What’s the commonplace thread that has intricately woven our nation’s huge lengths and depths right into a small but highly spiced and flavour-packed pride? Right here’s a touch: those are tiny wallet of goodness, generously stuffed with both succulent meat or colourful veggies, and served along fiery pink chutney and creamy mayo.
When you haven’t guessed already — it’s momos!
This standard dish captivates the style buds of youngsters, formative years, and elders alike, evolving into an emotion for plenty of.
Reflecting on a couple of years in the past, those heavenly wallet of flavours weren’t as readily to be had as they’re now. Rising up with a mom who hails from the Northeast, momos had been a deal with that she crafted on particular events.
It changed into a circle of relatives affair — my mother intricately weaving the momo design, me managing the dough, and my brother at all times able to sprint out for any last-minute substances. Our circle of relatives pals would even take a spoil from their busy schedules simply to savour the style of my mom’s particular momos.
Like another Indian family, we’d speak about elaborate trade plans whilst delighting within the soft meat filling. The average consensus — since nobody else is making it, you’re destined for big luck. However whilst my mom was once glad with the compliments from family and friends, somebody available in the market was once taking the trade alternative significantly.
This notable luck tale within the ‘momo international’ is of Shouvik Dhar, the Founding father of Prabhati Meals Non-public Restricted and Zomoz.
Zomoz harbours a singular secret — past merely delighting lakhs of consumers with its scrumptious momos, it has pioneered an automatic momo-making system. “We stand as the one emblem with one hundred pc automatic operations at our centre. Due to our momo system, we’ve been in a position to seriously scale up manufacturing,” Shouvik Dhar tells The Higher India.
Spreading the enjoyment of momos
Born and raised in Silchar, Assam, Shouvik evolved a passion for momos from a tender age. Whilst pursuing his research at NIT Silchar, Shouvik had no preliminary plans of venturing into entrepreneurship.
“After finishing my engineering, I joined DRDO as a scientist. Despite the fact that I hadn’t envisioned a occupation transfer, I felt a powerful inclination to pursue a grasp’s direction,” he explains.
Following his stint with DRDO, Shouvik made up our minds to pursue an MBA. “After finishing my MBA, I realised that beginning my very own project was once my true calling. Ahead of Zomoz, I ventured into a number of companies, starting from a ability coaching corporate to a tech company,” he recollects.
In spite of the luck of his companies, Shouvik wanted to discover an untapped marketplace. “Momos are a staple within the Northeast, integral to our lives. On the other hand, when I used to be dwelling in Hyderabad, I realized a lack of understanding about them,” he displays.
“For example, other folks in Hyderabad had now not tasted the magic of momos! There have been some distributors right here and there however other folks didn’t have many excellent choices. I may see that there may well be a marketplace there and welcome a brand new product,” he says.
With now not a large number of pageant in hand, Shouvik made up our minds to promote his present tech trade and take the jump with Zomoz.
In 2016, Zomoz opened its first outlet in Inorbit Mall in Hyderabad. “It was once our first joint. We in an instant began to peer an building up within the gross sales,” he recollects.
“I knew individuals who made outstanding momos, so I employed a couple of people from Northeast India and taken them right here. We began the operations with a small staff, and these days, we have now grown to 173 other folks and 75 shops throughout India,” he beams.
Inventing an absolutely automatic momo-making machine
As soon as the primary outlet was once opened in Hyderabad, Zomoz began becoming more popular and extra shops began bobbing up.
In 2017, the corporate was once approached by way of a cinema chain to offer momos in all their theatres in Hyderabad, Kerala and Vijayawada. “I used to be glad and we readily authorised, alternatively, in 3 months, we realised that our kitchens and body of workers aren’t gonna be capable of meet the call for,” he says.
The most obvious selection of hiring extra other folks was once there however Shouvik made up our minds to head for one thing other. “The method of hiring and coaching felt long and repetitive to me, so I made up our minds to innovate one thing new. This set me on a quest to discover several types of machines used for making meals pieces to in the end invent my very own,” he stocks.
Shouvik launched into trips to nations like China and Korea to review their practices. “I came upon more than a few equipment, reverse-engineered many, and in the long run evolved my very own momo-making system. By means of 2018, the system was once up and operating. Lately, our corporate operates completely on automatic equipment,” he proudly states.
Explaining how the system works, he says, “There’s the outer quilt and the filling. In our case, the filling is going via a meticulous procedure from slicing to washing. Let’s take the instance of a vegetable momo being ready. All of the veggies arrive within the kitchen after which the slicing procedure is automatic. More than a few machines, starting from dicing to shredding, take care of this level.”
He continues, “After the automatic slicing, the veggies are washed and transferred to a cooking wok. We use an automatic cooking wok — a robot wok, necessarily — to prepare dinner the filling. More than one woks are operated concurrently to fulfill call for.”
All the way through this section, Shouvik explains that the point of interest shifts to dough processing, with the dough being ready in a vacuum dough mixer — a specialized apparatus that guarantees even blending by way of making a vacuum.
As soon as the dough and filling are ready, the dough is fed right into a forming system, the place it’s taken in, and the filling is loaded onto a filling hopper.
“Those machines paintings mechanically to form the momos. Every manufacturing line is composed of 3 other gadgets, and each and every line can produce round 8,000 items in an hour. Every system can produce 2.25 lakh momos each day. The momos pop out like on a conveyor belt, transferring to the opposite finish and getting into the steamer. They’re steamed for roughly 4 and a part mins,” he says.
Following the steaming procedure, the momos are positioned in a pre-cooling chamber after which shock-frozen. This fast freezing procedure guarantees the preservation of the momos. As soon as frozen, the momos are packed, and they have got a shelf lifetime of about 9 months.
Lately, Zomoz makes a couple of lakh momos each day, and the corporate is incomes Rs 25 crore once a year.
The corporate makes quite a lot of momos together with hen momos, hen and cheese momos, vegetable momos, paneer momos, crispy fried momos and extra. Amongst those, 65 % of the call for comes from hen momos, he provides.
Yashika Rawat, a typical buyer of Zomoz says, “I didn’t know that the momos are in reality now not made by way of a chef. Momos made by way of an absolutely automatic system sounds so absurd however I’ve to mention that it tastes the similar, and even higher! My favorite is hen and cheese momos they usually at all times style recent.”
Speaking about his long run plans, Shouvik says, “Tier two towns, identified for his or her worth sensitivity compared to tier one towns like Bengaluru, have confirmed to be a promising marketplace for us. In spite of the fee sensitivity, our shops in tier-two towns have demonstrated important luck. Over the following few months, or throughout the subsequent yr, we plan to additional increase our presence within the present towns and discover further tier-two towns in proximity.”
Moreover, he provides that they have got collaborated with some other meals trade to open 13 shops within the UAE.
Edited by way of Pranita Bhat