THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Crispy dosas right off the hot stone pan are probably a distant memory for many of us. As millennials move on to non-stick and modern kitchenware, which are easier to handle, we aren’t just compromising on taste.
Health concerns while using surface engineered cookware—some of which allegedly contain cancer-causing chemicals like PFOA—have been looming over our heads for a while now. And that’s where Village Fair, a two-month-old ethnic cookware brand comes in. Co-founded by Radhika Manghat Menon and Priya Deepak—the duo claims that a chance encounter with a local pottery maker during a journey to Palakkad is what sparked the idea behind this online endeavour.
In with the old
What’s harder than finding good quality pottery, is getting them seasoned or cured for daily use. But this entrepreneur duo isn’t the kind to back down easily.
“We source our products from villages in Palakkad and get them seasoned through tried and tested ways—with the help of 15 homemakers from Vypin,” shares Priya Deepak. Elaborating further, Deepak says that each of their products, ranging from clay kadais to stone chattis and cast iron-coated cheena bharanis, requires specific seasoning techniques.
At its best, the process could take anywhere between two to three weeks, where the treatment also involves immersing the pots in kaadi vellam.
Sustainability 101
Titled From The Attic, the current collection available via their site highlights energy conservation owing to the heat retaining capabilities of these utensils. Since their website has recently been equipped with options to ship products internationally, Village Fair’s growth from ‘just another Facebook page’ to a full-fledged platform has occurred organically over a year and a half.
“We started with a minimum investment of about `30,000 and the rest is history. Right now, a lot of our clients are from outside Kerala and abroad,” says Deepak, an IT professional-turned-businesswoman. Utensils from `650 onwards. Details: thevillagefair.in