Objective: Mothers’ recipes have a strong association with childhood memories and are formed more of estimates and from spontaneity rather than real recipes, although some might be old family recipes – because in the absence of proper documentation, these culinary treasures could be lost forever.- Kappa Chakka Kandhari, is a tribute to my mother’s cooking, and to the food I grew up with; two things that drives my passion; Shortly called as KCK was started with my friend Augustine, in recreating food memories without compromising its unique aspects or wholesomeness, while appealing to a new generation of diners.- Journey: I spent 3 years traveling across Kerala, researching and working with over 265 housewives and 70 toddy shops across the state, some of them are now part of the kitchen team at the restaurant.

I launched Tranquil Gourmet Solutions, in 2013, committing to restaurant conceptdevelopment and operations, food designing, and gastronomic consultancy, and it’s stillactive and ongoing.Why Tranquil? I believe a wealth of knowledge and expertise about Indian cooking are with cooks across the country. Hence, I regularly host regional Indian food pop-ups with specialist home-chefs at our state-of-the-art Tranquil Gourmet Studio in Chennai. The objective is to provide a platform and opportunity to showcase the variety and flavours of not just regional food but homestyle cuisine as well, to revive enthusiasm for nostalgia that Indian food can so powerfully evoke.

Head, Centre of Excellence at Orkla India [Eastern Condiments & MTR Foods Pvt Ltd]- As a seasoned Chef, I understand cuisines of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.- Curated two major pop-up food events in Bangalore showcasing ethnic Karnataka vegetarian cuisine called Karunadu Swada, in January 2017 and 2018), which attracted approximately 5000 people each time.- Plans are on to host Telugu Ruchulu, a showcase of Andhra and Telangana Cuisine in Hyderabad soon and a similar event for Tamil Nadu cuisine.- Holding advisory positions in the F&B Industry, lending expertise in establishing successful restaurants, food designing as well as menu engineering.

Launched 5 restaurant brands, 15 fine dining restaurants and an equal number of quick service restaurants. Conceptualized ‘Benjarong’, India’s first and notably the very best stand-alone Thai restaurant. With three Benjarongs in India, these have been listed as amongst the best in Asia by Milie Guide. To promote my native cuisine, I launched ‘Ente Keralam’, a concept restaurant serving haute Kerala cuisine, turning a native cuisine into a fashion statement. The other brands that I worked on included Wangs Kitchen, Teppan,Kokum, French Loaf and La Chocolatier. I drove strategy and execution plans including budgeting, cost control, food designing, operations, branding, ingredient sourcing as well as resource planning. Coming out with Out-of-the-box solutions, dynamic and new age concepts, spotting opportunities and turned many ideas into reality. Besides my expertise in developing successful restaurants and significantly scaling up brands and operations, I brought to the table wide-ranging experience in Food designing, remarkable restaurant concepts, restaurant business management skills and a solid understanding of guest expectations that helped Oriental Cuisines to mitigate financial risks, speed up business growth and book profits faster.

After graduating in Hotel Management and Catering Technology, I began my career with Taj Hotels as a Hotel Operations Management Trainee. In two years time, I went on to become the chef-in-charge at Paradise Island, Taj Westend’s signature Thai restaurant, a position I held for five years. During this period, Paradise Island was a top draw among food connoisseurs and food critics both.