ever since I was 15 I knew I was gonna
open a restaurant
I’m 25 today and for 10 years I didn’t
think of doing anything else with my
life I picked all my IB subjects and
even my university because of this I
picked Boston University because it had
a great hospitality management program
what most people were figuring out what
they wanted to do with their lives I
knew I was sure but what I did know is
what kind of restaurant I was gonna open
so what I did is I took it opportunity
the fact that I was there and I eat my
way across the country New York LA
Boston Miami Vegas everywhere honestly I
was looking for inspiration motivation
and how much is really really hungry
okay and trust me I tried at all like
you know all your fans your cronuts your
freak shakes sushi burgers the rainbow
grilled cheeses
I tried the unicorn lattes and unicorn
everything’s I tried cuisines I’ve never
tried before
Canadian tex-mex Peruvian even Korean I
went to restaurants his names I couldn’t
pronounce order things I couldn’t
pronounce all the things I didn’t even
know why edible went to restaurants that
was serving only ramen and only
chocolate I can go on and on which you
get the point
I eat all of this and I gained a lot
more than the freshman 15 pounds that I
should have but I still couldn’t
understand what makes a restaurant
special so let me ask you this what’s
your favorite restaurant and why do you
love it I’m not talking about the fancy
Friday night restaurant I’m talking
about the one that you can go to on a
Monday and then go again on a Wednesday
because you love it why do you love it
is it the food is it the ambiance or is
it how it makes you feel no one quite
defines the soul of a restaurant like my
personal food hero and a great
restaurant here himself Danny Meyer he
says a great restaurant is one that just
makes you feel like you’re not sure
whether you went out or you came back
home it confuses you
if it can do both those things at the
same time you’re hooked one of my
favorite restaurants growing up and
still remains to be the same is this
fast casual restaurant which serves with
dropping Maharashtrian food near my
house I’ve eaten all across the world
but that still remains to be my favorite
restaurant I mean go figure right when I
was in America eating my way across the
country there was this food movement
going on of vegan farm-to-fork cuisine
and it’s something that really resonated
with me there were these suave vegan
chefs that were doing some really really
interesting things with their produce
they were treating the ingredients with
so much care and they were highlighting
their beauty so much this is something
that really resonated with me because as
a vegetarian when I went out to eat a
lot of the menu was always paneer cheese
and masala and this is something I’ve
never really resonated with me because
this is not how I eat at home when I eat
here there was such a major focus on the
textures and the tastes I remember this
one particular dish that I ate and
that’s still like is very memorable for
me it was this humble sweet potato dish
where the sweet potato is cooked in
three different ways
now it was so simple and easy to
understand I could taste all the
ingredients I didn’t have to be a food
critic or even use Google to understand
what was what my palate was enough when
all the eating this because it was so
easy for me Nana made me very nostalgic
I started missing my mother and no it’s
not because this is how my mother cooked
sweet potato at home it’s just the
entire experience we love eating it it
was so clean and so fresh and it really
made me miss her I went so far to
understand something that I already knew
why are so many if I’m so confused by
some as something as simple as what we
eat something that fuels our lives on a
daily basis I blame a lot of this on the
media there is so much misinformation
and half information just for example
think about what’s happening in Seoul
healthy food space forty or so years ago
it came out that saturated fats are bad
for you because
because cholesterol which lead to heart
attacks this led to everyone saying all
fats are bad avoid fats there was no
distinction between good fat and bad fat
it was just fat and he was bad for you
so all your grocery store stores that
all these like low fat products and
people jumped on the bandwagon azar
buying them because he thought they were
being healthier but what they didn’t
realize is they were having high carbs
in the form of saturated starch and
sugars sure enough a couple of years
later this information came to light at
which one people are like well fats are
not bad it’s the carbs which is when
people who are like ok we’ll have high
protein and low carbs when I look at
this it kinda it makes me laugh I’m like
why do we look at nutrition as so
segmented why can’t we look at the way
we eat more realistically no one know
we’re so confused why can’t we just take
a cue from the US Navy and just kiss you
know keep it simple stupid and that’s
exactly what we did a candy and green
food philosophy focuses on ingredients
centric eating what this means is that
we don’t focus on a particular cuisine
we highlight the ingredients that are in
season and we use different cuisines and
cooking techniques to highlight the
beauty of this produce we also focus a
lot on clean eating and let me tell you
something about clean eating it’s
deceptively simple it’s not about
counting your calories or carbs it’s
about having ownership about what you
eat and about knowing where it comes
from and having minimally processed food
to promote this idea of clean eating at
Kandy in green we serve our customers
the freshest produce we serve really
good quality ingredients for example
things like the oil your food is cooked
in it’s so often overlooked but it’s so
crucial we also use a lot of things like
locally sourced prod or produce like
cheese’s milks honeys whenever possible
we use no preservatives and no MSG and
everything including the breads and the
sauces are made from scratch people find
it very scary to eat well in the city
and I don’t blame them look at the
things that have entered our food chains
adulterates pesticides can be
skills but I wanted to show people that
it’s not so difficult to eat well in the
city that’s why I Canyon green we set up
a 750 square feet rooftop farm over here
we grow a lot of our own greens micro
greens leafy greens herbs we grow small
produce like Chile’s edible flowers
depending on the season on our rooftop
we focus on three main things we focus
on our sustenance seasonality
attainability
while I was preparing for this talk I
read this one very interesting article
it came out in 2002 and he was reported
