Meet Mumbai's ace menu developers

Mitesh Rangras

You could call Karishma Sakhrani very self-aware. Though she spends hours in the kitchen at her Churchgate home - which almost operates like a lab for her culinary innovations - slaving away at a city restaurant, she realised early on, wasn't her cup of tea. "I consider myself an artist, and need my space when I'm working on a dish," says the 31-year-old.

In 2015, she quit a flourishing career in business development at a lifestyle magazine to follow her passion for food, entering MasterChef India Season 4 as a contestant. While she lost out in the final round, what she'd already gained was the attention of Mumbai's restaurateurs. Soon, offers began coming in asking her to be a menu developer.

Shweta Menon and Sunnaeya Kapur at their South Mumbai residence. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Say what?
Menu developing is slowly becoming a niche job in the Mumbai restaurant business, in which consultants are called in, either by a restaurateur to create something entirely new for the diner, or even by an existing head chef looking for a fresh perspective to break away from the monotony.

"The concept [of menu developing] was almost unheard of in 2015," says Sakhrani. "But it serves as a perfect win-win solution for both the restaurant and the consultant chef," she says. The deliverable for a menu developer isn't just to create a new menu and leave. They need to, she adds, take a fresh look at a restaurant's menu strategy, identify demand, tap into trends and enhance guest loyalty.

Karishma Sakhrani at Fort's Pantry. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Giving an example of how this works, Mitesh Rangras, who has helmed restaurants such as Lemon Leaf and Aoi in Mumbai, talks of a recent project in Indore. "The objective there was to bring a modern Indian dining experience to the city that didn't have as many options at the time." Rangras quit work as a full-time chef in 2017 because he wanted more variety in what he did. Work in Indore, he says, began with research. "We found that most of the clientele was vegetarian and so we proposed the same. Also, we then got into the local cuisine and came up with ways to incorporate local flavours and delicacies into the menu." He gives the example of jeeravan - a popular spice blend used by Indoris - which was incorporated into a lemonade and a salad recipe with quinoa liberally used instead of chaat masala.

In the last year or so, Rangras has developed menus for Thaal Co, Pete's Pizzeria and 2 Bros Pizzas. While for the pizzerias he started from scratch by setting up the kitchen, menu, staff training and recipes, for Thaal, he set up the kitchen and standardised the recipes, helping them create a structure to the operations. He says, "What I used to do for one restaurant, I now do for different companies. Only it's more challenging and fun as I do it in diverse locations with new audiences."

Bite of satisfaction
Sakhrani has been a core affiliate for the menu development of some of Mumbai's popular restaurants and cafés such as Kala Ghoda's The Pantry, Bandra's The Yoga House and Candy & Green at Breach Candy. A wellness chef, she dabbles in healthy bites. "Sometimes, when a restaurant ropes you in, the owners present you with a blank canvas and you're allowed to experiment." For instance, at The Pantry, she introduced a range of healthy snacks such as kale chips and light meals such as the beetroot quinoa burger. At Aromas Cafe's new outlet in Bandra, she has experimented with a range of fermented foods, the latest fad in food circles.

But, it's not just about meeting food demands. Menu developers have to balance their creativity with budgetary constraints. "Sometimes, extremely exotic ingredients don't fit into their [a restaurant's] budgets, so you need to find a worthy replacement."

Prasad Parab, who has developed menus for Happy House Kitchen, Hrezzo, Sammy Sosa, Feast O Fill, thinks, that as a consultant, you become more calculative towards food. For instance, while designing a dish, he has to think of various aspects from vendors and availability of ingredients to market acceptance, specific equipment needed for that particular dish, contribution of that equipment in the whole menu et al. He adds, "As a consultant we not only create a dish but make it commercially successful through return of investment, media exposure and creating ingredient awareness, to keep it exciting."

Formerly a chef at JW Marriott Hotel, Mumbai, Parab turned to consulting in 2014, thanks to Facebook. He recalls, "I got contacted by an acquaintance who was scouting for a chef who could help him design a menu for his vegetarian fine-dining restaurant in South Mumbai. I saw that as an opportunity to showcase my strengths and experience of working with some of the most influential chefs around the world."

The last-minute challenge
But, consultants have a tough time too. Shweta Menon, an ex-lawyer, and Sunnaeya Kapur a designer, switched careers to follow their passion for food and start a catering business. The switch came when a friend asked them for help with his restaurant R' Adda. The challenge of the job, says Menon, is when the client connects at the last minute. "For example, a restaurant in Juhu, where the client had already fixed the name and the decor, was confused about the cuisine. We stepped in and sensing the feel of the restaurant and the catchy name created a menu around that." The duo loves local produce and most of their work shows them promoting the same through regional cuisines.

However, one thing that all of them agree on is that innovation must continue in the kitchen. Parab says, "You cannot sell the same old makhani every time as the guest needs some pampering, either in the presentation or texture or with an international approach to that dish. Yes, there are certainly some blockbuster dishes on which we still try to improvise smartly, without deviating from its core taste. But that's the fun of being a chef."

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