Revival of Our Roots and Health Reasons are Making Indian Traditional Cookware Popular Again. Here's Why You Should Try It

02/07/2021 Newest

The scented earthy notes that only terracotta can infuse in water, a cup of tea, a pot of steamed rice or even misti doi, or that unmistakable but indescribable taste of rasam brewed in a tin pot. Why food tastes better in grandma's home or back in the village, rustic and simple, but better? We have all had a brush with traditional Indian cookware, and loved it. And when it so much better for us and the planet, why not embrace it in our daily lives? Read on and let us convince you to.

Traditional Cookware in Modern Kitchens

The Indian population is increasingly becoming aware and has been looking for ways to adopt a healthier lifestyle in the last few years. More recently, the Covid situation has further encouraged this thought process. In their quest for healthier and more sustainable living, many have found answers in the age-old methods of the previous generations. Kitchen being the heart of a household, is obviously the starting point for many trying to go back to traditional ways. Some, for instance, start with getting rid of their non-stick cookware, going back to making chapatis on iron tavas and drinking from copper vessels etc.

Zishta - The Bridge between Rural Artisans and Urban Kitchens

Source Zishta

Traditional cookware is still very commonly used in almost every household in the rural parts of the country. However, a big gap observed was the deterioration in the quality of these products over time. Majorly, quality depends on the raw materials being used along with the labor-intensive process of crafting these vessels and cookwares. Another big issue is sourcing these products from the rural artisans and making them available for the urban population. Read on to find out how the three co-founders of Zishta got together to bring about a revolutionary change in the way our kitchens operate.

The Founders’ Journey to a Pioneering Start-Up

Source Zishta. (from left) Varishta Sampath, Meera Ramakrishnan and Archish Mathe Madhavan

Zishta was started with a vision to revive ancient techniques and crafts that are now dying out. These products are not only found to be of high utility value but are environment friendly as well. The founders, Archish Mathe Madhavan, Meera Ramakrishnan and Varishta Sampath have found their calling in guarding the ancient and traditional wisdom and that was how Zishta came into being. Having started with cookware, Zishta now offers a range of furnishing and home-decor products as well, thus offering traditional, more sustainable items for an entire household. Read on to find out more.

While Meera and Archish spent decades in high profile jobs with MNCs, Varishta came fresh out of college with strong determination to make a difference and and helped establish Zishta from scratch. She is an inspiration to many youngsters, who by default are herded into corporate life even when they are yearning for something more satisfying than simply earning money from a nine to five job.

Meera was in the corporate world for 22 years, her last job was director of marketing and strategy in Honeywell. She started her career in the advertising department of The Hindu (newspaper), moving on to Infosys where she did global marketing for 7 years, then another 6 years in GE healthcare as chief marketing officer. She says, "I come from a background where I love stories, history, our culture and science. I love to understand about our culture but try to interlink it with science and bring a more modern meaning to it and more scientific meaning to it."

Archish worked for MNCs for 10 years before quitting his job to start Zishta. He worked with ICICI, moving to GE and then finally to GE healthcare where he was in Meera's team. He is very deep into sustainable living and that’s how he teamed up with Meera to create Zishta. He also brought in his cousin Varishta who wanted to do something more meaningful in life rather than just sit and do a job where you get paid well but aren't doing what you want to do in life.

"Reviving as many ancient crafts, as fast as possible, and helping the survival of the artisans, not just financially but holistic survival, are the most important things for Zishta right now."

Meera Ramakrishnan, co-founder, Zishta

Q&A with Varishta Sampath, Co-founder at Zishta

Co-founder, Zishta

Varishta Sampath

After finishing her final semester exams for college, instead of pursuing an MBA or a corporate job, Varishta decided to do something which is more soul satisfying. Even if that meant co-founding a startup. An inspiration to her team, she runs the entire operations and finance for Zishta. Once a customer places an order, the entire process from supplier management to orders is all under her purview.

