Sakshi Mithal has an indefatigable passion for food and innovation. Her gastronomy journey began as an Intern Chef at The Roseate, Delhi, which was soon followed by the Launch of The Kitchen Connect in 2015.
The Kitchen Connect has been recognised in Delhi and Bangalore for its Confectionary, Catering, workshops and bulk gifting. With the launch of TKC Foods in Bangalore, Sakshi has ventured into “ready to cook” frozen gourmet food which are affordable, healthy and nutritious.
Sakshi has earned her BA in Economics (H) from Hindu College, Delhi University, and an MBA in Finance from The University of Georgia (USA). She has seven years of equity research experience with leading Investment Firms like Morgan Stanley, Aditya Birla and Prudential ICICI. She shares details about her ready to cook health food venture TKC.
1. How did the idea come about? What were you doing prior to this?
I have been a part of food business since 2015. My journey in food business began as an intern chef with Dusit (now Roseatte, Delhi), followed by launch of The Kitchen Connect in Shahpurjat. The Kitchen Connect has been recognized for curating trendy artisan quality bulk products along with a quaint café, limited seating catering and corporate workshops.
Unlike The Kitchen Connect which was driven by sheer passion for food, patisserie and sort of desire to serve the top 5% in the pyramid, TKC foods has been backed by lot of contemplation, research, experience and need of the day. Having solid research experience of 7 years prior really helped me in narrowing down the products and identifying core customer demands. We were very clear that we wanted to substitute sugary proteins with core center of plate meals. India is world’s largest population of vegetarians or flexitarians and many people are searching for an option that allows them to eat in line with their values without sacrificing taste. We are a nutrient deficit country where we aren’t getting enough time to have nutrient dense foods, clean meals let alone clean environment or clean meat to consume.
Being a vegetarian myself, I used to feel frustrated when I would see menus in the restaurant which lacks enough options for vegetarians apart from potatoes, paneer and soya. I think its time to look back and look at our rich local and indigenous history of millets, lentils and fruits like Jackfruit.
With TKC foods, we aim to curate “Ready to cook” frozen food that offer delicious, better for you, convenient and affordable centre of plate options for every household. Ourmission is to provide indigenous ingredients that are usually not visible in menus, at an affordable price.
2 What challenges did you face and the research that went behind in the making of your health food brand?
The idea was born out of a bootcamp who had chosen my start up pitch and given me the space and environment to shape my ventire back in Feb 2021.For next couple of months we tried to get insights from consumers, international food communities, vendors and frozen food vendors about resources, limitations and opportunities. It was enough to give us the conviction that we wanted to be a part of this growing market. With TKCFoods we aim to curate packaged frozen food that offer tasty, better for you, convenient and personalized ready to cook solution for chains, restaurants, cloud kitchens and QSRs.
The pandemic was certainly a set back as we were about to launch to HORECA industry. Of all industries Horeca is yet far from recovery and café’s and restaurant owners are looking inwards at cost cutting solutions. However, starting August 2021, we took our products right to the customer. We focused on delivering to large communities in Bangalore who are looking for safe, nutritious and convenient food options for kids and adults alike. We got an amazing response from clients who would order every week and the word of mouth grew pretty past.
3. How’re you different from others in this space?
Our USP is definitely our taste per nutrition. We aim to replace sugary proteins with center of plate meals which are fibrous, high in proteins as well as very affordable. We source directly from farmers products that have been underrated in India like Jackfruit, Yam and Colocasia.
4. What are some of your special offerings?
Jackfruit Curry for Biryani, Yam Galouti, Frozen cookie Doughs, Gourmet burger patties with 15 grams of proteins each and pav bhaji slider kebabs with yam.
5. What are your future plans?
Indian Frozen Market space is currently valued at Rs 7400 cr and is poised to grow at about 17% CAGR till 2024. We see tremendous opportunity for a lot of collaboration within supply chains, farm to fork players as well as cold chain delivery start ups who are strategically working on grabbing a share of this growing pie.
