Mumbai food: The takeaway just got a makeover

Patel building comes across as just another nondescript location near Lower Parel railway station in the lane leading to the Mathuradas Mills Compound However its ground floor has been buzzing with activity over the last few months Work begins at 10 am when the staff arrives By 1030 am a delivery van begins unloading carefully marked food containers and packets Around 11 am the staff most of them now dressed in kitchen attire and protective caps gear to take orders for three takeaway brands mdash Pao and Bao Indus Opus and Pan of AsiaThe central kitchen of Pao and Bao Pan of Asia and Indus Opus PICsBipin KokateMeanwhile operations have also started early morning in Marol the centralised kitchen of Ceres Hospitality Pvt Ltd a threeyearold startup that owns Pao and Bao and Pan of Asia and Morsel Products that owns Indus Opus In another part of town in Mahim operations begin at 530 am at the restaurantcumcentralised kitchen of FeeastEast a multichain restaurant that serves Kolkatastyle rolls and Bengali food in the city The twoandhalfyearold company recently opened an outlet in Worli While the Mahim outlet which also serves as a centralised kitchen is massive other outlets are smallerChef and owner Sougata Sengupta right at the centralised kitchen of FeeastEast Mahim PicShadab KhanThough a relatively oldconcept centralised kitchens like these have reemerged allowing restaurateurs in the city to cater to a wider audience and control quality across outlets Charcoal that serves biryani recently started Chilli Flakes a gourmet pizza delivery space that runs from the same kitchen Therersquos also Ammirsquos Biryani a multichain Mughlai takeaway serviceFrom left Deb Mukherjee and Harsh Patel of Ceres HospitalityEconomics of scaleldquoThe concept is to offer the three different brands to customers using the same backend keeping costs down and also offering products at an attractive pricerdquo says Deb Mukherjee of Ceres Hospitality cofounded with Harsh Patel that runs the centralised kitchen in MarolThe popularity of the concept is more a need of the hour as real estate prices soar city says Sougata Sengupta founder and owner of FeeastEast ldquoMy running cost for a new outlet has come down by more than 50 per centrdquo he says citing the example of his Worli outlet that runs out of a 100 sq ft takeaway joint ldquoI would have been paying at least R70000 per month in rentals if I had to open an outlet with a kitchen and chefs to prepare the food But with this setup I do nrsquot need more than an 100 sq ft area that costs me just R20000 a monthrdquo he informs ldquoWhat this also means is that I donrsquot have to hire a senior chef at every outletrdquo agrees Mukherjee The savings from rentals both say have helped their companies provide better facilities to employees and also hire welltrained hands from across IndiaQuality controlldquoFor a multichain eatery like ours maintaining the same taste and quality across outlets was a challenge that having a centralised kitchen solvedrdquo says Sengupta adding ldquoWe semiprep most items barring Chinese like breads fillings sauces curries or marinades for chicken lamb and mutton and dim sums in advance and transport it to the locations on the same day Thus we are able to control taste and quality and maintain it across outletsrdquoFeeastEast has hired taxis that transport food from Mahim to all its outlets across the city along with its trained staff By 11 they are at their stations ready to serve Kolkata Rolls biryani and freshly prepared Chinese dishes ldquoAll the staff has to do is heat the food and serve it to our customersrdquo adds Sengupta But while Sengupta runs only one brand FeeastEast Mukherjee and his team have managed to launch three takeaway brands using the same assembly Pao and Bao that serves snack bites Pan of Asia serves Chinese delicacies while Indus Opus specialises in Indian cuisine like curries parathas and rice preparations like biryani Until now Mukherjee and his team have been fairly successful ldquoThe three brands have already broken even R15k per day business in Marol and Lower Parel and we are hoping to achieve the same in Powai soonrdquo says Mukherjee The first van leaves Marol around 830 am It reaches Powai by 930 and thereafter heads to Lower Parel reaching there at 1030 amWhile the method helps standardise quality across outlets Mukherjee informs that the biggest boon had been reduced production time that enables quicker deliveries ldquoFast deliveries are of utmost importance for any takeaway brand Every fast delivery means a happy customer which in turn relates to them thinking of us next time they decide to order foodrdquo he reasonsTech mattersBut all of this wouldnrsquot have been possible without technology supporting various back end operations like inventory management point of sale and call centres to prevent losses due to wastage by using smart metricsCeres uses a cloudbased endtoend system provided by Torqus a tech startup that links call centres to every point of sale unit at an outlet and to the inventory there as well as at the central kitchen So the moment a portion of Biryani or Bao is ordered the system automatically updates the inventory at the takeaway kitchen as well as the base kitchen ldquoWe receive orders from multiple points mdash our call centres websites of the three takeaways as well as via food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato The system helps us track all of them together at one point and takes into account the average sales in a week and as per demand it creates an order list for the satellite sites It also records any unique spikes on particular days of the week and adjusts order sizes accordinglyrdquo reveals MukherjeeFeeastEast relies on a pointofsale system provided by Posist which is linked to a thirdparty inventory management system called Lime Tray All software is mapped to a certain delivery area As soon as an order is placed itrsquos sent to the location and updatedBut the biggest benefit that integration of technology with the business model of the centralised kitchen has introduced is that Mukherjee and Sengupta can track every minute detail of the eateries on their smartphones mdash from the status of an order to their dailyweekly performance to the inventory status from anywhere in the world ldquoI have an app that I can use to check minutebyminute sales by channels I am aware at any point how a particular unit is doing what kind of sale in real time The customer also gets intimated about it If itrsquos pouring in Lower Parel we can instruct the software to give frequent updates to customers We aim to deliver in 45 minutes It also keeps a tab on his profile and past orders It helps us push productsrdquo explains Mukherjee