From ‘Mother’s Kitchen’

Vishali Pisupati runs a successful catering business from home that is a testimony to her need to stay independent and occupied post retirement. Nidhi Chawla met her in her Chennai home.

Vishali Pisupati (R) with her sister Meena Shashi

An apt name for a venture that is indeed run from a mother’s kitchen – 57-year-old Vishali Pisupati and 62-year-old Meena Shashi run a catering business from their kitchen in Velachery, Chennai, giving the pleasure of a mother’s home cooked food to many office-goers and bachelors in the area.

The sisters have been utilizing their culinary experience of over forty years and running the business for the last two years, their speciality being Andhra, Tamil Nadu and North Indian cuisine. It is a business that was prompted by Vishali’s need to stay independent and occupied, a need that became ingrained in her given the many twists and turns in her life.

We take you on a memorable journey with Vishali Pisupati while enjoying the South Indian traditional snack murukku and the lip smacking Kaja, an Andhra sweet, at the sisters’ lovely home in Chennai.

Vishali was the youngest of four sisters in a Brahmin family of eight in a small village called Krishnapuram, close to Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. The children lost their father a day after the youngest one, their brother, was born and the responsibility of the family fell on the mother and grandmother’s shoulders. The two women managed the arduous task with great courage ensuring basic schooling for the children. However they had to give in to the societal pressures and had all the daughters married at an early age, right after high school. Vishali was 17 when she got married to her second cousin, an acceptable norm in the community, and found her new home in Chennai. Two kids later at the age of 26, she lost her husband to Liver Cirrhosis. History repeated itself and it was now Vishali’s turn to bring up her children independently. She took a bold decision of moving to Visakhapatnam and to join her brother-in-law’s business. She went on to complete PU in Commerce and manage the finance and accounts of the business for over 20 years. She did all of these while continuing to raise her children with all her love and care and completing her duties of educating them and getting them married.

Post Visakhapatnam, Vishali’s next stop was at Chennai where she moved in with her son’s family two years back. Here too the habit of being financially independent and staying busy kept nagging her. A business in food presented itself as a natural choice as cooking was a skill she had in abundance since the young age of 12. The choice also made business sense given the low capital requirement and feasibility of being managed from home. So now Vishali started making the pickles and spice powders she had been making for her extended family for customers.

The business took a serious shape when Meena, Vishali’s elder sister, moved to Chennai and the two joined hands and combined experiences to launch their catering business in Chennai and a pan India business of supplying pickles, snacks and spice powders.

Now the duo doles out amazing food three times a day for their regular clientele who call them on daily basis by an appointed hour to order the food. Due to lack of manpower Mother’s Kitchen is unable to make deliveries so the customers have to do pick-ups.

Vishali at an exhibition in Bangalore

Today a business that started out with online ads on Quikr is fast catching on via word of mouth. Other than catering the regular meals they also do specialised cooking for festivals and poojas, primarily for the Andhra and Tamil Nadu Brahmin community. When asked about the hectic schedule they have to follow both respond instantly, “We have a few single boys who live in nearby PGs, who come and pick up dinner every day from their way to work. These boys have become family and we are unable to refuse them, so their boxes get packed till 9:00 pm as and when they come. These kids remind us of our own kids, who lived alone in other cities and longed for home-made food, so our kitchens are always open to them. We close our kitchen only once a month to clean up the place. On the days we don’t have catering orders; we make spice powders, sweets etc.”

Talking of future plans Vishali says “Honestly, this is already a retirement venture and I would like to keep it to a size where I can manage it keeping in mind my age. Having said that, we are in talks with a company looking at consolidating home-made spice and pickle suppliers under one umbrella. They will sell it online while retaining our brand name. This helps me to concentrate on what I want to do – cook.”

As we wind up our munchies and wait for our sweet lime and mango pickles to be packed, Vishali very kindly shares a recipe from her treasure trove with us. Hope you will enjoying making her recipe as much as we enjoyed eating her food.

Mavidikaya Pappu 

(Tempered raw mangoes in a sour and spicy dal)

Ingredients

Tuar dal/ Arhar dal/ Pigeon Pea- 1 cup

Raw mango (a sour one) – 1 no cut into cubes (with or without peel as desired)

Green Chilies – 3 nos slit length wise

Ginger- ½ inch piece finely chopped

Curry Leaves – a sprig

Oil- 2 teaspoons

Urad dal – 1 ½ teaspoons

Fenugreek Seeds – ½ teaspoon

Mustard Seeds – ¾ teaspoon

Cumin Seeds – ¾ teaspoon

Asafoetida- a pinch

Red Chilli Powder – ½ teaspoon (1 if you prefer it spicy)

Turmeric Powder – ¼ teaspoon

Salt – to Taste

Method:

• In a pressure cooker, place washed and cleaned dal, mango pieces, ginger and turmeric powder. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water and pressure cook up to 3 whistles. If cooking over stove top, cook till the dal and mango pieces are almost cooked.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, add mustard seeds and as they splutter, add fenugreek seeds. As they turn red add the cumin seeds.
• Then add green chilies, curry leaves and asafoetida. Stir fry for half a minute.
• To this seasoning add the cooked dal along with the chili powder and salt.
• If required add some water and mix well. Cover the pan and cook on slow flame for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes the dal will be ready with the right consistency. Let the dal be a bit watery. As it cools down it becomes thick.
• Serve hot with steamed rice.

Next time you are in Chennai do try out Mother’s Kitchen yummy food or have the pleasure of enjoying the home-made snacks, pickles and spice powder in the comfort of your home by ordering it from anywhere in India by calling 099 52 923970 or via their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Motherskitchen57