This Mompreneur is helping mothers and grandmothers to showcase their recipes through Bengaluru’s MAIA Cafe

Sejal Shah is not only a doting mother but a home trained chef who understand the roots of various cultures and create dishes using wisdom and her intuition. Known for her acumen for delectable aromas and her tantalizing taste buds that can be perceived in her cuisines.

She started MAIA Cafe alongwith her nephew with a promise to give the womenfolk an opportunity to showcase the talent through recipes. Along with this, it also takes upon itself to celebrate the mother in all aspects.

As the co-owner and head chef of the property, Sejal is responsible for devising and creating new menus, source recipes from mother across the country, work with restaurant’s team of chefs and waiters and take the lead on wide variety of administrative and culinary duties. This all-day dining destination has a 110 cover Cafe, a Cook Studio for every mother to showcase their ‘handed down over generations’ recipes, a Banquet space for 80 people, a Patisserie selling fresh artisanal baked goods, a ‘Shop-in- Shop’ retail space and a Baby feeding room.

Challenges Faced by Sejal

Starting Maia had its own set of challenges which the team loved to face them head-on. One of the biggest challenges was to make the kitchen staff unlearn their skill sets of operating a commercial kitchen and teach them to cook homely food just like a mother would do at home. This involved training the staff to follow the mothers’ recipes to the T without any quick fixes usually deployed in a typical commercial kitchen.

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“When we started Maia, the response from the people was extremely positive. But what gave us the most satisfaction was when senior citizens praised the taste and quality of our dishes. Their statement that Maia’s food is ‘exactly how home food tastes like made us feel that we had achieved our vision of serving ‘home food’.” Says Sejal.

USP Of the Cafe

The best thing about the cafe is that they are reinventing the philosophy of farm to folk technology. All the raw materials are sourced from the local farmers in Karnataka and the farmers also get a better deal.

Apart from it Sejal is also a great artist with creative talent in glass painting and papercraft.

Cafe Address: Plot No 253, Green Glen Layout, Bellandur Bangalore, India 560102
Faebook Page: MAIA Cafe

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