Vanilla Pods Kitchen

Running a kitchen in Mumbai is a bit of a wild ride every single day. We’re right in the thick of it, dealing with the heat, the traffic, and the constant rush that comes with this city. Our space isn't huge, but we make every inch count. It’s usually loud with the sound of knives hitting boards and the hum of the fridge. We don't have a fancy dining room with waiters. We’re mostly focused on the cooking part of things. The morning starts early with the market runs to get fresh ingredients before the sun gets too high. By the afternoon, the place is a bit of a mess with flour on the floor and dishes piled in the sink, but that’s just how a working kitchen looks. We’ve got a small team and we all end up doing a bit of everything, from chopping onions to answering the phone when it rings off the hook. It gets really hot in here during the monsoon because of the humidity, but we just keep the fans blowing and keep moving. We aren't trying to be a five-star place. We just want to make food that tastes like someone actually cared while making it. It’s hard work and our backs usually ache by the end of the shift, but we wouldn’t really want to be doing anything else.