Chefoodoc – The healthy side to junk food eating

Find out how this lovely dentist turned into a sassy chef in our latest cover story. Not always is ‘necessity’ that is the mother of all inventions, it could also be a husband too. 😉  Confused? Don’t be. Here’s a unique story of a dentist who hated cooking but turned into an ace home chef only because her husband is a foodie and loves ‘junk food’.

Meet Dr. Deepali Shah, a dentist by profession who has been practicing in Mumbai for over 12 years now. An MBA in Healthcare Sciences from Manipal University, Dr. Deepali runs her own multi speciality private practice in Santacruz, since the last 10 years.

For the past six years, she’s been moonlighting as a part time Home Chef. Being a chef and a doctor, she would be combining the concept of her acquired medical knowledge, health and food with the aim to take her home chef concept to the next level.

The Lifestyle Portal caught up with the mother of a newborn baby girl Anika to share her dreams of launching her own healthy home cooked food brand Chefoodoc.

How did it all begin?

“As the young girl in the house, I used to always run away from the kitchen and even during my under graduation period when I was preparing and studying to become a doctor, I had loads of excuses for not entering the kitchen,” recalls Dr. Deepali.

Then things changed after marriage when she discovered that her surgeon husband is a big time foodie who loves to eat outside food especially junk and unhealthy ones.

Suddenly she found herself facing the dilemma to fulfil two roles – managing their clinic and also the kitchen. “As all the unhealthy food was bulging his belly, I decided to take things in my hands for our overall health and finally entered the kitchen,” laughs Dr. Deepali.

To everyone’s surprise, it turned out that she had a natural flair for cooking and the dishes turned out to be tasty too. With all the encouragement she got, it acted as a catalyst to further motivate her to create unique dishes.

She further adds, “Soon I was surrounded by cookbooks, watching food channels on TV and YouTube as well. The dishes became tastier and yummier and I started creating masterpieces through constant experimenting and innovation. Finally, I could master and do justice to my dual role of being a doctor and the chef. I started enjoying donning the white coat in my clinic to treat my patients and then wearing the kitchen aprons to delight my foodie followers with delicacies. My attempt has been to reinvent all recipes to make it relevant in today’s scenario and to retain the desi element in all the cuisines.”

Initial investments

Initially Dr. Deepali started around a couple of hours of work in the kitchen on a daily basis. Gradually as cooking became her passion and the hours and the dishes churned out, improved greatly. As they say, if you love what you do, you don’t realise the time spent on creating your food masterpieces and that’s what exactly happened with Dr. Deepali.

Branding

Being a doctor and a home chef, it was easy for her to combine the words – ‘Chef + food + doc = ‘Chefoodoc’ and create her brand name. Patients and customers in general are very excited about a unique brand where the food is made specifically by a practising doctor that guarantees hygiene and nutrition.

Challenges faced

Dr. Deepali shares that some of the challenges she faces with the launch of her start-up is to deal with the mind-sets of prospective customers right from making them trust a new venture, creating a brand value, apprehensions about the quality and taste of the home cooked food, pricing, samplers – which she’s sure she will overcome with time.

What makes Chefoodoc so unique?

According to her what makes Chefoodoc unique is that there are chefs, but no known Doctor-Chef combination. Chefoodoc is about a doctor who cooks and bakes and it stands apart as a ‘doctor made food’ with the aim to up the health quotient of your regular junk food.

Dr. Deepali further states, “Since almost all popular snacking options are unhealthy and street food contaminated, the doctor chef at Chefoodoc attempts to create hygienic, nutritious and mouth watering street food, fusion delicacies, snacks, bakes with the ultimate goal of limiting obesity and helping you live healthy.”

She continues, “Being doctors, we understand the concept of nutritious ingredients and their exact role in making our body healthy. Also with our knowledge of medicine, we are better placed to meet the requirements of the growing medically compromised but food loving population and could provide them tastier food/ snacks without affecting their systemic health and medical conditions.”

Menu & Price range

Chefoodoc specializes in creating healthier street food, giving desi twists to international cuisines, nutritious snacks as munching options and healthier chocolates, cakes, nutritious bakes without affecting the taste. Their panel of experienced nutritionists help them to achieve this objective comfortably. Being primarily homemade, the pricing is reasonable and less than its competitor brands.

“The Doctor Chef at Chefoodoc and their in-house nutritionists also work with the ever growing medically compromised patient community who are foodies but now face severe dietary restrictions. With the specialists at work, the customer is rest assured of our snacks, street food and bakes being customized and personalized according to their health, medical history and diet restrictions. These modifications are done, without affecting the taste of the products,” explains Dr. Deepali.

What will you love about Chefoodoc?

Customers and patients will now be able to indulge in guilt free healthier desi and tasty food. Being hygienic, homemade, well-presented with a fusion of western and Indian cuisines, backed by accompanying nutritional report cards, goodies, offers and combos – it will be a complete package for you.

“They can dig into the food without worrying about getting fat/ obese or getting sick. No more contaminated food causing stomach upsets. Health and hygiene is our primary focus and you get tasty bites packed with wholesome nutrition,” smiles Dr. Deepali.

You can now look forward to some healthy snacks for munching, which shall be delicious, healthier without negatively affecting their systemic health (like cholesterol, sugar, blood pressure levels).

Future Plans

Chefoodoc plans to provide healthier and nutritious street food through food kiosks, and homemade nutritious snacks for munching and healthier bakes and cakes customized and prepared by Dr. Chef Deepali herself for all clients including foodies affected by medical conditions.

Note from Chefoodoc – Chefoodoc is a foodies paradise for street food, snacks, and baked goodies with a healthier tweak to it. Contact us to help you customize snacks for a growing food loving community with health issues. 

Contact Chefoodoc:

Chefoodoc is located in Santacruz and presently supplies locally. They are in the process of fully commercializing operations and logistics and should be in place, soon. Chefoodoc Team can be contacted on –

Email: Chefoodoc@gmail.com

Mobile: +91- 8108360676

Website: www.chefoodoc.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/chefoodoc

Facebook: www.facebook.com/chefoodoc

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