The Culinary Connoisseurs Talking about future plans, Neha shares, "In the first two quarters our focus will be on deeper penetration in our existing markets (Delhi NCR and Bangalore)
By Entrepreneur Staff •
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I n 2010, Anshumala and Vaibhav met in Bangalore as young interns while still studying at NIFT. Their weekends revolved around cooking and hosting friends. Post NIFT, along with Anshu's husband, they planned a pop-up restaurant at her beautiful balcony. But they knew it needed more commitment than any of them was ready for, so they parked the idea and carried on with life. In 2014, Anshu and Vaibhav both decided to pursue MBAs from Milan and Paris respectively.
During one of the university breaks they both decided to embark on a culinary experience to Istanbul. The power of connecting people through food dawned over both of them.
Vaibhav & Neha met in 2017 at an event and they instantly connected over their mutual appreciation for food and wine. 2018 is when destiny brought all of them together in Delhi and the idea of Conosh was put up! What started as a food escapade, made three budding entrepreneurs meet and discuss how to change the way people eat.
Pre-covid, Conosh was all about getting people together over homehosted social dining experiences aka Conosh Tables, people from different walks of life would meet up over the comfort of home food. What started as 1-2 events per month grew to 4-5 per week within a couple of months.
But when the pandemic hit, their revenue dropped to zero. They quickly pivoted to online culinary classes & curated home-made food delivery. "With the online classes, the idea is to create a sustainable ecosystem of expert home chefs. They learn new cuisines, upskill and in turn sell better", says Anshu. Within two months they reached precovid levels and are now on track to grow 6X compared to last year.
"Experience is a major part of what we do and that's what keeps it interesting for our customers" says Vaibhav. They constantly work with the home chefs to curate exciting options from regional and world cuisines to festive specials to trending delicacies, for their customers. In the last one year, they have conducted over 200 Conosh tables, delivered over 11K meals, conducted over 200 online classes with celebrity chefs and influencers from around the world including Gary Mehigan (Judge at Masterchef Australia), Sashi Cheliah (Masterchef Australia Winner), Ranveer Brar and more.
Talking about future plans, Neha shares, "In the first two quarters our focus will be on deeper penetration in our existing markets (Delhi NCR and Bangalore). The idea is to get hyper local via apartment-based selling (Conosh Canteens) and by setting up community spaces (Conosh Kitchens). Over next 8-10 months we plan to launch in two new cities."