Interviewer BP Guide

What led you to create Zishta and how did you go about it?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

We had some 15 ideas but most of them went back to rural India. We were looking at rural tourism, bringing back some of the rural cultures, rural games. One of the thoughts that came up was that why don’t we bring traditions from the rural part of the country back to the forefront.

Between January and March in 2016 Archish and I did a road trip to all the districts of Tamil Nadu visiting various villages in in the rural parts, Meera was in Honeywell at that time. What we found was that many of the crafts had already died with the artists. For instance, there was one artisan in Mannarkoil who used to make a vessel using 5 metals and when he passed away, that craft was lost with him. This was what we were repeatedly encountering and we just knew we had to try and save other ancient techniques from the same fate. And in July 2016 we started Zishta.

Interviewer BP Guide

Your website talks of reviving lost or dwindling arts. Please tell us more.

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

In some places artisans were content supplying locally, or till the next town some 20 or 30 kms away. Some of the crafts were completely dying. For example, in one place there were only three people practicing a certain craft when we visited and by the time we started the business in July, there was only one person left.

We were seeing crafts that had died, we were seeing crafts that were in the process of dying. The children of these artisans are well educated, many are engineers, but they were very clear they didn’t want to take up their father’s craft. We knew that this was happening everywhere and that was a very painful thing because the generation that was still holding on to it, loved it. They know the benefits of it, they know what they are doing. They were pained that it was going to go away with them. After the road trip we knew we wanted to revive it.

Some of the artisans are socio-economically very poor, some are middle class, and some are very well to do. So, you have all three ranges of artisans. The common imagery associated with a rural artisan, of someone living in a hut and struggling for food, is not true. A majority of them fall in the middle class, it is only a small minority who are not doing so well.

Interviewer BP Guide

Tell us more about your road trip.

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

When we wanted to buy products, two artisans clearly laughed at us and said that even locally people had stopped buying these vessels. They were incredulous that we came from Bangalore and wanted them. They saw us as city kids with passing fancies and told us that if we really wanted them we could have a limited number of pieces that we would have to physically come and collect each month, they wouldn't send it to us.

We agreed, and for the first 6 months we travelled the state collecting utensils of clay, iron, cast iron, tin etc in our car and bringing them back to Bangalore. It was only after that the artisans began to take us seriously, because when we present a craft-form we don’t just present the product, we present the craft, we present the artisan.

Interviewer BP Guide

What is your approach to curating the products you offer?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

We look at how it is made, how long it takes to make, the process, why this craft existed, and what is the traditional wisdom and science behind it. Why do people need utensils of bronze, or brass and not another metal? We spend a lot of time with the artisans, with elderly members of the community, some of whom continue to use these, and gather knowledge. Then we do scientific research and combine the two streams of information.

Take drinking water in copper for example, it is very cliched. Google it and you will be promised beautiful skin, lovely hair, remedy for obesity and diabetes. What the ancient wisdom says is that copper adds prana to water. How does one translate that into science, or for someone who does not believe in ancient wisdom or doesn't understand prana? So we did 3 months of scientific research, read research papers across the globe in every university and in every publication to find out.

Effect of copper on water

Oligodynamic effect: the oligodynamic effect, or contact killing, is a natural property of copper - it purifies water from germs. The moment you pour water in copper, the copper ions start working and within 30 minutes they start killing viruses and germs.

Neutralizes the acidity: it neutralizes the acidity in water. Many of us don't realise that water can be acidic in nature and copper neutralizes that.

Calms water molecules: the molecules of water are highly agitated by the time it reaches your house from the rivers. This is science, it is not traditional wisdom. When you pour water in copper, within a few minutes, the molecules calm down.

Put together, this mean that we are drinking pure, good water. Purity is very important in essentials like food, water and air. So, when you put pure water into your system, automatically your system is cleaner. It's not a cure all and pure water will not cure obesity or give you beautiful skin if you're always eating pizza. What it can do is ensure that a key element we need to sustain our body, that is water, is pure and good.

