A Facebook group is reinventing itself as a food portal that will have equal participation of chefs, food professionals and foodies alike. A $350,000 angel investment is helping foodie Arjun Sawhney realise his dream
It is no secret that branding consultant Arjun Sawhney is a foodie; the EatTreat group with over 50,000 food-lovers on Facebook will attest to that. Ask him about his love for food, and the reply is unusual. "I keep going back to this story of singer-actress Suraiya, who ruled the screens during the 40s and 50s. Her grandmother, who yielded an iron hand over her, managed her career. And the day she died, Suraiya gave up acting. She said, 'I want to eat. I have not eaten rice in 15 years. I don't want this career.' She gave up acting to be able to eat," he says.
It is that passion that Sawhney is hoping to tap with his move to reinvent EatTreat into a food portal eattreatonline.com, which has recently bagged investment worth $350,000 and will go live in a few days with contributions from food writers, chefs and other foodies.
It is planned in three phases, he says. "In the first, we'll come up with a spread, a 360 degree platform of various food items contributed by 41 food writers, and cooked, tested and tried the Eat Treat test kitchen by Cordon Bleu chef Jai Solanki. In that, contributors can also submit their own recipes," informs Sawhney. "If a user searches for butter chicken, the results will show our recipe apart from the three most popular user recipes."
Apart from various sections, users will be able to save their recipes on the website. In the second phase, there will be an app, apart from a digital magazine and a food finder which will help look for menus that have the food item and take in queries. In the third phase, a video channel will carry out recipes. "We have also worked out deals with publishers and authors to come up with publications."
The group will look for another round of funding by 2016. Investors in the platform include Divitas Capital, filmmaker Homi Adajania, fashion journalist Bandana Tewari, Sussanne Khan, Dior Couture's Kalyani Saha, fashion journalist Nonita Kalra, food entrepreneur Andrea Aftab Pauro and his designer wife Pia Pauro as well as businessman Shiv Khanna.
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