Looking for Hard to Find Ingredients for Your Plant-Based Diet or That Korean Dish You're Craving? Here's Where to Buy it All (2021)

• Vegan diet provides more fiber, antioxidants, and other beneficial plant compounds, along with being rich in potassium, magnesium, folate, and numerous vitamins such as A, C, and E.


• A plant-based Indian diet can help you control weight, as, through a vegan diet, you will have a lesser calorie intake.


• It helps in improving body functions (such as that of the kidney), and help prevent numerous chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and even certain type of cancers (such as breast and prostate).


• A plant-based diet can also be beneficial for the skin, for it provides one with anti-oxidants, anti-aging elements, and vitamins required for the maintenance of the skin.

• Q. Tell us about yourself and your background
• Both of us have been technology entrepreneurs for the last decade and have a very good understanding of data, digital marketing. We’re foodies and big-time travel enthusiasts!


• Q. What led you to create Urban Platter, and how did you go about it?
• I brought my passion for food coupled with e-commerce experience and amplified it with Dhaval’s expertise in tech, data, and automation to create Urban Platter.


• Q. What are you trying to achieve?
• We want to be a one-stop point for customers to source their ingredients and high-quality gourmet products from around the world. Customers of today are well educated and well informed about food, culture, and cuisine. They appreciate the origins of products, respect the provenance and, in our opinion, love the products without modification or any change. We aim to deliver that.


• Q. What challenges did you face at the start, and how did you overcome them?
• Getting vendors to trust us, work with us, agree to our small quantities, and managing the entire business with no experience in the food sector or seasoned professionals. We managed these issues, primarily by using honest and smart communication and negotiation skills to convince vendors, promised them good business and delivered it, and learned the skills we were operationally lacking. The whole team at Urban Platter, which started five years ago, is still with us today. Amateurs have become pretty good at their tasks.


• Q. What is your process, and how do you introduce new products?
• We’re a curating and marketing company. We understand market and demand gaps, and fill them with unique solutions. We’ve got an extensive team of food technologists, innovators, and data analysts to help us identify and then introduce products to customers.


• Q. How do you ensure quality?
• We deploy three measures to ensure quality. First, we speak to our vendors, educate them about the end purpose, and set expectations straight with them. This in itself introduces mutual responsibility and quality checks from the point of dispatch.
  
  Second, we train our ground-level staff to check each product for five key parameters (packaging, shelf life, temperature, texture, and taste) to ensure that any red flags are immediately raised.
  
  Third, we have a team of three for quality control and one quality assurance officer who ensures that nothing goes ahead for processing without their approval. Additionally, we have stringent checks and balances like a metal detector, moisture analyser, and plate count analysis of warehouses to ensure our passion and quality are reflected in our products.


• Q. What makes Urban Platter products better or different from those of other food brands?
• It’s the whole experience of how we pack, ship, deliver the products, and then how the consumer interacts and experiences the products is what makes us different. We try to ensure excellent quality, good value, and convenience to customers, which is always a plus.

Other notable mentions from Urban Platter

• Oat Milk: A new product for the Indian market (Urban Platter offers India’s first Oat milk product). Excellent Dairy Alternative for Lactose intolerant and Vegans. Available for Rs. 232.


• Almond Flour: Super-fine quality Almond Flour for baking, smoothies, and breakfast preparations. Consistent best-seller. The 200 g pack is available for Rs. 318.

Where Can You Find Them?

• Q. Which products would you recommend to shop from Urban Platter for the first time?
• Oh well, tough one! But do try our baking soda or yeast to bake some bread. Try our jaggery powder. Try our olive oil. Our pink salt is normally bought by customers in 2-3 units in 1 go. Then there’s almond milk for daily use. Try our oat milk (and be amazed!). Make a delicious curry with our coconut milk (and share with us on Instagram #urbanplatter). It goes on and on!


• Q. How big a foodie are you, and which cuisines do you favour?
• Both of us are huge foodies. We love Indian food, but I would say that anything that tastes good, looks good, and is nourishing, is welcome to be devoured! I think a lavish Gujarati thali is sure to bring a smile to both of us!


• Q. Do you cook? Please share a recipe you find yourself going back to often.
• I do, and often. I love to experiment with food and ingredients. My favourite cuisine to cook has to be Italian. Without a doubt - a Primavera pasta dish is something you’ll find me going back often to.


• Q. What are your own interests?
• Chirag: I love reading, traveling, and listening to music. Snooker is another passion, but I rarely get to play it lately. I unwind with swimming and often like to go for long walks with my wife.
  
  Dhaval: I love to read, travel and exercise. Snooker is definitely a passion. Chess is something both me and CK often like to play. And I have an exceptional interest in understanding and improving performance by data analysis.


• Q. What’s next for your brand?
• We’ve built good customer confidence online, and now it’s time to get out of our comfort zone to go offline. We’re now building good partnerships with key retailers and stakeholders to foray into your neighbourhood stores, and I think in the next 12 months, things would look dramatically different. From a product perspective, we have our calendars full for the next 24 months. We’ll continue to delight our customers and spoil them for choices :) Let’s just say we want to be in every home’s pantry of India, and we’ll make it happen!