Interviewer BP Guide

From where does Zishta source products today?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

Today we work in 14 states in India. We started from Tamil Nadu because Tamil is the mother tongue for all three of us, though I have lived in Bangalore all my life. Tamil being our mother tongue, it was easier to bring back from Tamil Nadu. Meera comes from a village where she knows of a few artisans through her father because they used to buy from them in the past. Today we work in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Odisha, Manipur, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh - 14 states and with 450 artisans.

Interviewer BP Guide

How do you introduce a new line of products?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

First, we look for the utility value. Initially, we looked at kitchen related items because the utility value and the change you can make in a house is very high. However, we are not restricted to the kitchen and 20% of our portfolio is non-kitchen which includes home décor, mats etc. In the next one year there will be a lot more home décor as well because the intention is to bring in products that would be relevant for a house.

In the kitchen we looked at all the products that our grandparents used from across the country. Non Southern India uses Kansa or bronze to serve food while the southern part of India uses bronze for cooking food. So culturally, the states are little different but they are united as well. We looked at all the traditional vessels that have been used in India in the past, which clusters are known for making them and then we try to get in touch with the craftsmen.

Jandiala Guru in Punjab, which is 16 kms from Amritsar, is known for their brass vessels. They make very unique shapes and came from Pakistan during the partition. It’s a UNESCO listed site for intangible cultural heritage but it took me one and a half years to find one artisan and I had to enlist the help of a professor who had written a book on them. We first identify cultural crafts and then we go there they are made, we work with the artisans, we spend time with them, we travel, we bring back the products, and use them in our house.

Interviewer BP Guide

How do you ensure quality?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

We use our extended family to test the products and give us feedback. These are experienced people of over 60 or 70 years of age who have been cooking for a long time. We also send the product to a NABL accredited lab in Bangalore which is European standards of quality testing, RoHS, Restriction of Hazardous Substances. We test for lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and mercury and only if the product qualifies do we launch.

In the last five years we have seen that the products that don't qualify the test are those where it is not the ancient form of making them but a newer way that came about in the last 30-40 years.

We have not rejected a single product made using the ancient methods. This is due to the quality of material and the making process, the labour-intensive process of beating the hot metal for so many hours.

Interviewer BP Guide

Please describe some of these ancient methods used to make vessels.

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

The making of the iron tawa for example, involves beating the heated metal for hours. This removes impurities and ensures food cooked in it has a high iron content. This process, of heating the ingot red hot in the fire and beating it, is an ancient method. Even kansa is made that way and sometimes there are up to six people beating it. This also gives purity to the product.

For making cast iron the ancient way, cast iron ingots are melted and silica and carbon added to it. The newer method of the last 40-50 years is by melting industrial scrap iron from nuts, bolts etc. Cast iron available in India is made from this scrap. It is based on quality where A is superior quality and the quality of C is lesser. It’s not a bad process but then you do not know which grade it's made of and B or C grades don't pass the RoHS test.

Source Zishta

Interviewer BP Guide

What are some of the challenges of working with artisans spread all across the country?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

Shipping was the most important challenge initially as many artisans only supplied locally and had never shipped products before. The other challenge is procuring products - during the agricultural season when the craftsmen also work the fields, during local festivals - it's not just the Durga Puja of West Bengal or Pongal in Tamil Nadu but local festivals specific to each village. These villages are close knit communities and the foundry is shut for local functions and festivals.

We do not have hundreds of products in stock. We wish we could see that day, and we could if we worked with products that we rejected which is what is being supplied across the country unfortunately. We will not do that. For us our value system is that if we can’t do good then let’s at least not harm anyone, let’s not do the business.

Number two is because they are handmade, often the products on our website are out of stock. It is very difficult to maintain quantities and it takes time. Rain affects clay supply and baking of the products, you can’t do kalai on the inside. In Gujarat, hundreds of my ghee vessels are stuck because of the rain. These are not done in closed foundries or big factories, they are done in open spaces. It's very hard to estimate the quantity you can get.

