Wine & Dine
Textual content and Pictures by Mallika Chandra.
Kartikeya Ratan, 32 and Rishabh Doshi, 32
Kiki & Pastor
Location: Bandra
Speciality: Mexican
Kartikeya, inform me about your beginnings as a chef and the way you co-founded Kiki & Pastor.
Kartikeya Ratan (KR): For the final decade or so, I’ve labored at plenty of effective eating eating places in India and overseas. And I more and more felt that I wished to prepare dinner extra soul meals, consolation meals — meals that really satiates. After I returned to Mumbai from Delhi in 2019, I felt just like the pandemic had taken a giant toll on the nightlife of the town. There wasn’t anyplace the place you could possibly simply hang around and never have to sit down down and dine in. A taqueria was a good way of bringing that vibe in. However given the circumstances of COVID-19, issues have been very unsure round 2020-2021, and but Rishabh and I saved discussing how we might do it on a small scale.
Whereas I used to be residence through the lockdown, I began promoting taco kits and there was an excellent response. However I wasn’t joyful as a chef though the product was doing effective. I wished extra management. So now, we now not ship clients the substances and ask them to assemble it. We construct your taco and ship it to you. We’re additionally massive on catering as a result of tacos are loads like chaat, proper? You wish to eat them recent. And but, the deliveries work as a result of we now have an excellent radius, being in Bandra.
Quite a bit has been spoken and written about how Mexican meals simply doesn’t do effectively in Mumbai. Do you suppose there’s one thing specifically that’s working for you?
KR: I feel one factor we realised fairly early on was that there’s no substituting good substances. Working in effective eating taught me that no dish might be higher than the substances utilized in it. And I feel that with Mexican meals, that could be very true. You’ll be able to’t simply make a mole (sauce) out of a Bhavnagri chilli, as an illustration. Typically, sourcing an excellent, dried chilli from Mexico is essential. Freshness additionally performs an enormous position in parts which can be nearly served uncooked, as is the case with most of our salsas and marinades. So freshness takes priority over all the things else and the standard of substances can by no means be compromised.
How have you ever tried to raise or differentiate your meals from what is on the market within the metropolis?
KR: Lots of people ask us for Indianised variations of issues as a result of that’s what they’ve grown up consuming. You’ll have seen corn queso balls on our menu, however they received’t style like those out there at New Yorker in Mumbai, as an illustration. On no account are we saying that we’re higher or dissing an expertise that we too have grown up consuming. However we’re providing a brand new expertise in terms of consuming Mexican meals. There’s extra to Mexican meals than simply placing cheddar sauce over all the things.
Inform us how you’ll be able to ship the meals as recent as potential.
KR: Supply is a tough format. Particularly through the monsoons, it turns into powerful for a rider to get your meals to you in excellent situation. However folks nonetheless count on to get piping-hot meals; recent meals shouldn’t get soggy, arduous or dry. One of many issues we do is that we add both a layer of chilmole or a jam that we make with salsa verde between the meat and the tortilla in order that the juices from the meat don’t make the tortillas soggy. We additionally do a double tortilla in order that even when the primary tortilla will get soggy, you possibly can simply slap the second over it.
Rishabh Doshi (RD): Principally, proportions matter. So, in case you sauce it up an excessive amount of or too little, it’ll change your complete expertise of the taco.
KR: Completely. After we rent a brand new chef, we are able to style the distinction between them and somebody who’s been making it for 4 or 5 months and has understood what these sauces do. Everybody has their very own tastes and the dish will get its character from there. So, the query that arises is how do you give it that character whereas sustaining a excessive customary? It comes from the bottom recipes, that are tried and examined for a very long time earlier than we put them on the market.
Inform us just a little extra about the way you arrange processes for the cloud kitchen mannequin.
KR: Largely, it was about preserving in thoughts the taqueria idea and the freshness of the produce. After we mounted on a supply mannequin, the place the meals was going to be on the street for 30 to 40 minutes, we needed to do quite a lot of exams. Rishabh lives in Bhandup and I dwell in Wadala. So, I’d ship him dishes, and we might notice how they travelled. Did it get soggy? Did we’d like two tortillas or further salsa? From that train we determined to ship the salsa individually, for instance.
