“For the primary time, I paid for my very own journey and went to Dubai!”
“This platform helped me construct my id.”
“I really feel very assured at this time.”
“Throughout menopause, staying busy is essential to maintain temper swings at bay.”
These are the cooks of Tocco, an e-commerce platform that curates home-cooked specialties from throughout the nation. From Uma Suresh’s prawn pickles in Kerala to Bhavana Shah’s nankhatais (biscuits) in Mumbai, and Annie Philip’s matured plum cake in Bengaluru, Tocco is a melting pot of regional delicacies!
Such ladies may be discovered all over the place — you simply must look and spend a couple of minutes speaking to them. Ask your mom or aunt about their needs, and if they’re something like Bhavana or Uma, they might have positively harboured goals of making their very own id by cooking. Tocco makes it straightforward for neighbourhood dwelling cooks to just do that, with out the effort of branding or advertising and marketing.
The concept for this platform was born from founder Reshma Suresh’s personal need to expertise the style of dwelling whereas dwelling away. After shifting to Mumbai for work, she discovered herself caught within the cycle of consuming exterior, at all times craving her amma’s tasty meals. Realising she wasn’t the one one on the lookout for genuine Kerala meals, she began making banana chips and promoting them by her model, ‘MeenGurry Reminiscences’, in 2021.
Packing recollections of her amma and ammamma’s (grandmother’s) generations-old recipe for the right, skinny, and crispy banana chips turned out to be a game-changer for Reshma, who was then working at an AI/healthcare startup.
Her ardour mission quickly took on a lifetime of its personal when she launched her mom’s prawn and mango pickle. Quite than making the meals herself, Reshma determined to create a platform the place folks like her mom and aunt might promote their dishes instantly. This may assist them change into financially impartial and switch their ardour right into a thriving enterprise. For purchasers, it affords a option to benefit from the native delicacies they crave!
Began in 2023, Tocco now has over 16 cooks, each women and men, largely of their 50s, whose goals have been given wings by the platform! Beginning with simply Rs 5,000, the bootstrapped enterprise achieved a turnover of over Rs 1 crore within the present 12 months. Right here’s how Reshma is empowering these with a lifelong dream.
Packing childhood recollections in a field
Reshma, an engineer, moved to Mumbai in 2012 for work. She labored in healthcare startups for over a decade, gaining first-hand expertise in healthcare and well being tech. Becoming a member of these startups from their infancy, she had a front-row understanding of what it takes to scale a startup.
Busy with work, an enormous portion of her 20s was spent consuming out or cooking for herself. She consistently craved a superb home-cooked meal, similar to those her mom used to make.
“I missed my roots and the meals I grew up consuming. Each time I visited dwelling in Kochi, I introduced again staples like banana chips, pickles, and podis (spice powders), which made cooking a meal very straightforward.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t discover a constant and handy provide of meals that jogged my memory of dwelling,” Reshma tells The Higher India.
Her hectic schedule coupled with late nights led to a number of restaurant meals. Just a few years later, Reshma was recognized with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). This prognosis triggered her seek for more healthy, genuine, home-cooked regional meals. Sadly, she couldn’t discover something prefer it in Mumbai.
Her sister, Annu, who lived in Bengaluru, confronted the identical dilemma — failing to seek out meals that bottled the recollections of Kerala. Lengthy discussions between the sisters led to Reshma creating expertise bins in 2021, providing conventional Kerala meals over the weekends. Ready in her Mumbai kitchen, one dish clearly stood out — the banana chips.
So she determined to promote these chips below her enterprise ‘MeenGurry Reminiscences’ (‘meen gurry’ means fish curry), as a homage to their shared recollections across the eating desk. Each weekend, she curated completely different meal bins whereas persevering with her job through the week.
Whereas working MeenGurry Reminiscences, Reshma realised that it was essential to do one thing to advertise cooks like her mom Uma and aunt Lakshmi.
The sister duo, Uma and Lakshmi, had participated in a cooking contest on a TV channel known as ‘Mazhavil Manorama’ in 2019. They have been among the many semi-finalists, which was an enormous motivation for them.
“We realised that there’s immense potential for folks like our dad and mom who’re retired or dwelling alone. They should be engaged. I then requested my mom to make her well-known prawn and mango pickle, a childhood favorite of many. I packaged it and began promoting it,” says Reshma.
