House of Millets | A Masterchef Finalist’s Home-Grown Brand Delivering Vegan, Gluten-Free Desserts

• BySheetal Sidhu     |    May 20, 2021

“Find your niche, plagiarizing ideas doesn’t work. Stop scrolling social media, skip that show and work on your passion”, Natasha Gandhi, Founder, House of Millets.

Natasha, Masterchef India Top5 finalist engaged in a lively interview with Startup story sharing her life’s journey and her walk to fame. Natasha, a cook, an entrepreneur, brand ambassador and recently turned into a content curator, she started off her journey to become a CA but while her life was looped between college, exam preparation and work she jolted to a stop and reflected on her life decisions and choices and that is when Natasha decided that she was meant to follow her passion and be a chef.

House Of Millets, A Working Business Model

“Grab an opportunity with both your hands and give it your 500%”

Natasha said while telling Startup story the developments that led her to set up her home-run venture, House of millets. She started working on the business model and the concept while she was on her two month break post exams she interned under a chef in Mumbai where she was subjected to do everything from waiting tables to handling social media and learning recipes! After the successful launch of her venture House of millets, Natasha for the first time had a living proof of a working business model to present to her parents. Natasha, who had been following her parents’ wishes to continue attempting the CA exam finally convinced them otherwise and turned into a full-time baker for her venture.

Name And Concept Behind The Brand

When asked by Startup Story to elaborate a bit more about her brand, Natasha told us that she had first begun as a regular baker but realizing there were several other regular bakers she wanted to do something different and so she researched more about the products and baking. While, she was looking into all these products she was also concerned about health as her father has a sweet tooth, but is at a risk of diabetes she wanted something that could be consumed without any health risk factors.

Natasha recognized that most hyped products such and oat flour or quinoa were very expensive. So, her product range had to be healthy and affordable. She soon figured out that millet was easily available at grocery stores and full of health benefits and thereon she started to experiment with recipes including millets. Natasha told Startup Story that she could effortlessly create vegan products but had to put in extra effort to make them healthy and gluten free.

Revealing about the name of her startup Natasha told us that her brand name was inspired by the tv series ‘House of Cards’ and proposed by her friend!

Family Running House Of Millets As A Team

Natasha, being a content curator and an entrepreneur juggles between a lot of roles, she also holds online cooking classes and is a brand ambassador for united food store. So, Startup story asked her to throw some light on how she and her team were managing everything. To this Natasha replied. Everything we do right now is within the family and in-house.

“My family and my friends are my biggest critiques”

Natasha said while explaining how she had managed to hone her baking skills just because of the correct feedback from her close ones. She is currently balancing a fully packed schedule with great diligence and support from her family.

Masterchef, A Life Changing Experience

Natasha with a hint of excitement in her voice described how Masterchef is one the most cherished accomplishment of her life. While, Natasha was still interning and learning new things at another venture, she received a call to audition of Masterchef and after clearing a series of rounds she finally succeeded to read on the round that was telecasted and became one of the first contestants to receive the apron aka was selected for the competition.

She was very active throughout the show and told the Startup story that ‘she was polished as a chef’ after her experience. The challenges and tasks made her push her limits and put her skills to test and even later she has always considered it as an opportunity and not an instant walk to fame but a step in the right direction. She is in touch with all of her competitors and grateful to the judges for the tips and tricks they would tell them off screen.

Future Plans And Business Expansion

Since we are amidst a pandemic, Natasha told Start-up story that she is not ready to take any major steps as far as business expansion and plans are concerned. She wants to run her venture as it is and focus on other things that she has taken up alongside and she will also be working on fresh recipes and products since she gathered from her customers that they would love to try her other products. She has also planned to expand her venture, set up a cloud kitchen and other ventures across the country, once things settle down and are risk free.

A Word Of Advice Topped With A Little Cooking Tip

“Don’t quit, follow your passion regardless of what it is, if setting up a venture there is always a trial and error period but you need to give it your 100%”

“Love is the magic ingredient to anything you cook”

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