Idli Factory – Chennai

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R U Srinivas (RU), is a certified Chartered Accountant and MBA by qualification. He has more than two and half decades of corporate experience under his belt, including being a CEO of a large organization. But we spoke to him about none of these achievements. So, then what did we chat about? Idlys…. or in this case, Idlis. This is the story of “Idli Factory” – a one of its kind, Chennai based, online portal, which believe it or not sells – Idlis that are bar shaped, among other things.

How did he come across this idea? Excessive travel and crazy schedules always made RU look for comfort food, which gives all of us those few moments of feeling “happy and at home”. He observed that this was not an easy feeling to obtain with all the travel food available at airports. So he decided to quit his job and give all the other travelers a tiny bit of home away from home. He decided to start making “healthy, fresh, sssoft, anytime, anywhere” snacks.

Why idlis? In South India, for most of us travel food is synonymous to idlis that are smeared with a podi + oil paste and packed neatly in banana, or other leaves. Also, as RU points out, the idlis that are available for travelers are often not the right texture, and difficult to consume. Considering this to be the meal of choice on the go, what people usually get are idlis with dripping sambhar or chutney. But if you are thinking that this being an age old dish, the Idli Factory got started right away, think again. RU decided to start with the traditional concoction of idlis with milagai podi (the spicy powder without which the idli never seems complete). However, he had to go through almost 300 trials to get the batter that would eventually evolve to give the right kind of idlis that his customers would want – soft and delicious. The recipe for Milagai Podi is a 150+ year old family recipe, and in the Idli Factory’s own words, “batter that’s filled with love, and podi that’s filled with taste”, is what you get at the end. Well, what more can one ask for?

Let’s talk about the shape shall we?… Idli shaped in bars!! He elaborates that this was just not for changing the shape but also to make it a travel/ package friendly meal. These bar shaped idlis are conveniently and neatly packaged in boxes, and when customers open their boxes, they get intact delicious idlis. Although the idea was originally conceived for travel, realizing its potential, the Idli Factory is now sought to be the one stop solution for a late night meal, a quick snack in your laptop bag on a busy day, or just something to address your hunger pangs.

Today you will find a lot more than the traditional Idli-podi (Madras Bars) combination on the Idli Factory’s menu. In addition to Madras Bars, they now offer the deeply traditional Kanchivaram Idli madras bars, garlic podi idlis and curry leaf podi idlis Madras Roundtanas (mini idlis), and our very own Madras Paanagam. The mini Idlis have been a huge hit among kids, and among the cocktail circuit. These are snacks that readily address the hunger pangs without having the baggage of being deeply fried. The Idli Factory makes its idlis and podi fresh on a daily basis. The oil used is raw sesame oil, and not fried. Keeping the focus on tradition, they make their products as user friendly as possible, to suit present day life style. – “Food as traditional as it gets, with presentation as 21^st century as it gets”, he adds.

Idli Factory has received a very warm welcome in Chennai, and its clientele now includes prominent corporate, industrialists, film stars, politicians, diplomats, corporate execs, and school kids. They even had stalls at schools and at the “Margazhi music festival”. With a dish this traditional there are experts in almost every house, and when they come back to you for seconds, you know the product has won the taste test. In fact, they have grown from their initial days purely by word-of-mouth recommendations; he says proudly. “The Idli Factory” he adds, “has a long way to go and we want to grow steadily”.

With tradition comes responsibility and with responsibility comes challenges. One of their early challenges, which you would never guess, was getting idli plates for bar shaped end products. RU told us about this experience with a dash of humour. He got the strangest looks when he asked people if they could fabricate idli plates, that would not have the regular round shape moulds. Well, this did not prevent him from going ahead with their plans. They tried with different people, until they finally found help with student communities.

Shelf life was another major challenge for this venture. Keeping their products preservative free, being one of their goals, a 24 hour shelf life with stores meant stocks that do not sell were returned. The Idli Factory worked on trying to improve the shelf life by experimenting with refrigerated conditions. However, they monitored customer feedback closely and decided to go back to their module of supplying daily to the stores, because that is what their customers preferred. For your own convenience you can follow the storage instructions on their boxes for later use.

In addition to online, the Idli Factory products are now also available at leading stores in Chennai and the Chennai Airport Cafeccino outlets. What’s more, if you take a peek at their Facebook page you will see that they are currently also taking breakfast box orders, and that they have been flooded with requests for these boxes especially from corporates.

The Idli Factory is now working hard to find innovative solutions to spread its reach, and add more relevant options on its menu. They are trying to raise capital to meet the increasing demands. But throughout the journey they have one thing in mind- “to always stay focused on authenticity”. For future entrepreneurs RU’s words of advice would be “Try to deliver something that will add value. Always remember that in an entrepreneurial journey there will be ups and downs. Some days you will be appreciated. Some days you will be disappointed. The key is to remember that it will pass and to stay focused”.

We wish them luck with all their future plans.Visit their website  for more details on their products and availability. Do stop by their Facebook page to stay updated with their offers and announcements.

Images Courtesy Of Idli Factory