PANAJI: FIERCE Kitchens, the country’s first culinary incubator is a collaboration between the Atal Incubation Centre at Goa Institute of Management (AIC-GIM) and Kamaxi College of Culinary Arts (KCCA), Verna. Aimed at providing an impetus to innovative concepts by startups in the food industry, the incubator has launched its first cohort of 12 Foodpreneurs, states a press release.
“The programme will enable incubatees to feed off the experiences, talents, innovation and creativity of experts in the industry so that no matter what culinary venture you have your sights set on, you have your very own team of experts to bank on,” said Parixit Pai Fondekar, Founder, KCCA.
Said Rajesh Joshi, CEO, AICGIM,: “India is brimming with opportunities for potential foodpreneurs who need an impetus to make the transition from a concept to a viable business. The cohort will undergo a 3-month long curated program that provides training, mentoring, guidance, and access to market and funds. Together AICGIM and KCCA will offer them the knowledge and know-how of turning that concept into reality and even scale their present food business. Goa being a culturally diverse destination is the ideal place to drive this programme.”
The culinary incubator received 46 applications in May 2021 when the programme was launched, from foodpreneurs aged from 18 to 67 years. Applications came in from across the country, confirmed Joshi. ” 12 foodpreneurs made the cut after careful selection,” says Joshi.
On completion of the programme, foodpreneurs will have access to the FIERCE Kitchens Accelerator – Margao for any production needs.
“During the pandemic many people have turned into foodpreneurs, opening small-scale, ‘at-home businesses. These ventures are mainly driven by passion and not economics which may make it difficult for them to carry on the long term. As the name suggests, with FIERCE Kitchens we aim to Foster Innovation, Excellence & Resilience in Culinary Entrepreneurship with a plan that’s broken down, dissected, re-arranged and restructured to ensure you have perfected the recipe for success before you even take that first step,” added Fondekar.
Said Ajit Parulekar, Director, GIM,: “KCCA is founded by Parixit, an alumnus of GIM. The program aimed at culinary start-ups will assist in accelerating the growth of early-stage organisations from ideation to marketplace success. AICGIM continues to serve as an active knowledge and resource catalyst for creating an ideal startup ecosystem in the state.”
These are the 12 shortlisted foodpreneurs for the first cohort:
Ankur Jain of “UdyogYantra Technologies” has invented and built an AI & IoT powered Internet Restaurant Platform that ensures digitisation with authentication in the future of food.
Jyoti Tekchandani’s “RRBufley” is a one-stop solution for unlimited buffets booked online right from home, delivered at the doorstep all within 24 hours.
Mannar Mannan who owns “Ingham Herbal Water” was the first company in India to introduce herbal-infused drinking water.
Rati Telgu, the creator of “Ra-Tea Curated Teas” makes hand-blended curated teas.
Priyanka Gupta is selling homemade, healthy pickles under her brand “Nirvaan”
Sandeep Gattani owns “Aatawala Technologies” which is a web-based platform that helps people to procure the main ingredient of staple food after selection among various qualities of wheat provided at the site on demand by cool grinding process saving dietary fibre, time, labour, and preserving essential nutrients which helps enhance the shelf life of the grain.
Shruti Deva is a bakery and confectionary specialist as well as the mastermind behind “Wildflour Goa”.
Surya Reddy set up a cloud kitchen outlet of “Be High Bros” in the small town of Tirupati and brought together 10 kitchens and 15 online restaurants across 5 states providing low–cost kitchen models.
Navneet Yadav “BA Delivery Bar” is a delivery system concept based in Mumbai which delivers fresh cocktails, mocktails and juices to your doorstep.
Goa-based Ajanta Burman specialises in Bengali cuisine.
Pranjal Kalita of “Lensing Agro Pvt. Ltd.” in Guwahati, manufactures value-added products from underutilised natural resources of North-east India like elephant apple, starfruit, jackfruit, turmeric and more.
Pratyusha Jain “Miracle Foods” from Goa manufactures Kombucha products
The next batch of applications to the Culinary Incubator Programme will begin in January 2022.
