The Food Web

Watch the IGTV episode here.

Suhas Dwarkanath is the founder and lead trainer at Specialty Coffee Academy of India where he trains baristas and other specialty coffee professionals. An experienced barista he is also the owner of Benki Brewing Tools, a one-stop-shop for all speciality coffee needs in India, and his own cafe, Benki Coffee. He has been on the judging panels of several national Barista and Brewing Championships around the world and has been instrumental in organising India's annual Aeropress Championship. In this episode he chronicles his journey in the world of coffee that has included a professional Coffee Diploma at the Specialty Coffee Association in Dubai, working as a Barista in France, and a trip to origin in Ethiopia. Suhas makes a compelling case for those looking to make a career in brewing coffee, likening a barista’s work to that of a bartender or any other highly skilled subject matter specialist, and sharing the many creative possibilities such a profession could offer! He answers audience questions like "How do you take care of your taste buds before sensory evaluation of coffee?" and "What is the best part of being a barista?"

Links

Try course at Speciality Coffee Academy of India

Buy your tools at Benki Brewing Tools

Watch the IGTV video pt 1 here and pt 2 here

Today’s guest Meghna Ravishankar works as the Director of Planning at the World Food Prize (WFP) that works to inform about food and agricultural policies through annual conferences. With an education in international development and interest in policy, she has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York on the Global Programme on Nature for Development. Her work was focused on supporting multi-stakeholder approaches to promote the role of nature for development, climate change mitigation and adaptation.

In today's episode, she begins by explaining the ways in which food policy impacts our daily lives, the role organisations like the UNDP, WFP and IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) play in conveying this information to various stakeholders. If you are new to the world of policy, we recommend that you glance through some resources recommended by Meghna herself before sitting down to watch the two-part episode.  

This episode has many resources and tons of further reading made accesible by level. 

Links:

Courses to apply for to break into the Policy space in India:

Graduate Certificate and Post-Graduate Programmes in Public Policy at Takshashila Institution - https://takshashila.org.in/courses/

Contact Meghna on Linkedin if you are keen to learn about opportunities and a career in the world of food policy.

Level 1: Beginner

A primer for beginners to the world of policy. We recommend heading to the About section of some of the organisations. Start with the World Food Prize then head to the United Nations Development Program and finish with the International Food Policy Research Institute.

If your interest is piqued, here are some other organisations linked with policy based on specialisation. 🧐🧐🧐

Research, Think Tanks & Conveners - ICRISAT, FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, World Bank, MSSRF, ICFA, EAT Forum, UN CFS

Large NGOs/Foundations - Gates, Rockefeller, Ford, World Vision, ActionAid, Oxfam

Innovation, Recognition & Prizes - The Audacious Project, X Prize, Foodshot Global, Rockefeller Food Systems Vision Prize

Human-Centred Design - Butterfly Works, IDEO, OpenIDEO, Dalberg Design

Consulting - Bridgespan, McKinsey, DAI

You can watch Part 1 and Part 2 on IGTV

Today on the show we had two guests. One of whom is Chef Kanishka Sharma, a consultant chef and founder of The Courtyard, curates unique dining experiences and is committed to bringing back leisurely mindful eating. The other is Chef Pallavi Mithika Menon, a trained chef who worked with the Indian Hotel Company Ltd for eight years. Following which she took a sabbatical and studied at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. She believes food today has a moral, political, social and ethical connotation. Together they host and curate dining experiences and serve weekend menus and pantry essentials through Navu Project. 

Prior to the lockdown, they were regularly hosting special dining experiences out of Kanishka's home dining room. In today's episode, they focus on the details and inspiration that brought the two chefs together. They talk about their desire to create more wholesome, leisurely and mindful experiences through their meals. Each meal they serve, the audience learns, has been developed through length conversations, cultural and artistic inspiration as well as their personal culinary histories. 

Introspective in nature, today's conversation pushes the audience to think beyond the traditional restaurant and fine dining experiences and examine their emotional journeys and connection to eating meals in the company of others. We also learn that there is plenty of room for unusual, novel and abstract entrepreneurial ventures in the food world in India.

You can watch the IGTV episode here.

Today's guest Anirudh Sharma is the co-founder of cafe chain Third Wave Coffee Roasters along with Ayush Bathwal and Sushant Goel. Third Wave opened its doors in 2016 and has since expanded to three cities in India. In this episode, Anirudh takes us behind the scenes (literally, he tuned in from TWRC's training centre) of a coffee shop, the stages of research and preparation to launch, the various tasking involved in day-to-day operations now, and ends with broad stroke perspectives on renewing the interest people have in coffee as a social beverage. Anirudh went to hospitality school and trained as a chef. He explains that as a student he learned how to organise information, but no amount of education could have trained him for the reality of being a F&B entrepreneur -- you learn everything on the job. He also answers audience questions on business details like "How did you plan the menu for your store?," "What kind of business model are you operating on?" and "How do you maintain quality and standard across so many stores?"

Links:

Watch James Hoffmann on Youtube

Watch Rob Hoos on Youtube and read his book about modulating flavour profiles.

And we’re back from our break. 

Week 4: Resources & Recap 

**Due to technical issues, we had to restart the episode twice and we were constantly interrupted. So watch IGTV episode 1 here and 2 here and 3 here; the extra episode before 1 is also an introduction to the show. **

Today's guest Mukund Naidu has been an artisanal cheesemaker for 30 years. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he was a pioneer in artisanal cheesemaking in India, making some of the first European-style cheeses like mozzarella, romano and parmesan in India in the ‘90s. He started his journey at Caroselle Dairy in Kodaikanal and is now a cheese consultant for many companies around the world including Bahrain, Afghanistan and the private kitchens of a Middle Eastern royal family. In this multi-part episode, he chronicles his journey in cheesemaking, as well as the different factors and processes involved in artisanal cheesemaking, pausing to share delightful anecdotes about cheese history in India. He gives insight into the complexities associated with making artisanal cheeses here, like sourcing good goat's milk and finding a market for new varieties of cheese. He covers a lot of ground by answering questions like "What are the key differences between artisanal and industrial cheesemaking?", "What are some challenges a cheesemaker tends to experience in the Indian market?" and "How much cheese per capita do Indians consume?"

Links:

Read 📚 📚 📚 📚

Mastering Basic Cheesemaking: The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home by Gianclis Caldwell

Cheesemaking Made Easy by New England Cheese Supply 

Cheese and Fermented Milk Foods by Frank V Kosikowski

Artisanal Cheesemaking at Home: Techniques and Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheese by Mary Karlin

Outlines of Dairy Technology by Sukumar De

Try 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀

your hand at Cheesemaking here. (Temporarily closed due to COVID-19)

Eleftheria Cheese

Käse

Begum Victoria Cheese