Today we’d like to introduce you to Chef Veena N. Kallingal
Hi Chef Veena, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Cooking is my Passion! Even before I knew cooking, I was sure I wanted to be in the culinary field. I come from a family of great cooks from both my parents’ side. My mom is my inspiration. I grew up eating great food Our house was always open and whoever came in were sure to be fed no matter what time it was. No one left hungry when they came to our house. Whenever my mom made which was every day sometimes multiple times a day, my neighbors were sure to get some.
When I got married and moved to USA 25 years ago, I missed having people around, and I wanted to build a foodie community around me. I started experimenting with all the cookbooks, and my husband encouraged me a lot. We started having lot of parties at home showcasing all my food experiments and over time.
My lifelong dream was to become a Chef. My dream of doing a course on Culinary Arts came true, and I got my formal training through a Non-Profit called ‘Job train works’ (Formerly OICW). I started a successful home-style catering business with my family and friends’ support. My passion for cooking has only increased many folds after being in the culinary field after almost 2 decades now. My style of cooking is Home-style, authentic, delicious, healthy, and with bold flavors. I always wanted my customers to eat healthy and feed them the food they have grown up with. I always wanted to preserve my rich tradition and heritage through the food I serve to my customers, which became possible once I started my catering business.
Career-wise, I started as a Home-chef delivering meals for my customers, then once I finished my culinary course, I started working as a ‘Global Chef’ at eBay office cafeteria at both locations at San Jose, CA & Hamilton Ave, (Cafe was operated by Bon Appetit) in the Bay Area. Then I took a break once my daughter was born and was doing ‘personal Chef’ gigs. While working, I realized that there is a great demand for ‘Home-style’ Vegetarian food. So, I started catering again. We also had customers come and pick up food. Then the demand was growing so much so that we ran out of space in the commissary kitchen rental. We seeked advice from one of our mentors who advised us to build our own Commissary kitchen in San Mateo, CA. So, we rented a 3,800sqft warehouse and built the kitchen from scratch, which I designed.
We grew really fast; we were one of the pioneers in the everyday food delivery business when we started. You can order food latest by 9 am and you can get fresh food delivered to your family by dinner time. We were even catering hot Vegetarian lunches to local pre-schools were we used to deliver super nutritious, balanced food according to the USDA standards with no processed food for $5 a meal.
We also had separate kitchen to do meat dishes in which we operated to 3 other business in which we catered office lunches which included Italian and Mexican food. They were called ‘Aglio Basilico’ and ‘La Cucina’. We also had a Food truck in which served Indian fusion food. It was Dosa (Indian gluten-free crepes) with traditional Vegetarian and Vegan options under Kamakshi’s Kitchen and Indo-El Salvadorian food. That idea came up because we had a client in our commissary kitchen who were very hard-working El-Salvadorian couple who were making handmade sausages but having difficulty growing their business. So, we did a collaboration with them.
In between all this, I became a food consultant and started training staff at other cafeterias around the Bay Area on Indian food. There was a lot of demand for Indian food in the IT office cafeterias and they were struggling to get trained chefs in the Indian cosines. One of my big clients were Walmart Cafe (Cafe was operated by cosmopolitan Catering) in Mountain View, CA.
I’ve had great teachers in my life who were an inspiration in so many ways, starting from Mom & Gramdma to my Chef Instructor, Chef Adam Weiner to my friends, some of them who were amazing cooks who were kind enough to share and teach their recipes to my customers too!
I realized that I love teaching, so about 8yrs ago, I started conducting cooking classes (www.spicesandcurrycookingclasses.com)
Meanwhile, we opened our Vegetarian Restaurant called ‘Kamakshi’s Kitchen’ in the beautiful city of San Carlos, CA. We were one of the 1st Indian Vegetarian Restaurant to have Wine & Beer license. We also had a ‘Happy Hour’ where we served super popular ‘Molaga Bajji/Stuffed Jalapeño gluten-free fritters,’ Chaat items (Indian Street food), and monthly small plate specials. We also got a ‘Michelin’ mention for it. I also got to publish my 1st e-book called ‘My tried-and-true Vegetarian recipes’ on Amazon kindle.
Everything was going fine until the rising cost for doing business, high taxes, increasing rents, and labor shortages started becoming too much for a small-business like us to handle. We also were on the lookout for better-funded schools. So, we moved to Texas.
