Home chefs, eateries resume deliveries for Covid patients

In most cases, customers have to arrange a pick-up; some deliver

Spandana Mukherjee supplies north Indian and Bengali food in north Bengaluru.

Slurp Studio provides wholesome vegetarian meals.

Some chefs and restaurants in Bengaluru are back to preparing meals for Covid patients and their families. Increasing calls from home-quarantined patients have spurred them into action.

Some cater across the city, others to a few locations. While most supply custom-made food that is low on oil and spice, some have soups and salads on their elaborate menu.

Metrolife spoke to a few.

‘Demand is picking up’

Nayantara Menon Bagla, chef and partner of The Circus Canteen, has been providing ‘Covid food’ since the pandemic broke out. During the second wave, a time she remembers as “absolutely manic”, she had also delivered free meals to ambulance drivers and crematorium workers.

This time, the demand is still picking up, she says. Her kitchen does a composite meal that is freshly cooked and low on spices. The menu changes every day but revolves around lemon rice, chana dal, vegetable pulao, sambhar, jeera rice, beetroot masala, masoor dal, pickle and salad.

“The food is either picked up by the customer or we send it by a delivery agent,” she informs.

Price: Rs 75 per meal; contact: 96118 54141

‘Save on delivery cost’

Spandana Mukherjee, owner and director, The Culinary Boutique, caters north Indian and Bengali food to the areas of Rajajinagar, Yelahanka, Manyata Tech Park and Nagawara. On her menu are chicken, fish, egg and vegetarian meals. The food is made with less oil and spice and is light on the stomach. She operates through a cloud kitchen. She sends lunch and dinner in together at noon, packing them in microwavable disposable containers. “This is helpful for people who want to save on the delivery charges,” she explains.

Price: Rs 150 to Rs 200 per meal; contact: 90517 11270.

‘My Covid illness inspired this service’

Chemistry teacher with a prominent school Mallika Parikh cooks vegetarian food for 15 to 20 families from her kitchen in Thippasandra every day. She caters across the city.

“Asymptomatic patients like their food spicy while patients with severe illness prefer spices in mtoderation. I alter the taste accordingly,” she says. Mallika understands this well because she had suffered a loss of taste after contracting Covid-19 last May. The infection left her in the hospital for 41 days,
fighting a risk of organ failure and speech loss at the same time.

“When I returned home, I craved good food, which was not spicy or bland but tasty. I realised other Covid patients would like to have good food too. That’s why I started a Covid food service.”

Price: Rs 225 per meal; contact: 98860 20323.

‘We also get calls from overseas’

Slurp Studio, a culinary school, catered food to over 3,000 people during the second wave, dispatching 40-45 meals a day on some days. They also distributed food in the slums for free. They decided to reopen their Covid kitchen in the second week of January after they started getting six to seven calls a day through the volunteer channels they were part of last year. “We have restarted the service but with an earnest hope that the third wave is shorter than the previous ones,” says marketing manager Arjun Mehra. Their meals include dal, sabzi, roti, rice, and a salad. “Customers have to arrange a pick-up because they are neither tied up with food delivery platforms nor do they have delivery personnel,” says chef Sarabjeet Singh, who runs the Studio with chef Faseeulla Saifulla. People from other cities and even overseas are also calling them to arrange food for their families and friends living in Bengaluru.

Price: Rs 150 per meal; contact: 99165 80506.