Food pilgrimage

A simple board above the tent where all the devotees are assembling reads,‘Sri Youth Caterers’. Suresh Kumar stands behind the makeshift wooden table counter and orders a group of 10 men to hurry up and attend to the customers.

Kumar,26,is a veteran in the catering business,having started out as a 16-year-old with a cart selling masala dosas. With 65 people working under him now,the young entrepreneur says his journey was anything but smooth.

“Ten years ago,when my sister got married,my father spent a lot on her wedding. I had to find a way to help my family,” says Kumar. Originally from Pazhani,Tamil Nadu,Kumar’s parents left their traditional family profession of saree-weaving in search of a better life in Delhi when he was four years old. Life wasn’t easy and “it was difficult to make ends meet. I knew I had to make money”,says Kumar,the youngest of his three siblings.

At 14,Kumar joined a software company,where he “did odd jobs and earned Rs 1,200 a month”. But the thought of not having had a formal education “constantly haunted” him. “I was determined to learn more and after my 10 to 5 job,I would go for Tamil and English tuition classes.”

Kumar says his catering career started four years ago with Ayappan Caterers,an established name in the South Indian food catering business in Delhi. There,and in other similar enterprises,he picked up the basics of his trade,from washing vessels and chopping vegetables to rustling up entire meals. Inspired by his mentors in the business,he decided to set up his own venture — Sri Youth Caterers.

His first big break was when M P Veerendrakumar,then an MP from Kerala,gave him a certificate testifying his cooking abilities and a tip of Rs 30,000.

“I knew I could do much better”,says Kumar,who later started working for local travel companies. “That is how I got to travel to Manali and Char Dham,” he says.

A year ago,Kumar was made a member of the catering panel of the Uttara Guruvayoor temple. He has a two-year contract to run the canteen opposite the temple complex from 6 am to 11 am. Handing a plate of steaming hot paruppu vadas (dal vadas),he says,“This is one of our best dishes,a favourite amongst my customers.”

His dream is to “open my own restaurant in Delhi by next year. And after that? Have you seen KFC outlets? Someday,I hope to see my restaurants all over the world”.