Meet the husband-wife duo celebrating plant-forward, borderless cuisine at Moglu

(February 17, 2024) What does it take to give up a thriving technology business in Saudi Arabia to come to Bengaluru to open a vegetarian restaurant? That’s exactly what husband and wife duo, Ankita Shree, Managing Director, and Dr. Kiran Narayanan, Executive Chef, did. They returned to Bengaluru to start Moglu, a restaurant that celebrates vegetarian gastronomy. Their vision is to bring fresh, high-quality ingredients to create a borderless, plant-forward dining experience that seamlessly combines regional and international flavours, influences and techniques.

Ankita was a high-achieving student, and studied political science at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi. She topped her class, then did a master’s in Jawaharlal Nehru University, and even spent a summer volunteering with the renowned Belgian-born Indian welfare economist and social scientist, Dr Jean Dreze. During her time volunteering with Dr Dreze, she was focussed on the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the tribal areas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. “Witnessing the gaps in the deployment of the scheme was frustrating, and instead of merely petitioning bureaucrats, I felt compelled to become one myself,” Ankita says, in an interview with Global Indian.

Ankita Sree and Kiran Narayan, co-founders of Moglu

So, after completing her master’s degree, she spent a year preparing for the UPSC civil services exam. She cleared it on her first attempt and began her career in the Indian Revenue Service, as the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax. She spent over three years in the IRS, and realised the bureaucratic environment just wasn’t the right fit for her. “Not one to settle, I made the tough decision to leave my job, despite strong objections from my family. I then moved to Saudi Arabia, where I served as the CFO and co-founded a deep tech company with Kiran in 2019,” she recollects.

From architecture to tech

On the other hand, Kiran’s early life was a rich tapestry of experiencing different cultures, cuisines, and friendships. As his father worked for SAIL, the family moved to a new city every 2-2.5 years. It was challenging to have to change schools so often and make new friends each time, but this “transient lifestyle,” says Kiran, did nurture his passion for cooking, eve though he didn’t know it at the time. “My mother’s culinary skills and her curiosity for various regional cuisines deeply influenced me. I began experimenting with food at a young age, often observing the outcome of cooking vegetables over the coal stove in Asansol and Burnpur, West Bengal.” Their gardener, ‘Prasad dada’ became Kiran’s first mentor, and fostered his love for cooking.

However, after school, he followed through on his passion for architecture, and joined CEPT in Ahmedabad, which is India’s premier architecture school. However, familial circumstances prompted a shift to a Mechanical Engineering course at SRM, Chennai, then a a master’s degree in Texas, where he lived and worked for six years. Later, he followed a respected professor to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, and completed his PhD under Dr. Ravi Samtaney’s mentorship.

Moglu

Although they had such diverse backgrounds, the couple’s paths crossed in 2010 through a common friend. After his time in Texas and before moving to Saudi Arabia, Kiran spent six months in Pune doing a project for DRDO on carbon nanotubes as a scientist. Ankita was visiting a friend on the same campus, which was near Khadakwasla called DIAT (Defence Institute of Advanced Technology). “We met at a party and became and stayed friends for seven years before our relationship blossomed into a romantic one,” smiles Ankita.

Shifting Gears

In 2019, Ankita decided to leave her position at the IRS and embark on a new journey alongside Kiran. The couple ventured into the realm of entrepreneurship, founding their first venture together, a deep tech startup. Kiran had decided to follow his mentor, Dr Ravi Samtaney, to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, where he did his PhD in Computational Physics under his guidance. “The diverse global community within the university township and the support extended to entrepreneurs made it an attractive prospect for us,” says Ankita.

At KAUST, they found a supportive ecosystem and a diverse, collaborative community, the ideal setting for their own startup ambitions and Kiran was keen to establish their tech company there. And when Ankita visited Kiran at KAUST in 2019, she was inspired by what she saw. “The vibrant community and the resources available convinced me to join him as a co-founder and assume the role of CFO. It felt like the perfect opportunity to pursue our entrepreneurial dreams together,” she says.

The Beirut sharing platter at Moglu

The Return

However, as they ran their first venture Saudi Arabia, Ankita had discovered her calling for Yoga, and applied for a Hatha Yoga teacher training programme. In 2022, the couple returned to India and Ankita moved to Coimbatore for a six-month residential training programme at the Isha School of Hatha Yoga. Almost parallelly, Kiran moved to New York and began his professional training as a chef at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Manhattan. After finishing her training in December 2022, Ankita joined Kiran in NYC for a few months. “Together, we did the NYC winters the right way by indulging in a myriad of food crawls across the Big Apple,” says Kiran. The unwavering confidence, support, and belief they had in each other’s company, they decided to make their next move.

The Restaurant Business

With a vision to revolutionise the vegetarian restaurant landscape by infusing it with quality, variety, and innovation, the couple started working on their dream project which was to start a vegetarian restaurant. “We believe that India’s diverse range of vegetables, including seasonal produce, deserves to be celebrated and showcased in inventive ways, blending culinary traditions from around the world with our own regional and micro-cuisines – some culinary magic, if you will,” aver the duo.

At the heart of Moglu’s culinary philosophy are two simple things, fresh, high-quality ingredients and the use of culinary influences, flavours, and techniques cutting across cuisines, both international as well as regional and micro cuisines, to present them in a manner that’s delightful, innovative, and above all, delicious. Kiran says, “Our first goal is to reignite people’s love and passion for vegetarian cuisine through a cuisine-agnostic approach that transcends borders and focuses on the inherent qualities of each ingredient. Everything at Moglu, from sauces to ferments, and zero-proof beverages from indigenous ingredients is crafted from scratch, in-house. We combine both scientific knowledge and culinary expertise to bring out the best in indigenous ingredients.” Ankita adds, “we want to present an alternative business model of a restaurant that makes no compromises on quality and purity in the interest of scale. We strongly believe that since food is a consumable that directly impacts one’s wellbeing, scaling food service for hyper growth compromises quality.”

Tempeh Arancini with Polenta & Romesco

Collaborations with the Isha Foundation

To support farmers, they collaborate with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), particularly those under the purview of Isha Foundation in collaboration with NABARD. “We plan to grow organically and sustainably, without being overly worried about numbers. We want to generate enough revenue to provide everyone on our team with at least two yearly raises. We are focusing on building a strong team that shares our vision and mission. With their collaboration, we aspire to build an institution that can endure beyond our lifetimes and contribute positively to the world,” conclude the couple.

Learn more about Moglu on their website.