A startup in Noida is delivering the most healthy food you can imagine

Since November last year, Culinate, a delivery joint owned by Rajiv Kumar has been changing the way Noida views healthy food. Apart from offering affordable and exotic healthy options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the folks at Culinate also make it a point to prioritise hygiene in their kitchen and eco-friendly packaging in their deliveries.

The kitchen, which also doubles up as Kumar’s office is a small space in Noida’s Sector 53, but as we found has a big heart. “The idea behind Culinate was to prove that it is possible to offer nutritious food made of healthy ingredients that can be downright delicious too. I wanted something that an office-goer would want to have, even in their car.” says Kumar, who got his cousin, who is a nutritionist on board to help them decide on the menu and the portion sizes.

“My target audience are office goers in the 22-45 age bracket. Anyone who’s fond of eating exotic healthy food or is largely health-conscious,” he further adds. The three most popular dishes on their menu are the Portuguese Platter, Breakfast on Thames (Culinate’s take on the English Breakfast) and their signature Waffles and Pancakes. Culinate also makes their own juices.

Culinate delivers to all the sectors in Noida and takes an average time of 60 minutes to bring the dish to your doorstep. The slightly longer transporation time is attributed to the widespread ongoing construction in Noida which makes reaching places a slight issue. At the moment, they see upto 50 deliveries a day which results in one delivery boy having to do 12 deliveries throughout the course of the day. However, to ensure their safety, there are speed governors in place on their bikes. No delivery boy can go beyond 40 kms per hour.

Kumar is very particular about two things at Culinate- hygiene and nutrition. As a result, he ensures that the kitchen is cleaned thrice a day, discourages the use of chemicals for cleaning the kitchen and is one of the only places that practises a 7-step washing process for their vegetables and meats.

By his own admission, Rajiv says that it was very early on that had made up his mind to go all the way when it came to nutrition, regardless of the added expenditure. As a result, Culinate currently uses 60% of organic vegetables to prepare their dishes while 40% of their grains are also organically sourced- a number Kumar hopes will keep on growing. Additionally, they don’t use any packaged sauces in their dishes and substitutes with healthier alternatives- all made inhouse. For example, their mayonnaise is an in-house preparation made from greek yoghurt and cashews, which has one-tenth the calories as regular mayonnaise does.

However, what deserves the maximum praise is their packaging. “As I cannot speak to my customer in person, what assumes utmost importance is my packaging. That is the customer’s first impression of my food,” Kumar replies, when asked the reason behind prioritising packaging.

Culinate’s breakfast tray in which all their breakfast options are served is made of sugarcane kernels and is totally environment-friendly. To ensure that your breakfast is hot when it reaches you, the team then outs the tray inside a thermal bag which can maintain its temperature for three hours. During winter, there is an additional hot bag put inside to keep the dish warm.  Moreover, Culinate also has different bowls for hot and cold orders. For example, the cold bowl is not microwavable.  There’s more- none of their dishes contain MSG or ajino moto. Their breads are diabetic friendly and they have gone as far as ensuring that even their desserts are healthy.

One look at his numbers and you can conclude that his experiments have worked out in his favour. Currently, 80% of all orders are by repeat customers and the number of orders Culinate receives on a regular basis keeps on increasing.