Financial freedom is crucial to women’s empowerment. Many women stay in abusive marriages because of a lack of economic independence, among other reasons. Even the power dynamics in a relationship often remain imbalanced due to the lack of financial security for women. Add to that the low income of an entire family, and the consequent early marriages of the daughters further slow women empowerment.
Today, women entrepreneurs are not just empowering themselves but also several other women who offer employment to. With the rise of home chefs, several women are monetising their culinary skills.
Here are a few women entrepreneurs that are empowering home chefs by putting them on India’s foodscape.
Savithri Swaminathan, Authentic Food Stories
Swaminathan quit her Hindustan Unilever job to start her own food venture after realising an unmet demand for Andhra cuisine in Mumbai. She realised that in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, where there are people from all over the country, with an open mind to trying out new cuisines, Swaminathan decided it was time to start a venture that can fulfil the demand for Andhra food. In fact, there were several women in her social circle who cooked this cuisine for their families. Thus, with an initial investment of 20 lakhs, she started her venture Authentic Food Stories. Currently, her foodtech venture offers 20 cuisines including Punjabi, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Marwari, Maharashtrian, Sindhi, Delhi, Eastern UP, Bihari, Bengali, Oriya, Indo Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, among others.
Apeksha Ghia, Neeji
An MBA graduate, Ghia decided to start a foodtech venture for home chefs during the pandemic, as the demand for the same elevated considerably. She started Neeji, and within three months, she had around 100 chefs offering dishes belonging to 25-odd cuisines. What’s more heartening is she charged no commission and onboarding fees. Customers were charged a delivery fee, depending on the location. Ghia assures that due quality checks are made before onboarding a home chef.
Adetee Agarwal, PinkAprons
PinkAprons is not Adeetee Agarwal’s first foodtech venture. She started FoodGenie in 2016 which specialised in North Indian food for vegetarians. After the pandemic hit, she started PinkAprons to help financially empower homemakers and improve their family income, especially since many lost their primary jobs. Since then, she has more than 500 home chefs across Pune and catered to more than 20,000 customers. PinkAprons has home chefs who offer regional cuisines, bakery items, healthy food options and tiffin subscriptions.
Images courtesy: Your Story