Mother made food

Why eat food from a restaurant, dhaba or any eating joint, when home-cooked food is just a click away? Rakesh kumar explores

In a new concept, a website Langhar.com promises to deliver fresh, home-cooked food at one&’s doorstep. Prepared, not by any restaurant chef but housewives, the food is the answer to all those tired of eating food from restaurants, dhaba or tiffin. “Initially we started this concept in the US. But we realised that mothers can cook best in India. Therefore, we launched it in Delhi. We are getting a good response,” said Pankaj Sharma, founder member of the website.

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Concept introduction
It was in August last year in Delhi that Karan’s (another founder member) mother, wanted to gift something to her son on his birthday. But the problem was she didn’t have any money for it. Since she was just a housewife and the only skills she had was cooking, Karan created a pamphlet of his mother&’s cooking skills and distributed it in his locality. Two days later, they got the first call and 20 people ate at Karan’s home that month. “We made Rs 5,000 out of it. Then we thought when our mother could earn from her cooking skills why not other mothers and housewives too,” recalled Pankaj Sharma, an IITian.

Fresh website
The friends put their heads together and developed a webiste called, Langhar.com. One could find all types of food, be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian, breakfast, lunch and dinner, or thali. Ever since the website was launched, it has been getting popular among the people because it is delivering a wholesome food that brings the taste of mother&’s cooking at nominal price. All the dishes were certified by cookery specialist Nita Mehta.
Booking is a little different from restaurants or other eateries as one has to place an order a day in advance. “Since it is home-cooked food and prepared by mothers, we need to intimate them a day in advance so that they can make necessary arrangements,” informed Pankaj.

Social cause
Apart from bringing home mothers’ food, the group is involved in the charity work too. With every single meal they donate the same amount of food to poor people. “We organise different programmes for economically weaker section. With every single meal that you buy, we donate the same meal to poor kids,” said Sharma. 
At the same time, the website provides employment to housewives too. Within three months around 50 housewives are connected with it. And by the end of this year, the website is expected to expand to three cities in India with around 500 housewives and some one lakh bookings. “It is a good sign for our Indian women to show their talent,” said one of the team members of the website.