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Regular-article-logo Monday, 21 July 2025

Now, love your founding fathers from the stomach!

Entrepreneurial quartet to launch Tata Steel-themed eatery in Bistupur tomorrow, complete with live music

Our Correspondent Published 17.09.16, 12:00 AM
Durga Shankar (from left), Praveen Singh and Kunal Sharma along with stewards at Foodify, their multi-cuisine restaurant in Bistupur, Jamshedpur, on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Fancy mutton Corus biryani or Kalinganagar raita, or a selfie with Ratan Tata?

Walk into Foodify, a multi-cuisine AC restaurant themed after Tata Steel, which opens doors in Bistupur, Jamshedpur, this Sunday.

Four young city-bred entrepreneurs have teamed up for this exceptional culinary tribute to the doyens of Indian industry - JN Tata, Dorabji Tata, JRD Tata and the living legend Ratan Tata - whose portraits will adorn the walls of the eatery in Contractors' Area.

Kaizen Facility Management Services, the agency floated by hotel management graduate Durga Shankar, hospitality sector scion Praveen Singh, businessman Kumarjit Sen and fabrication workshop expert Kunal Sharma, will run Foodify. A year ago, Durga and Praveen had launched a home delivery app by the same name for the smartphone generation too busy to cook.

"We wanted to do something to pay our respects to the industry captains who have played a crucial role in the development of our steel city. Every resident, directly or indirectly, owes something to Tata Steel. So, we came up with the Tata theme restaurant idea, which we think will be one of its kind in the country," 31-year-old Praveen said.

Durga (32) pointed out that from dishes to décor to dress code, everything at Foodify had something to do with Tata Steel. "The stewards will have factory-like uniforms, complete with the yellow helmets worn inside Tata Steel Works. The ambience of the restaurant mirrors the routine scene inside the company," he said.

Signature dishes, Praveen said, were being named after places where the steel major had left its footprints.

"We will serve Corus biryani - a mutton combo dish priced at Rs 170 per plate. Named after Tata Steel's takeover of Corus Group in the UK, this biryani is cooked in Lucknowi style with two chunks of mutton in the biryani and one in a separate gravy. Our Kalinganagar raita is priced at Rs 40 per plate and named after the Tata Steel plant in Odisha," said the MBA from Lloyd Business School, Noida.

One can also try the Millennium bang-bang chicken (chicken cooked in soy sauce base with cashewnuts in hoisin sauce). Tata Steel had acquired major stakes in Thailand-based steel-maker Millennium Steel in 2005. The green exotic Chinese vegetables in Beijing style, the diced fish in chilli oyster sauce and the babycorn mushroom in bell pepper sauce would be christened too, said Praveen.

For the selfie generation, Foodify has earmarked a special corner with Tata Steel Works in the backdrop. Foodies can go click-click wearing the company's trademark yellow helmet.

What more does one crave for at a ritzy restaurant? Music? Well, there will be that too.

"We will organise live rock band performances every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesdays, a trade holiday in the city, will be reserved for music unplugged. A guitarist and a singer will entertain diners," Praveen said, adding that a 21-room AC hotel near Foodify was next on their to-do list.

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