THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the hospitality industry is struggling to survive with hotels and restaurants being forced to shut down their dining spaces with the surge in Covid cases, more and more cloud kitchens are springing up across the state. Cloud kitchens, which only rely on online delivery orders usually placed through online food aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato, have already made a place in the food industry. With savings on infrastructure and labour, many food entrepreneurs are opting for cloud kitchens over setting up restaurants with dine-in facilities.
As many restaurants and hotels are still relying on takeaways to retain the staff rather than encouraging dine-in facilities, cloud kitchens are offering limited menus but have a huge customer base. From simple home cooking to luxury and sumptuous dinners, more than 1,000 cloud kitchens functioning in the state have been offering the customers a wide variety of cuisine to choose from.
While takeaway has become the vital source of revenue for many of the restaurants, owners of cloud kitchens point out that setting up such kitchens has proved to be beneficial as a lot of people have been looking for good quality, healthy and home-cooked meals during the pandemic.
Syam S, owner of Salad Caffe, a capital city-based online food outlet, says, “Setting up a cloud kitchen has been the most reasonable decision. Investment is less and can be easily started unlike the restaurants with dine-in facilities. When I started in 2019, the concept of cloud kitchen was not quite popular in the state. However, the pandemic proved a boon for our business as only online delivery options were allowed during the lockdown. Even if we have no sales, we don’t incur huge losses unlike restaurant owners who have invested a huge amount on rent, labour and other expenses.”
However, the one drawback faced is the exorbitant commission that the online food delivery aggregators charge for delivering. “Although I started with the Salad Caffe offering 45 varieties of salads to the customers, which have been a huge hit, I have started serving other snack varieties such as shawarma. We have already started one kitchen in Pune and are looking forward to expanding our kitchen to other states,” says Syam.
While some food entrepreneurs have been offering dishes based on a specific cuisine, others have come up with multi-cuisine options providing an ultimate gastronomic experience for their customers. Anurag, co-founder of MenuScript, a multi-cuisine cloud kitchen, says, “It has been seven months since we started the cloud kitchen and the response has been overwhelming. Currently, we have three cuisines such as South Indian, Oriental and Continental. The manpower and maintenance of a dine-in restaurant are saved. However, it is challenging to ensure that quality food is served to the customers with expert staff and proper service is also ensured during delivery.”
Chef Suresh Pillai says, “Cloud kitchens became popular especially during the pandemic. While it is not that safe to eat out when there is a spurt in Covid cases, many people are relying on online delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato. However, it cannot replace the dine-in experience of eating out with families and friends. Ordering food online and having it are never an option that can replace dining out.”
Apart from the home cooks and local players, big players such as Swiggy are also creating dark kitchens in multiple cities. Hence, many food entrepreneurs have opened kitchens in their homes and started delivering food ranging from gourmet cuisines, daily meals to even healthy snacks.
What is a cloud kitchen?
Any restaurant which has only the kitchen without any dine-in facilities and has only delivery options available.
Benefits