KOCHI: Despite the many voyages we take through food, thanks to the abundance of restaurants and hotels serving cuisines from every imaginable part of the world, the meal that gives us the most comfort is that of home. For friends and Kochiites Durga Unnikrishnan and Sandeep Balachandran who met in business school five years ago, nothing beats food they have grown up eating, food that is inevitably linked to their fondest memories. Their recently launched food venture, The Aurum Cloud, offers gourmet naadan food to the city’s residents craving for a taste of Kerala from the comfort of their homes.
Aurum, which means ‘gold’ in Latin, reflects Durga and Sandeep’s vision for their venture. “We wanted the name to reflect a gold standard in cloud kitchens,” says Sandeep. With an award-winning chef helming the kitchen, Aurum’s USP lies in offering exquisitely prepared Kerala dishes that are seldom found in mainstream restaurants.
The menu, which is revised and curated anew frequently includes a selection of forgotten recipes from interiors of the state. “We keep changing the dishes we offer. One reason is that our head chef, Rejimon Puthezhathu, can prepare several items.
Also, we are particular about offering our customers a limited selection of dishes that pair very well and are made with the utmost skill. We procure the best quality ingredients and meat. Most of the masalas are prepared by the chef in-house. Every rotation, we offer about 15 items in the menu,” says Sandeep.
With the service positioned as a gourmet outlet, the target customers are surprisingly not the youngsters. “Our ideal customers are people who are more settled in life and perhaps belong to a generation or two older than 20-somethings today,” adds Sandeeep. Durga and Sandeep, both in their mid-20s, have managed to put together an enviable team. While the idea for The Aurum Cloud took seed post lockdown, they wasted no time in getting the venture up and running.
As a way of getting credible feedback, the duo personally delivers the orders to the customers’ doorsteps. “Both of us were sure we didn’t want to be stuck in a corporate job. The plan always was to start a venture of our own. We are big-time foodies so getting into hospitality seemed like a natural course. When chef Rejimon came on board, he brought in four of his best chefs,” says Sandeep. The price for two is `600-700. Orders can be placed via Instagram @theaurumcloud