“If you had told me years ago that I’d be running a food business, I would have laughed. The girl who once survived on Cream Stone ice cream for breakfast because doesn’t like to cook? Impossible. And yet, here I am, building something I never planned for but was always meant to do.I was born and raised in Hyderabad, studied civil engineering at CBIT, and, like many of my friends, went to the U.S. for higher studies. I did my master’s in environmental engineering and started working with the City of Tampa, designing water treatment plants. It was a stable, well-paying job, but something always felt incomplete.One thing that struck me during my time in the U.S. was how structured career growth was for students. They started internships in their first year, explored different fields, and by the time they graduated, they knew exactly what they wanted to do. Back in India, most students, including me at the time, were clueless. There was no system to help us test-drive our careers. We all become engineers first and then think about what to do with our careers. That thought stayed with me. So, when I returned to India, I started a venture called Internfever, that connected students with internship opportunities. We were among the first to do this, and soon, we had partnered with 200+ colleges in AP and Telangana. We helped over 5000 students find internship opportunities and were making an impact, and it felt amazing. But then, life threw me a curveball. My partners quit and I was running this as a solo entrepreneur. In 2016, I had my first child.
Suddenly, balancing work and motherhood felt impossible. I didn’t want to do a half-hearted job either, so I made the tough decision to shut down my venture. For the first time in years, I took a break. And in that break, something unexpected happened, I found myself drawn to food. Not the fancy, Instagram-worthy kind. Real, traditional food. The kind of food grandmothers made; food rooted in our traditions. The kind that nourished, healed, and had stood the test of time. But here’s the irony, I hated cooking. Always had.
When I first moved to the U.S., I carried a suitcase full of Maggi packets just to avoid it. But I loved feeding people. Bringing them together over food. Watching their faces light up with the first bite of something warm and familiar. Motherhood changed everything. I started experimenting with age-old recipes using ragi, jonnalu, kandulu to provide nourishing and healthy food for my kids and realised how much of our culinary wisdom was being lost. We were trading real food for convenience, not because we wanted to, but because life was getting busier. And thus began my journey with traditional foods. That got me thinking, what if we could bring back traditional food, but in a way that fits modern life? Then came 2020. The pandemic. With no help at home and a demanding part-time job at an event management company, I started freezing food and meal-prepping in bulk. I researched how freezing works, the science behind it, and realized that freezing is the best way to preserve food without it losing any of its nutrients, There is so much stigma around frozen food in India, but in reality, it’s one of the best ways to preserve nutrients. That’s when I met my co-founder, Naveen. He came from a hospitality background, and when we started talking, we realized we shared a common belief that – food is not a business; food is service. And just like that, our brand Gourmet Craft was born.
We started with the idea of making traditional foods more convenient and accessible to millennials. We introduced ready to cook foods like millet idli, millet dosa, rice pongal, upma etc that were made with no palm oil or added preservatives. We also introduced traditional Telugu pickles, made with cold-pressed oils using heirloom recipes and traditional methods. Indians aren’t used to eating food from a package and we had to convince people that clean, wholesome food could be convenient too. It is much better than ordering out where you don’t know where the food was cooked and what quality of ingredients were used. Slowly, word spread. And a lot of mothers stand by our ready to cook mixes today.
‘Always eat well’ has been our brand’s motto and we extended it by starting food outlets in corporate IT parks. Most office-goers eat outside every day, and we wanted to give them food that felt like home. We operate food outlets at corporate IT parks with our most recent outlet opening at Sattva Knowledge Park. But the food business is notoriously challenging. Competition is fierce, rents are high, and quality is often sacrificed for profit. We refused to do that. Instead, we focused on something simple—good homely food, made the right way, at a fair price. And it worked for us.
Giving back to the community was also important to us. We partnered with the NGO KEATS to establish the Keats Women Empowerment Centre in Ambarupeta Village near Vijayawada, a small food processing unit. This initiative provides financial independence to local women who produce our pickles and other products. This partnership is a source of great pride for us. Today, we serve 1,000 meals a day. In the next five, we aim to serve at least 10,000meals a day. But keeping the numbers aside, the most fulfilling part are the stories.Like the mother who told us our millet dosa mix helps her during busy mornings because her kids leave for school before 8 AM. Or the IT employees who say our meals remind them of home. Or the nutritionists who recommend our products to clients struggling with lifestyle diseases like PCOD and obesity, knowing that even small changes like switching to millets, can make a difference. And for me, it’s personal too. Every Sunday, it’s a tradition in my house for, my eightyear-old daughter and me to make upma using our pre-mix. She makes it all by herself and relishes it with our lemon pickle. That moment is what food should be. Not just convenience. But comfort, connection, and joy. If you’re thinking of starting a food venture, I would not just do it for money. The industry has great potential but a profit only focus won’t be sustainable. Food is deeply personal. It’s emotional. It’s a service. If you approach it with that mindset, Success will follow.”
- Arpita Soma, Co-Founder, Gourmet Craft