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Calorie Care, the first Health Kitchen in India
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Saturday, 14 January, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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By Ronita Torcato
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What do Yash Birla, Vinita Shetty, Reebok's chief trainer, and Shital Nahar, owner of the Inch-by-Inch Gym, have in common?
They swear by Calorie Care, the first Indian company providing freshly cooked, customised, calorie-counted meals to health-conscious individuals. And they are not alone in patronising Calorie Care, purportedly India's finest health food delivery service, but have lawyers, bankers, doctors, and well-travelled working professionals for company.
Launched in the autumn of 2005, the company has grown rapidly since. Calorie Care is the first Health Kitchen in India dedicated solely to preparing and packaging calorie-counted, health food while Lisa Sara John, its chief nutritionist, is consistently rated as one of India's top five nutritionists. Ms John has personally counselled leading sportspersons such as Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag, Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman.
Pertinently, India has several companies in the field of health and nutrition. Vijaya Venkat, Positive Health Tiffin and Vital Foods to name just three.
"But in terms of providing customised calorie-counted meals, we don't have any competition at present," says Cyrus Driver, CEO, Calorie Care.
"First, every meal is customised to the client's taste preferences and second, the tray mat lists the calorie count which our dietician has judged as optimum for health. After figuring out a food plan that works for you, we send different items every day, different entrees, lots of salads… We deliver all meals right to our customers' doorsteps, both at offices and homes. Each meal comes with a tray mat that lists the nutritional content (calories, grams of fat, grams of protein etc.) of that particular meal."
Calorie Care's meals provide a balanced, nutritious diet that contributes to the body's long-term health and provides a convenient method to manage body weight.
Driver points out that the meals are research based: their nutritionists and chefs spent ten months researching and developing healthy recipes; today, Calorie Care has India's largest library of calorie counted recipes - over 125 dishes and growing.
Equally important, Calorie Care meals are "Natural. We provide natural, cooked food without any preservatives, nutritional supplements or sugar substitutes."
The menu is a mix of Indian and Continental food, there's a range of curries, sabzis, dals, snacks.Supplying customised meals tailored to the needs of the individual customer would not be without difficulties. "We therefore develop software that tells us what has to be cooked in what proportion which makes the chef's job so much easier," explains Driver.
Two-thirds of Calorie Care customers have opted for a standard plan which serves different items over 10 days. The plan is refined wherever required, since one-third has food allergies or love a special dish, say Goan fish curry or want yogurt based salads. Then, the team chooses alternatives from the 125 dish library which has 60 vegetarian and non-veg entrees, 15 salads, 15 dals, 20 snacks, half-a-dozen fruit salads, a range of accompaniments and dairy products like low fat curds, chaas, breakfast dishes, a range of idlis, low oil parathas, uttapams and so on.
The company's spacious Health Kitchen at Sewri is currently providing 115-130 meals a day. Lunch is the most common, but people also order breakfast and dinner. Food is packaged in an air-conditioned environment and the food is untouched by hand while packaging. The cost is pegged at Rs 3,000 per month for veg meals and Rs 4,000 pm for non-veg, inclusive of lunch and two snacks.
Calorie Care's team includes four nutritionists headed by Lisa Sara John, who is a postg-raduate, with distinction in Nutrition & Dietetics, from Women's Christian College-Chennai. She is also a Consultant to the National Cricket Academy and the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.
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