(Rajyashree Guha, May 15) Overseas Indian chefs and restaurateurs are cooking up new ways to help Indians dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Many are donating funds through non-profits despite their fine-dining businesses talking a major hit since 2020. Here’s a look at how a cross-section of Global Indians in the restaurant business are helping out while finding newer ways of staying afloat.
- ‘New Delhi’, a restaurant run by a Punjabi family in Norway, has donated its day’s income of ₹ 482,000 to non-profit Khalsa Aid to procure oxygen for Covid patients in India. The restaurant, which is closed due to the lockdown, garners most of its sales through takeaways.
- Chef partners Shachi Mehra and Sandeep Basrur at Adya restaurant in America are donating 100% sales from May 10 to 16 to the American India Foundation.
- Restaurateur Jessi Singh will hold $80 set-menu fundraising dinner at his 5 restaurants in Australia and one each in New York and California on May 19. Singh is collaborating with his contacts in India to use the proceeds for feeding communities, providing burial services and buying oxygen concentrators.
- Ritu Dalmia, owner of DIVA restaurants which had 7 outlets in India and 3 in Italy, had to close down 4 restaurants and lay off 100 employees. To tide over the loss, she started her DIY venture in which packed ingredients and instructions are sent to her patrons so they can cook up their own meal.
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