How about a baked vada pav this monsoon?

After starting AK’s Bakers & More,a tiny snack shop in Lokhandwala as a try-out,in 2007,it took just two years for these foodies to expand to Bandra,Santacruz,and Kandivali. Their fastest selling product? Pat comes the reply: “Baked vada pavs!”

Kedar explains,“Vada pav is one snack we could never resist – as youngsters during college days and till date. The problem is,hours after gulping down the golden fried vadas sizzling in the fresh pavs, we’d experience uneasiness and acidity. One day,merely about two months ago,Ajay and I were wondering how to make the vada pav healthier and said why not put it in the oven. Later,we also decided to do away with the unhealthy besan covering and wrap it in wheat bread instead.”

It was just an experiment,but today the friends are still amazed at how the baked vada pav with wheat bread has caught customers’ fancy. “It is the fastest selling product,people just love it. Vada pav is such a ubiquitous snack that we are getting party and house function orders in bulk,” Ajay says.

On Monday,the duo formally introduced another item at their outlets — Jain vada pavs. This all-Jain snack uses a plantain filling instead of potato and has no garlic either.

According to Ajay,the idea came up from a few of their Jain customers and has already received good reviews from friends and patrons.

Strangely enough,while they always had a penchant for cooking,the duo started their careers in different fields – Kedar was in the air conditioning business,and along with his family still runs a beauty salon chain in the city,while Ajay worked as a sound engineer in a recording studio.

“We’ve had no professional background as cooks. We were just amateurs who used to cook and wanted people to eat and appreciate it. In 2006,we began researching about starting a shop which sells not just cakes but a whole range of savouries including chips,burgers, kharis and breads,” Ajay explains.

Today,among the best innovations of this ‘pure vegetarian’ shop are the recently introduced ‘dum roll’ which has soya chunks packed inside wheat bread,wheat nankhatai,nachni biscuits,multigrain kharis, garlic encrusted wheat bread and green tea brown bread. “Besides,we can make to order any type of bread you want – be it multigrain broon pav or brown ladi pav for a healthy pav bhaji meal,” they smile.

Another one of their selling points – the cakeshop offers made-to-order cakes in 10 minutes. “You can step into any of our shops and ask for a cake of any size,any design and any flavour. We will make it for you in 10 minutes,” Ajay says. For this,the shop keeps fresh cake sponge,cream mixes and an expert cake chef ready in their shops at all times. The most popular mixes so far are Dutch Truffle and mixed fruits they say.

Now,in what seems like an effort to revolutionise all the usual junk food,and turn them healthy,the duo are trying to coin healthy samosas. “We have been working on it using wheat crust,but are not sure if it’s ready to be sold in our shops yet,” says Kedar. “Surely, soon enough,” they add,optimistically.