When it comes to prep, it was very totally different from after I labored in eating places that served tasting menus. At Eleven Madison Park in New York, as an illustration, we knew that 120 folks have been going to be coming in for dinner every evening and that 14 dishes could be going out to every visitor. In a cloud kitchen, chances are you’ll not get orders for, say, two hours straight, after which immediately they might are available in continuous till midnight. A match may imply individuals are ordering in or if it’s a protracted weekend and individuals are out travelling, then orders cut back. Nonetheless, there’s no approach of gauging the amount of enterprise for a selected day.
We attempt to hold the prep recent, however we stability that with some back-up, which is able to final just a little longer. We’re very specific in regards to the shelf lifetime of our guacamole and pico de gallo. It’s higher to make them twice a day, moderately than to serve them the day after. Whereas we make refried beans in bulk as a result of it tastes higher the following day. Like dal makhani. Our pork carnitas and lamb barbacoa are made in massive batches as a result of they must be cooked for 4 to 6 hours within the oven. So, we freeze them in batches. For the tortillas, we even have this girl coming in day-after-day. She makes them recent for the lunch and night providers. We all know now that we’ll want about 200 tortillas from Tuesdays to Thursdays. On weekends, we’d like extra.
I’d’ve thought that as a chef-driven taqueria you’d be making the tortillas in-house.
KR: At first, we tried to make the tortillas ourselves however it’s powerful to get it proper each single time. On the identical time, we have been on the lookout for somebody to make a tiffin for our workers lunch. It struck us then that the one who makes the rotis that got here in our tiffin might maybe be skilled to make our tortillas. So, we took an opportunity and reached out to her. It took a while for her to get used to the totally different flour however she turned out to be an skilled. Even in the present day, if I inform my cooks to make the tortillas, they’ll take in all probability 4 hours to do what she does in a single.
Individuals ask us, “How come your tortillas aren’t masa?” Firstly, there’s no corn out there in India. There are some farms which can be doing it, however it’s not the identical. Even the calcium that you just get in India, the chuna, it’s not the identical high quality. We tried a number of batches and there’s a protracted solution to go by way of sourcing and discovering the suitable grinder since you want that volcanic stone. So, after we do get it proper, we’ll do it however we didn’t wish to do it half-baked.
How did you consider the branding, the naming and positioning of your taqueria?
KR: Kiki was my nickname after I lived in Goa a few years in the past. We then found that Kiki additionally means “get-together”. In African-American slang, the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood calls it a “Kiki” whenever you’re getting collectively to gossip, drink and have enjoyable. The pastor, alternatively, is taken into account by some to be the best of all tacos; it’s a subject of debate in Mexico Metropolis. We simply wished to offer a enjoyable title.
RD: In that very same spirit, we do a couple of specials, particularly on match days. We additionally do a Taco Tuesday particular, the place you can also make your individual combos. That pushes folks to attempt new issues as a result of you will get a single piece as an alternative of ordering a full portion. It’s additionally as a result of Tuesdays are typically thought of slower by way of enterprise.
KR: Plus, the guacamole is free on Tuesdays.
RD: When it comes to the design, our designer flaked on us and it was too near launch to search out another person. The one choice was to do it ourselves. We did a number of iterations primarily based on a listing of key phrases that we wished the model to be related to, like “approachable” and “recent”. That led to the first color of the branding being a muted inexperienced. The brand itself is hand-drawn and in it, the taco is bitten into already as a result of we wish to painting it as so good that you just overlook to take a photograph.
KR: Which is definitely seen in quite a lot of Instagram posts the place we’re tagged. We see quite a lot of bitten tacos.
RD: Now we have a couple of individuals who’ve taken a photograph of an empty plate and mentioned, “I forgot to click on it, however it was wonderful.” And that’s precisely what we would like.
