Onika Maheshwari/ New Delhi 

During the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, when students living away from home yearned for good and preferably home-cooked food Delhi's Samiya Khan saw an opportunity in it and she started a cloud kitchen.

Samia Khan, 43, who lives in Southeast Delhi's Zakir Nagar, told Awaz the Voice, "I did not have the space of a restaurant, that's why I started it from home, and in simple language, this cloud kitchen is a kind of restaurant, but you cannot sit and eat here. Food is cooked here only for delivery."

One can order offline or online from a cloud kitchen and it is delivered. It's one of the rapidly growing low-investment businesses in India right now. 

Samia Khan in her kitchen

Samia Khan said, "I have been passionate about food since my childhood. I learned cooking from my mother, sister, and mother-in-law. People often praised my food and this is the reason why I am in this business."

She said during the lockdown when people faced a shortage of homemade food and didn't prefer to eat from commercial places, she began with a tiffin service. She home-delivered food to the students living as Paid-guest accommodations or as tenants. "They liked my food and most of them gave feedback that they were satisfied with my freshly cooked food that was home cooked. Also, I took care to make it affordable for them."

Samia started with two orders and gradually through the word of mouth her food gained currency and her business expanded. "This gave me a lot of satisfaction that I was able to served food to the hapless young men and women and also make their parent feel relieved who were away from their children and worried about this basic necessity of life."

The Tiffin service created the right buzz and soon, Samia was getting orders for food from the Delhi NCR area including Gurugram, Haryana. People started sending me orders and also started referring each other to my food.

The logo of Samia Khan's Cloud Kitchen

Samiya Khan cooks vegetarian and meat dishes in her kitchen. It includes dishes like Pulao, Butar Chicken, Idli Sambar, Shahi Tukda, Shahi Kabab, Afghani Pulao, Korma, Dhabha Paneer, White Chicken Kofta, etc.

Samiya Khan said she even takes orders for bulk food supplies for weddings, parties, kitty parties, etc. over the phone. "Sometimes people have small parties at their homes and they prefer to eat homemade food. That is why they give me orders," she said. 

Samiya Khan has three employees who deliver food to the client's door. She is the lone cook in her kitchen and needs help from her employees for packing and chopping.

Samiya Khan, who was married 23 years ago has a daughter. She holds a BA Honours degree in Economics. She was a teacher before her marriage. 

After her marriage, Samiya worked in a media firm for 5 years and later joined her husband's business of gems and precious stones. She worked as a manager of her husband's business offices in Delhi and Srinagar. The business closed down due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Samia with her husband

However, a dynamic woman like Samiya could not sit idle and had to support her family during this crisis.

Today Samiya Khan's business has expanded and she makes good money from it. She has obtained a certificate from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for quality certification of her food. No wonder her food is in demand in the offices of multinational companies in the cybercity of Gurugram and Delhi NCR.

Samia Khan says besides being a business, cooking also works as a stress reliever. To all the women keen to pursue a career that doesn't take them away from their home for long Sania says, "You can help your family with some courage and passion."

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Samiya Khan likes to travel a lot, but given her hectic days in her cloud kitchen she doesn't get enough time to travel. This she says is the flip side of her career.