Article

From dishwasher to supper club entrepreneur; a food trailer played a key role

In following her passion, Deepa Shridhar gained culinary skills and learned the foodservice business from the ground up, a journey that included a food trailer.

An investor who believed in her provided the funds for Deepa Shridhar's food trailer.

July 24, 2019 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Part one of a two-part series.

One of the reasons food trucks are so popular these days is they are closely associated with culinary innovation. Who can deny that many of today's most creative chefs launched their careers in food trucks? 

Deepa Shridhar, a 32-year-old chef who emigrated to the U.S. from India when she was four years old, has dedicated most of her working life to menu innovation. From creating menus as a college student, her journey has taken her from working in restaurants to operating her own supper club. 

While her current focus is on her SZN supper club in Austin, she readily admits that her "Puli Ra" (meaning "casual tiger") food trailer played a pivotal role in her journey. "If I didn't get the trailer I don't think I'd be where I am today," Shridhar told Food Truck Operator.

Deepa Shridhar creates menus from a variety of culinary influences.

Her mission, in addition to creating memorable experiences for guests, is to provide customers insight into the hard work and passion that farmers and producers invest in their grains, produce, meat, fish, oils, seasoning and other ingredients. 

Early influencers

Shridhar credits her parents for her early exposure to South Indian cuisine and a strong work ethic. After moving the family to the U.S., her father worked his way up the corporate ladder while her mother earned a master's degree in computer science. And while professional achievement was important to the family, the kitchen was also a focus. "My parents cooked all the time when I was growing up," she said. "They definitely had a huge influence."

"I became really interested in cooking while I was in college," Shridhar said. "I would just start making up menus." She liked mixing different culinary influences in her recipes, such as combining Indian and Spanish items.

After earning a degree in film studies at Austin College in Sherman Texas in 2009, she started a small catering business while holding a corporate job. It quickly became obvious that her heart was in cooking.  

It wasn't long before she quit her corporate job and moved back home with her parents in Dallas to take a volunteer position at what she considered the best restaurant in Dallas, Lucia, an Italian restaurant. She readily admits it wasn't a practical move for a recent college graduate.

"Fortunately and unfortunately, most of my career decisions have been based on passion and not on finances," she said.

The educational journey begins

Her objective at the time was to gain a foundation in restaurant skills. "It was a really good way for me to learn how to become a fast and good prep cook, and the beginnings of becoming a line cook," she said.

In 2011, she moved to Austin, which is known for its innovative food scene, in hopes of expanding her culinary expertise. "I had no job, I just wanted to work in a kitchen," she said.

Living in a friend's house, she worked odd jobs while knocking on the doors of what she considered the city's finest restaurants. Job offers weren't forthcoming, so she ended up getting a job at Dai Due, a butcher shop that prepared and sold food from ingredients available at a farmers market.

Dai Due eventually opened a restaurant, and Shridhar worked her way up from dishwasher to line cook.

"I learned a lot there," she said. Dai Due sourced its ingredients from the farmers market, and altered its menu based on the ingredients. "The farmers and the ingredients dictated how we would change the menu," she said. "If there were artichokes and chicken, we would go more French." 

Dai Due also had a supper club, which introduced Shridhar to what would become her signature venue.

Three years later, she moved to Lenoir, an Austin restaurant that specializes in "hot weather" food, such as Caribbean and Indian, Japanese and Chinese cuisine.

Entrepreneurial instincts take hold

In 2014, she left Lenoir to start her own supper club called Anjore, which she promoted at the farmers market. She invited people to sign up for email invitations to her dinner parties which she held at different venues. Twenty to 40 people would pay $80 to $100 a head.

Each dinner party would focus on a different animal, such as an antelope or a duck. Shridhar had no problem finding people who were also passionate about food to help her prepare and serve the meals.

In 2017, she became a mobile chef by accident. 

A new whiskey distillery, Still Austin, wanted to serve food, but wanted to outsource the service. The distillery owners liked Shridhar's food, but they wanted her to serve from a trailer instead of a tent. Shridhar didn't own a trailer and she wasn't in a position to buy one, but as luck would have it, one of the distillery's investors offered to give her the money.

When Shirdhar came up with a budget of $75,000 after researching food trailer costs, her "angel" investor didn't blink. "He is an incredibly generous man who believes in the art that I'm making," she said. 

She hired Johnny's Lunch Boxes, a food trailer builder in Corpus Christi, to build an 8.5- by 40-foot trailer with two refrigerators, a butcher block, two grills and a wood fired oven. She named it "Puli Ra," which in South Indian languages means "casual tiger." 

Sourcing food from local farmers, Shridhar prepared and served food in the evenings and on weekends. She earned a loyal following as well as feature articles in the local media. But her journey was far from over.

Part two of this two-part series will explore how Shridhar fine tuned her focus on her supper club.

Photos courtesy of Deepa Shridhar.

About Elliot Maras

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Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.