Other than that working capital is a challenge because they work on advances. You have to give them advance money so they can procure the raw material. It is labour-intensive.

Interviewer BP Guide

There is a perceptible shift towards sustainability and conscious consumption. Have you also seen this trend through your work?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

Yes, very much. When we started Zishta, the people who used to buy from us in the first one or two years are the ones who valued traditions, who had seen their grandmother use them, and when they moved they wanted to bring these memories to their city homes. It was nostalgia driven.

Then came the concept of health. Over the next two years we saw a mixed segment of buyers. There was a lot of awareness being created and people wanted to buy for health reasons. It didn’t matter if the cast iron was of good or bad quality, they wanted to do away with non-stick. Recently, in the last one year, there is a sudden awareness of sustainability. These buyers are few but there is an awareness being created through them.

Those who buy from a sustainability perspective are still a minuscule population because sustainability in cookware is something people are yet to understand in the way they have understood health. I would explain it using a tava as example. Non-stick tavas last six months to maximum two years, after which you will have to discard it. To ensure you do not ingest harmful chemicals, you have to buy very expensive ones. Assume that we cook for 40 years in our lifetime, that adds up to least 20 tavas that we have to buy. And those 20 tavas from my house also pollute the environment. In comparison, an iron tava costs Rs.1600, which is cheaper than a very good quality non-stick tava. I use it, I will give it to my daughter, she will use it and pass it to the next generation and so on.

Even if I don’t want my tava or my bronze utensil for example, I can always give it away to be sold as an antique piece, to be repaired and reused, or to be melted and re-used. It never comes back to pollute the environment. While health awareness has picked up, especially since covid started last year, the deeper understanding on sustainability is yet to come.

What You Should Buy from Zishta

Zishta offers a variety of traditional cookware and utensils. We have put together a list of a few highly useful products for your kitchen.

Neem Wood Kitchen Set

Source zishta.com

Zishta offers a set of very high quality, heat and scratch resistant ladels, masala spoons and chopping board. This set is made of neem wood, that has anti-baterial properties and has been carefully handcrafted by artisans in West Bengal and undergoes seasoning and treatment process. For Rs. 2550, you can get a set of 1 Chopping Board, 1 Dal ladle, 1 Curry Ladle, 1 Rice ladle, 1 Sambhar ladle, Set of 6 Spice Spoons and Set of 6 Masala Spoons. Get your own set here.

Manipur Black Pottery Tea Set

Source zishta.com

Tea is the most popular beverage in India. Almost all of us begin our day with a cup of chai. Zishta recommends Manipuri Black Pottery kettle and tea cups for your kitchen. This beautiful tea set is sure to keep your tea hotter for longer apart from giving it a unique aroma. Bring home this classy tea-set consisting of a kettle and 4 cups for Rs. 3200 from here.

Copper Water Pot With Cup

Source zishta.com

Handmade by artisans in Maharashtra, this water pot is made with the best quality copper and offers numerous health benefits associated with it. Zishta recommends storing water for atleast 4 hours in the copper pot before drinking it. Look no further if you have been looking for a pure copper water pot. You can buy a set of water pot and cup from Zishta's website for Rs.2050.

Brass Coffee Filter Medium & Davara Tumbler Combo

Source zishta.com

It does not matter which part of India you belong to, filter coffee is enjoyed by all. Coffee lovers can now enjoy their favorite beverage without worrying about acidity as the alkaline content of brass takes care of it. Made of highest quality brass, this coffee filter medium and tumbler combo is a must for every kitchen. For Rs. 3750, you can buy your own set here.

Other Products Also Worth a Look!

Source zishta.com

Copper Coated Iron Chimes: The pleasant sound of these iron bells brings about calmness and are pretty to behold as well. You can buy this beautiful hanging for your home at Rs. 1490

Drum Shape- Assam Cane Furniture - Seating Stool: Strong, durable and sustainable, the history of these cane stools goes as far back as 2nd Century AD! These versatile stools will be a perfect addition to any part of your house. Get them now for Rs. 2900.

