Unlike yesteryears, new season has been somewhat sluggish in terms of new openings in the restaurant sector. Restaurants with some pedigree continue to reap success, and many of unexciting and inexperienced operators normally exit in silence; this trend has been the way for decades now. Whether big or small, opening a restaurant remains a desire for many hardcore food lovers and young business people.
Awareness of healthy eating and the responsibility to do some good for the society has fired up many young minds; justifiably they have declared war against the impurity in food industry. It can only bring wonderful changes in business. Even big corporations like McDonald’s have reinvigorated their way of doing business. Recently, many young professionals with a number of creative ideas quit their fancy jobs to enter the food market in a holistic way. Sujith Chandran (IT professional) started Pepper Trail to promote organic spices and help small farmers in South India, so did medical expert San Mahanta with his Thenga Café in London. Tim Richardson from Microsoft entered farming in Swindon.
“Food is more valuable than art”—with this new slogan, a young lady is getting into this industry inspired by our own Ayurveda philosophy. Camilla Fayed, daughter of Egyptian billionaire and former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, sold her fashion brand Issa and opened her first plant-based restaurant called Farmacy in Westbourne Grove, London. She says, “The shift from fashion to food was a way of exploring my own creativity.”
A mother of two, Camilla is far from the first wealthy Brit to become a vegetarian and an evangelist for clean eating. Farmacy restaurant is meat and dairy-free, but they have some egg dishes in their menu. It seems her primary aim is to help people to reduce meat consumption. She believes “conscious eating is a movement” and admires the likes of Ella Woodward and Jamie Oliver for their valuable contributions to the world of food.
While this excitement of healthy vegetarian diets is gaining popularity, some veteran food experts like A A Gill are still unconvinced with the whole crusade. Gill wrote in one of his articles, “Vegetarian restaurants are selling the goodness of their intentions in the hope that you are more interested in filling the karma bank than your stomach, they are restaurants to what The Big Issue (charity magazine) is to journalism!” This is not the first time some one has commented cynically about vegetarianism; a lot of chefs like Gordon Ramsay had done this many a time in their TV shows.
Camilla’s initiative looks promising and has already generated so much attention from the media and this trendy neighbourhood. Their menu features a choice of healthy and comfort foods, with carefully chosen ingredients both for their taste and nutritional benefits, and are locally sourced from the UK’s organic farms. Farmacy claims to be a game-changing lifestyle brand, not like another new restaurant selling just food and drinks.
With her fame and immense experience in Harrods, she will add more value to her food escapade and there could be more of similar ideas, which will definitely help the overall growth of healthy eating habits. After all, it was an Ayurvedic epiphany a couple of years ago that transformed her life and business, and that exposé would give plenty of ideas and new opportunities for healthy Indian food too.
The system of Ayurveda offers a lot of guidance for healthy food combinations and solutions to modern day problems, and most importantly seeing nature and farmer more important than the doctor. Considering these issues are common all over the world, including India, where youngsters will have to look towards natural cures to feel harmony and enjoy a wonderful life.
The author is a London-based restaurateur, who owns the Rasa chain of restaurants