launch them on the platform,” said Mathew.

One of the first housewives to join Curryful shortly after its launch, Sahijwala was initially apprehensive, despite having four decades of experience in the kitchen. But, backed by her children, she took the plunge. Since then she’s undergone a crash course in how to run a business.

The learning curve was steep, and Sahijwala switched from cooking everything from scratch to preparing curries and batters for breads in advance to save time and limit leftovers. She even bought a massive freezer to store fruit and vegetables, despite her husband’s reservations about the cost. “I told him that I am a professional now,” she said.

The apps — which make their money through charging commission, such as more than 18% per order for Curryful — offer training and supply the chefs with containers and bags to pack the food in.

With India’s cloud kitchen sector expected to reach $1.05bn (about R15bn) by 2023, according to data platform Inc42, companies are keen to get a slice of the action.

There is a boom in food delivery apps such as Swiggy and Zomato

Picture: Punit Paranjpe/AFP Rashmi Sahijwala, 59, in her kitchen in Mumbai. One of the first housewives to join Curryful shortly after its launch, Sahijwala was initially apprehensive, despite having four decades of experience in the kitchen. But, backed by her children, she took the plunge.