Kansa / Bronze Dinner Plate Set: A traditional meal would be best eaten in traditional plates. These plates are built to last. A set of Kansa plate, 3 sabzi bowls and a Kansa glass is available for Rs. 9300.

Where Can You Find Them?
www.zishta.com

Making the Switch to Traditional Cookware

Source zishta.com

Interviewer BP Guide

For someone who wants to move to more traditional cookware what would you recommend they start with?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

According to the research we have done, in any house you need only four cookware to take care of 80 per cent of the cooking. The fifth cookware takes care of 85 per cent, and 6th, 7th and 8th cover 95 per cent. In fact, only two utensils - tava and kadai - are enough for breakfast items like poori, paratha, roti, upma, poha etc.

Today our kitchen is filled with cookware and it is overwhelming to think about replacing all 25 vessels with something in iron, brass or stoneware. Where would you start, how to use and clean it, where to store it? It can be very scary. Start with four, get comfortable and then by habit, you will know which is your next one and what you want to do and try after that.

What utensils an average Indian kitchen needs:

Tava: In any Indian household, a tava is the most important, be it your breakfast, lunch or dinner. In some form the tava gets used throughout the week. In any culture across India, a tava becomes an integral part of the culture.

Kadai: without kadai, we cannot make our sabjis which are an integral part of what we cook either in breakfast, lunch or dinner. It could be dry sabji, poori sabji, or any other form.

Topia: the taller pot, which is a little more vertical and is used for gravies. In any house you would make a gravy, in the south you would make sambhar or rasam and in the northern part of the country you would make dal or a gravy.

Rice pot: number four is the pot for making pongal, biryani, rice etc. Ideally this pot shape is best had in bronze or brass.

Fifth cookware: for a family in Kerala, appam is cooked four times in a week and an appam pan will cover 90 per cent of the cooking. Culturally this can be any other dish made often.

Sixth cookware, if you are having idli six days in a week, then it would be an idli vessel.

Seventh utensil is again a very cultural thing depending on the way you cook, like dum cooking. The seventh cookware takes care of almost all the cooking. All you need to do is vary your sizes, for example for making sabji you may need a larger kadai and for making poori a smaller one. You may want to look at one or two sizes in some of the vessels. That’s all one needs to do.

Interviewer BP Guide

Cast iron, clay, brass, bronze, tin, copper, there are so many materials to choose from! What would you recommend?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

I always recommend an iron tawa, not cast iron. Iron is the oldest form of tawa, cast iron came only 300 years ago. For kadai we always recommend cast iron because it is healthier, thicker, and takes longer to cook. The kadai can also be in another metal like cast iron, bronze or brass depending on your culture and preference.

The third one is the taller part for cooking gravies, I would always recommend earthen, which can be soapstone or clay or Manipuri black pottery. The reason for recommending earthen is that here you have no restrictions on what you can add to it. Metals are not ideal for citric food and since most of our gravies are little acidic, high in tomatoes and tamarind, the metal will have to be treated. Kalai has to be done on brass vessels, which erodes in 2-3 years and has to be redone. So, from a convenience perspective, earthen materials are the best.

Benefits of Cooking in Traditional Vessels

The barrier to moving into a traditional kitchen is the concern that it is complicated. I just wanted to say a few things.

Adds essential minerals to food
If someone is very health conscious then the number one benefit is that it renders minerals into the food you cook. Soapstone is rich in calcium, clay is rich in magnesium, iron and cast iron is rich in iron. It adds natural minerals to your body.

Retains nutrition
Number two is that these cookware retain 90-98% of the nutrients and micro-nutrients. What’s the point of buying organic vegetables and then cooking them in non-stick when you lose all the nutrients and have harmed your vegetables. Imagine retaining 90-98% of the nutrients in your cooking in the vessel.

Kills harmful germs
Number three is that most of these cookware are known for killing harmful germs. These are the top three health reasons.