Even though we really miss our friends dearly, we are happy that we moved to Texas since we could at least afford a home with great schools. Here, it seems to be more small-business friendly.
I am still getting myself familiar with Frisco and other surrounding areas. Hope to start something again. Meanwhile, I have started to conduct my cooking classes here again, which I am so happy about. I also working on my 2nd book based on my Instagram posts (@chef_veenank). I pretty much teach all kinds of global foods in my cooking classes.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Everything was going fine until the rising cost for doing business, high taxes, increasing rents, and labor shortages started becoming too much for a small business like us to handle.
I also realized that I wasn’t able to spend enough time with my daughter. At one point, both my husband and myself were totally involved full-time in our restaurant and catering business. There were days together I wasn’t able to see my daughter. We had our fantastic friends and neighbors who took care of her until, much later, we got our in-laws’ help.
All this hard work and struggle, but we were barely making ends meet to the rising costs of being a small business. Everywhere we looked for opportunity, a multi-billion-dollar company was taking our business. That is the case with most of the small business in this country. At one point, we couldn’t even afford health insurance for ourselves after paying all the bills, taxes, and wages. That is when we thought, enough is enough and sold everything and moved, looking for a more affordable place to make a decent living and not mere surviving.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Chef by profession and passion. I specialize in Vegetarian food from all around the world. Some of my specialties include Indian (of course), Italian, Mexican, Chinese, American, Thai & French dishes.
I am proud of following my passion through which I reached great heights being a pioneer of being one the 1st freshly cooked food delivery business in the Bay Area, getting a recognition with a special ‘Michelin mention’ for our restaurant. Got to be in a pilot episode with ‘Top chef’ winner Chef Richard Blais ‘Reinventing the meal’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0qPINnpqY)
So glad that I could publish my 1st e-cookbook (https://www.amazon.com/Tried-True-Collection-Vegetarian-Recipes-ebook/dp/B086VBLNQ6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29Z3IM30QAF1G&keywords=My+tried+and+true+Vegetarian+recipes&qid=1662420841&sprefix=my+tried+and+true+vegetarian+recipes%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1) on Amazon kindle.
To have provided healthy, freshly cooked food for the pre-school kids.
To have been a family and more for our employees who could depend on us no matter what.
To have judged several cooking competition the recent one being the ‘Chili cook-off’ by CASI (https://www.casichili.net).
To have volunteered in several organizations, including ‘Tibetan Aid Project,’ ‘Meals on wheels,’ ‘Ronald McDonald house,’ ‘Samaritan House,’ being part of ‘Lion’s club of Foster City,’ Conducted cooking classes of the non-profit ‘cooking matters’ where they teach people of low income and people suffering from Diabetes and BP on how to eat healthy on a budget. Being an active member in KQED public television & Radio events, we donated food for the volunteers regularly doing their fund-raising event.
Feeding our local Elementary school teachers and staff (Foster City Elementary School) every year during the last of school as a way to say Thank you for their amazing work.
And now, volunteering for ‘Elks Lodge’ etc…
I am working on my 2nd cookbook based on my Instagram & tiktok posts.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was always a ‘Happy go lucky’ kid. I had great friends growing up. I was more interested in sports, arts, music, and extra-curricular activities, always loved to help people and make myself useful in every way possible,
My brother and myself were always a team growing up, and it continues with God’s grace even today. We grew up in a Middle-class family, and our dad made sure that all our needs were fulfilled. We traveled all over in trains and buses, met all our relatives, visited so many temples, spent amazing number of hours with our cousins and other relatives. It was an amazing childhood. My parents taught me the value of volunteering and empathy. He is the kindest, most caring man, and he is always a positive influence for my brother and me, even to this day. I learnt a lot of family values from my parents.
I owe all my Culinary success to my mom. She has always been my Guru, our mentor and a pillar of strength to our family and I hope and pray that she will always be our guiding light from above.’
Contact Info:
- Website: https://spicesandcurrycookingclasses.com
- Instagram: @chef_veenank
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spicesandcurrycookingclasses
- Twitter: @Chefveena
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0qPINnpqY
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/spices-and-curry-cooking-classes-san-mateo
- Other: TikTok @chefveenank