Quickly, Lakshmi’s mulga podi (gun powder), sambar powder, and different merchandise have been additionally launched. Reshma, an MBA graduate from IIT Bombay, then created a platform to promote these nostalgic merchandise, naming it ‘Tocco’. The identify, brief for ‘The Orange Sweet Co’, made sense as a result of, for Reshma, the final word image of nostalgia was the orange candies she shared together with her sister throughout childhood.
With Tocco, the intention was to pack this childhood nostalgia in a field for different folks to take pleasure in. In late 2022, she stop her job to totally give attention to constructing the platform.
After onboarding the primary two cooks, Reshma introduced in additional, increasing the platform to incorporate over 16 cooks from completely different cities in Kerala, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. They provide snacks like banana chips, jackfruit chips, shankarpali (a candy snack), masalas like chaat masala, sambar masala, rasam podi (spice powder), pickles like prawn, lower mango, home made curd chilli, and puli inji (ginger pickle) amongst others.
For 58-year-old Uma Suresh, who has been cooking since she was in Class 6, Tocco has given new which means to her life. “Cooking is my ardour. I might at all times pack some pickles for anybody who got here dwelling. I at all times dreamed of working a enterprise however didn’t know the way to. Because of my daughters, I’ve made a reputation for myself,” says Uma.
Actually, Uma and her sister Lakshmi launched into journeys to Dubai and Goa utilizing their very own earnings!
Bhavana Shah, 51, from Mumbai, who makes snacks and starters and runs cooking lessons, says Tocco has given her a renewed sense of vigour.
“Work is essential for girls over 50, particularly when going by menopause. Coping with the new flashes and temper swings is less complicated once we are busy. Whereas I had common prospects in Vile Parle, Tocco has helped folks throughout the nation uncover who I’m. I thank Reshma for giving me a brand new id,” says Bhavana.
The platform additionally affords flexibility to cooks like Bhavana, who sometimes travels overseas to go to her kids. Moreover, Tocco assists with branding and advertising and marketing, that are main challenges in establishing a enterprise.
From Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 crore!
Based on Reshma, the group at Tocco ensures that each one merchandise are home made, fastidiously crafted in small batches, and preservative-free.
To change into a chef at Tocco, one should apply on the web site. After an preliminary name, the highest three dishes of the chef are mentioned.
“The dishes should be wholesome, preservative free, and have a shelf lifetime of at the very least 30 days. They need to be regional or native specialities. We ask them for an ingredient checklist and take the subsequent steps based mostly on that. No palm oil is allowed. Cooks ship samples of their dishes, which a spotlight group tastes. We recommend modifications, and if happy, we start the onboarding course of,” says Reshma.
Since most cooks don’t have a model of their very own, Tocco helps them with the packaging, branding, and labelling. They examine their kitchens, practice them, and even assist with getting an FSSAI certification, in case they don’t have one.
As soon as Tocco receives an order, they ship it to the chef, who makes the dish to order and ships it. The platform handles order administration, packing, transport, and buyer care.
“I need to present entry to wholesome, home made meals for busy folks. The largest motivation is seeing cooks like my mom stay an impartial life because of their earnings. Lots of them wouldn’t have had the chance to promote their merchandise on a big scale. We’re offering a chance to them,” she says.
As we speak, Tocco processes over 1,000 orders per 30 days. They plan to onboard extra cooks and develop their operations. Reshma divides her time between Mumbai and Kochi, the place she has arrange a facility for manufacturing the banana chips, considered one of their finest promoting merchandise.
Based on Reshma, the largest problem is convincing prospects to attend for his or her orders. “Our USP is that all the things is made in small batches. With the rise of fast commerce, prospects generally count on next-day supply, which turns into difficult,” she says.
Tocco is inspiring confidence in folks throughout age teams, particularly of their 50s and 60s.
“Don’t restrict your self to the partitions of the kitchen. Be assured, step ahead, and construct one thing that retains you engaged. Incomes your personal earnings is essential, and age isn’t any barrier to ranging from scratch,” says Uma.
Edited by Khushi Arora; Photos Courtesy Reshma Suresh