Taste and aroma
If somebody is not interested in health, then traditional cookware renders fantastic taste and aroma to whatever food you cook. Somebody who is a foodie will fall in love with food cooked in traditional cookware.

Fuel efficient
If that’s not motivational enough, traditional cookware saves fuel. You cook any dish in 15% less time. If I make sambhar in 35-40 minutes, today it takes me 25 minutes. If I used to make rasam in 20 minutes, today I make it in 13 minutes. I am very data oriented so I have timed it in multiple cases and noted it down, and this data is based on 25 times. It is fuel efficient. If you don’t want anything then look for fuel efficiency.

The Zishta Team and Future Plans

Interviewer BP Guide

On a personal level, what are your interests, what do you like to do in your free time?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

I am a state level volleyball player. Sports is one of my passions and the second one would be trekking. I trek to all the Himalayan mountains. Last year and this year it was missed.

Meera loves travelling to the very interiors of the country. She and her daughter do a lot of backpacking trips. Apart from that she is a trained yoga professional as well. She likes to learn about Indian culture and loves to scientifically understand the Upanishads, Vedas - not from a religious standpoint but to understand and connect them. She and her daughter want to explore India, completely trace Ramayana, Mahabharatha.

Source zishta.com

Interviewer BP Guide

What is next for Zishta?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

We have just done a few drops in the ocean. India has got lakhs and lakhs of artisans. We work with 450 of them which is in decimal points if you divide it by the actual number of artisans. Most important thing for us is to revive as many crafts as possible and that is the focus for the next 2-3 years.

An example of the importance of revival is that one of the artisans who used to work out of a very small hut which was a foundry, now has a three-storey building and has acquired 2 other places and he has expanded his place. His business was 4.5 Lakhs and now he gets ten times more through us, and there are many more like him.

There are children of many artisans who had said they won’t do the same work, three such boys have already come back after completing engineering and said that they want to continue their fathers’ business and asked for our help. And we can work with the next generation in new ways - because they are engineers, we tell them that the property of stone is to retain temperature, why not look at other properties and let’s design it together, and not only for Zishta.

For me, bringing out older designs is more important than newer designs. The satisfaction that the guy has grown from such a small foundry to such a large foundry and the satisfaction that the generation that four years back had refused to carry on their fathers’ business, today comes to us and asks for help to do it, is a huge satisfaction.

Third one is that many of the children of the artisans who were earlier not going to schools are now going. Bringing the craft back and helping the survival of the artisans, not just money but holistic survival. So, bringing back as many crafts as early as possible, as fast as possible is the most important thing for Zishta right now.

Today we market to 21 countries sitting from India and we look at local expansion in many of those countries in the future so that we can take those art and craft forms to multiple countries, not sitting here and packing but at the local place, explaining the craft and making them understand the value of what they are buying. Those are the two things we look at as the continued focus for Zishta.

Interviewer BP Guide

Is there anything that you would like to add?

Co-founder, Zishta Varishta Sampath

One is how the younger generation inspires the other generation. The other is the impact on the artisans and the society in whole through an initiative like this because that’s something which never gets spoken about. What pains me is remarks like 'hope you are paying the artisans well'. Artisans will not work with us for five years if we are under paying, nor will they be able to expand their operations.

The impact is about more than just cost price and selling price. Take artisans in Kutch for example who depend on tourism and events in other cities. For 15 months both of these have not been possible, but they survive because of this work. They have a lot of pride and for their work, they will not take charity. You cannot make a difference in their life by suddenly offering a price of Rs.5000 instead of Rs.500, that’s not how it works. It is about looking at them holistically, ensuring that we are taking care of their survival continuously.

We look at their process and we see how we can help, without tampering with their process and quality. When you really work at ground level and not with middle men, you are not working on a cost price and selling price, you are working with them as a family on a much bigger scale and not just a give and take product scale. This is a critical impact. I am not stealing jobs, where there was one artisan, four more have come up because of Zishta. They saw the market and because of Zishta, others have also come up and four more people have come back to business. That’s the impact we create and that’s the impact you want us to create in the country.