KR: Tacos are sometimes referred to as “ugly scrumptious” in order that they don’t have to look excellent. We don’t minimize our tortillas with a cookie cutter both as a result of we would like that natural form. That imperfection makes it approachable.
How do you utilize social media?
RD: Not like in a restaurant, issues aren’t occurring with us on a regular basis. We additionally don’t wish to overwhelm our followers. So, we reasonable our social media uploads. Reels that share a glimpse of the kitchen and the behind-the-scenes actions typically do effectively so day-after-day at midday, we submit one thing from the kitchen that asserts we’re open for orders.
KR: We do wish to put a face to this in any other case invisible operation.
RD: Our kitchen is saved spotlessly clear by the crew. We really had a few clients are available in simply to see the kitchen. Certainly one of them wished to do catering and one among them wished to position an order. He wished to see the place that he’s ordering from.
Would you say convincing your clients to order the perfect advice is your greatest problem?
KR: Whenever you’re in a restaurant, you have got a server who recommends dishes. And when folks name us, we do the identical. However most of our orders come via Swiggy, Zomato or our web site. So, there’s no room for suggestions. There’s no room for understanding what they’re on the lookout for. It is usually difficult to speak the scale of our parts. Individuals have all types of expectations. It’s simpler to handle these expectations face-to-face.
Do you’re feeling like there may be strain to make use of social media and put your persona on the market?
KR: This takes me again to when Instagram began. Pals, each cooks and in any other case, instructed me to submit extra. However after I was working in kitchens, we simply weren’t allowed to make use of our telephones on the job and that’s one thing that’s caught with me. So, it doesn’t come naturally to me to take a photograph and submit about one thing I prepare dinner. After I’m cooking, I’m cooking.
Rishabh has thought of making a model out of me as a chef however for me the meals is sufficient. I’m not Mexican. I haven’t grown up round this meals. It’s one thing I’m extraordinarily obsessed with. I take pleasure in consuming tacos myself. However in case you take a look at my private Instagram, individuals are dissatisfied to not discover any meals there.
I’m now okay with being in entrance of the digicam as a result of I do realise that individuals wish to see the faces behind the meals. In any other case, you’re simply one other cloud kitchen. So, after we do occasions, we be sure that at the least one among us is attending. It is sensible for folks to find out about you. When you understand the story behind why somebody is doing one thing, you respect it extra.
Did you anticipate that cloud kitchens would turn out to be a long-lasting format?
KR: I feel so as a result of even somebody like me, who was by no means an individual to order in, did so through the pandemic. Publish-pandemic, there are such a lot of cloud kitchens opening up, and so many shutting frequently as effectively. However there are a couple of which have caught as a result of they’ve modified their product to suit the supply mannequin. A variety of eating places have additionally realised {that a} chunk of their enterprise is coming from supply. The tradition has shifted drastically. There’s additionally an curiosity in making an attempt one thing new. I feel individuals are going to proceed ordering in. However the product, and the way in which that kitchens take into consideration their product whereas delivering it, goes to make the distinction and be the deciding think about whether or not that model succeeds or not.
RD: The notion of a ghost kitchen or a cloud kitchen earlier than the pandemic was that it have to be a small place, in all probability not very hygienic. The meals wasn’t speculated to be nice, simply low-cost. However over the past three years, folks have realised that these small kitchens are sometimes serving higher meals than established eating places. And so they’ve allowed them to come back into their lives every day.
What’s the excellent order from Kiki & Pastor?
KR: My favorite buyer’s order is identical each time and he doesn’t modify something. It’s three of this, two of this, 4 of this…. And he provides us an hour’s heads-up. I really feel like that’s the right order. It’s a giant ticket. It’s simple.
So, you’re not specific about what’s being ordered?
KR: No, order something from my menu and I’m joyful. It simply will get difficult when a buyer makes too many modifications and the meals loses its essence.
KR: Our different favorite buyer orders a burrito bowl each week and says, “No corn please and thanks,” and I like that. We’re fairly emotional about our orders.
Earlier: Rehan Mehta, East seventh Pizza & Deli
Subsequent: Divesh Aswani, Commis Station
