RUCHIKA HEALTH RASOI - SERVICE DURING PANDEMIC BY PRIYANKA SARODE

The pandemic has brought "home chefs" to the centre of the food supply chain. Just as doctors have risen to the occasion to save the patients, our home chefs have also risen to the occasion to supply an uninterrupted supply of healthy, clean and safe food to the home quarantined patients and senior citizens. They have really done a yeoman's service to society and nobody is talking about them.

We at Petpuja.com are celebrating the efforts put in by these home chefs. Here is the account of Priyanka in her own words.

Priyanka Sarode Tiwari of " RUCHIKA HEALTH RASOI"

OVER TO PRIYANKA,

"By education and training, I am a textile engineer & MBA. I had worked in a large textile group at the beginning of my career but food and cooking always remained my passion.

Nearly four years ago, I decided to be my own master and turned my passion of cooking into a food venture. I had a strong belief that growth is best achieved if it is nurtured organically hence starting out as a home chef was the most natural option.

Since beginning, my focus has always been on quality combined with taste. I had also believed that our desi Indian cuisine has inherent health benefits. Hence I named my venture ‘Ruchika Health Rasoi’ with tag line of ‘Swasthya Rakshti Rakshite’.

My consistent focus on quality and health made my business grow at consistent pace.

In 2020, as the unfortunate COVID 19 pandemic hit the world, we saw a marked shift in customer’s preference towards healthier home made food. With the tsunami of second wave this year, the preference of healthier food became the top priority.

Many families in my neighbourhood were affected by the virus and were eithert advised home isolation or admitted into hospitals. This resulted in an increased demand for home-made, healthy and fresh food manifold. When few of my regular customers went into home isolation, they contacted me for regular delivery of healthy home made food. I had started serving them. When their friends and family also faced with the same situation and also need home made healthy food, my regular clients referred them to me. The word spread like a wild fire and very soon, I found myself in a space where saying no to an ailing customer became nearly impossible. Enquiries were poring in from all parts of Ahmedabad and unless and until it was not humanely possible to deliver in time, I served and serviced.

I was not prepared in any way to deal with this kind of surge in my orders. Arranging inventories, cooking, packing and deliveries was a mammoth job. More than two months of peak pandemic, I was catering to more than 120 servings per day all alone, without any kind of outside help for the safety of my customers. It would not be possible without huge support of my husband and many a times my young daughter of 5 years also pitch in to help me in this enormous task.

Day used to start before sunrise for breakfast preparation, serving lunches and usually ended around midnight after serving dinner and cleaning of the kitchen. Planning three meals every day, preparations, cooking which included making nearly 500 rotis every day , packing more than 120 meals and arranging for timely deliveries was every-day work during peak pandemic days.

Besides this, I was talking to customers, who were not feeling well both physically and emotionally, had different tastes and cravings, it became a huge responsibility to address their queries and apprehensions in a manner which helps them to cope up with challenge of getting good food during their illness. 

The whole experience, to say the least, was overwhelming

It was a stupendous task and very challenges, but I received lot of appreciation and recognition in the process. It made me realise the true meaning of word ‘serve’ which we use casually as ‘serving’ in our line of work. 

It was a great satisfaction to see them (whom I had served) come out of it fully recovered and healthy. It will always remain my biggest reward and recognition for a long time to come.

Priyanka Sarode