Eating with Eatelish is a new segment on Eatelish. We meet a lot of amazing people and when we get talking about food, we hear stories that range from sweetly sentimental to wildly exciting and we thought we’d share some of these fun food stories here and maybe you’ll stumble onto a new discovery with us.
We recently met Jaydeep Shetty, Founder and CEO of Mineral Fashions at the newly opened Mocha at R-City Mall in Mumbai. Dressed casually in a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves, Jaydeep strikes you as someone who is itching to get things done. Even while waiting at Mocha, he’s thinking about what makes a business tick and is talking to the manager at Mocha about footfalls.
Jaydeep spent the last 20 years working on businesses as varied as Retail, Media and Cinema. And in the last two and half years, he’s established Mineral, one of India’s fastest growing fashion brands. This mix of eclectic choices tied in with the earthy solidity of rolling up his sleeves and getting his hands dirty interestingly reflects in his food choices too as we found out. Jaydeep insists on using his hands to eat and rarely uses a spoon, knife or fork, even at the ‘poshest’ of places.
As we sit in the air conditioned cafe, sunlight streams in and conversation flows easily, ranging from investment banking and the retail industry to our favorite topic, food.
- Why Mineral?
Two thoughts, one that a brand name should be something that can fit into anything, it could be a Mineral Spa, Mineral Shoes. And of course the fact that we use natural fabrics ties everything together.
- Favorite meal:
Butter Chicken or daal chaawal. Any Punjabi Dhaba kind of food - hearty, wholesome and straight out of the tandoor.
- Favorite restaurant & why:
Mocha, Madras Cafe and Yauatcha.
Mocha because it’s the first restaurant my daughter started eating her breakfast outside of home. Which is great because they make lovely omelettes especially their Spanish and Sri Lankan omelettes. Used to loved the Sri Lankan omelettes which isn’t on the menu any more. For me, breakfast is Mocha.
Yauatcha is hip and has great food.
And Madras Cafe is just simple, good, solid food. Highly recommend the Rasam Vada and Ragi Dosa.
- Favorite childhood food:
Sweetened curd
- Memorable travel food experiences:
Actually there are three. The weirdest thing I’ve ever had is snake soup in Hong Kong. The flavor is actually nice, somewhere between chicken and seafood. It was a clear soup with floating bits of grey meat, but tasty. Then there was Porcupine meat in China and Horse meat in Australia. Wouldn’t recommend either. The Porcupine meat is just not good and the Horse meat is tough.
- Do you cook?
Well….I can make daal and omelette. I make daal the way my mother taught me, with a little chilli and a little masala but I need the masalas set out for me.
- A parallel between Food and Fashion:
Both are fad driven. For example, it’s all about Japanese food in India right now.
- Favorite IndulgenceL
Misal Pav and Adrak Chai, whenever I can find them easily.
- Any recommendations:
The Ice Cream Works at R-City Mall in Ghatkopar
Find a Mineral store at www.theminerallife.com