by the Toronto Globe and Mail it said
that customers then would have to have
eat oranges to get the same amount of
vitamin E that their grandparents would
have to get from one orange shocking
right I thought so too so I read it till
the end and I was like well how do you
deal with the declining nutritional
content in our produce the answer was
really simple use healthier soil when we
were setting up the rooftop farm at
candy and rain the entire team was very
closely involved everyone from the
kitchen to the front of house and even
the management everyone was a part of
the process we picked the structure we
picked the strain of seeds the rowing
medium and the organic fertilizers what
we did is we give the kitchen staff the
control of the rooftop farm and in a
beautiful poetic way it’s the same
people that are cooking the food that
are actually harvesting it this not only
lets us control the quality of the
produce but also helps has reduced our
wastage because they grow to car they
know exactly how much they need and if
they have a fault short they can go back
and cut some more this also made us less
vulnerable to the market because we grow
on green we have a lot more over new
ownership of what we grow we can also do
things like grow a lot of exciting
produce that’s not available in the
market easily because it’s not as
popular things like blue pea flowers
purple basil Salons finish another thing
that we grow is our own microgreens I’m
sure you guys have seen these and a lot
of grocery store shelves and they’re
really expensive but they’re so easy to
grow you can grow them in your own house
and we do this so that we can garnish
all our dishes with it
another thing that our rooftop farm
helpers do is being more sustainable as
a business because we grow on our own
rooftop it means that our produce
doesn’t travel any miles we call this
zero carbon produce or carbon free
ingredients think about a lot of the
fads and trends out there you know the
ones that tell you that this is the new
superfood or like you know you have to
have acai berries from South America or
organic avocados from Mexico it’s about
the environmental strain on your eating
habits and ask yourself this should your
eating habits really have such a big
environmental impact do we not have
other nutritious foods in our own
country which is more indigenous to our
lands that we can use and have another
big thing that we promote in our rooftop
is seasonality it’s very important like
I mentioned we only have 750 square feet
of growing space so that means that we
can only grow to season and the greens
that have very short grow cycles this
helps us get the highest possible yield
from from the produce to highlight
whatever we’re growing that season on
the in the rooftop we also change our
menu every season to highlight exactly
what we’re growing our rooftop farm it’s
a great part of our restaurant bills
never something that we’ve used to
define our concept it’s something that’s
there for us which helps us communicate
our idea of clean eating for our
customers we’ve set up a small display
farm in our rooftop where we actually
allow our customers to come up and feel
the quality of the produce this enables
them to understand the difference
between the pesticide Laden produce and
the really fresh ones
and because seeing is believing we want
them to do this with it they can feel
more closer to the concept a lot of
people tell me they’re like I can’t
believe that there’s an urban farm in
the middle of breach candy and when I
set up Canyon green I wanted to be more
than a restaurant I wanted to support
this entire lifestyle of clean eating I
wanted to show people that clean eating
is not just for the rich and it’s
accessible to everybody not just the few
I wanted to bust this myth one thing I
always tell people that they can do is
they can set up their own kitchen farm
and a great way of doing this is drawing
hydroponically
hydroponics is a great innovation in
farming it’s basically soilless farming
it uses water which is mixed with the
mineral nutrients that feeds the plants
this is something I really recommend for
homes because there is no because there
is no soil there is very less chance of
infestation is very less messy and you
can use it to grow a couple of your own
you know household greens like your
Tulsi and your coriander even your hubs
and it’s great to have ownership over
your food you say what basically I’m
saying is when you have ownership over
your food you no longer need to be
scared of what you’re eating you don’t
need to give into fads and trends food
does not have to be complex to be
beautiful thank you so much [Applause]
open a restaurant
I’m 25 today and for 10 years I didn’t
think of doing anything else with my
life I picked all my IB subjects and
even my university because of this I
picked Boston University because it had
a great hospitality management program
what most people were figuring out what
they wanted to do with their lives I
knew I was sure but what I did know is
what kind of restaurant I was gonna open
so what I did is I took it opportunity
the fact that I was there and I eat my
way across the country New York LA
Boston Miami Vegas everywhere honestly I
was looking for inspiration motivation
and how much is really really hungry
okay and trust me I tried at all like
you know all your fans your cronuts your
freak shakes sushi burgers the rainbow
grilled cheeses
I tried the unicorn lattes and unicorn
everything’s I tried cuisines I’ve never
tried before
Canadian tex-mex Peruvian even Korean I
went to restaurants his names I couldn’t
pronounce order things I couldn’t
pronounce all the things I didn’t even
know why edible went to restaurants that
was serving only ramen and only
chocolate I can go on and on which you
get the point
I eat all of this and I gained a lot
more than the freshman 15 pounds that I
should have but I still couldn’t
understand what makes a restaurant
special so let me ask you this what’s
your favorite restaurant and why do you
love it I’m not talking about the fancy
Friday night restaurant I’m talking
about the one that you can go to on a
Monday and then go again on a Wednesday
because you love it why do you love it
is it the food is it the ambiance or is
it how it makes you feel no one quite
defines the soul of a restaurant like my
personal food hero and a great
restaurant here himself Danny Meyer he
says a great restaurant is one that just
makes you feel like you’re not sure
whether you went out or you came back
home it confuses you
if it can do both those things at the
same time you’re hooked one of my
favorite restaurants growing up and
still remains to be the same is this
fast casual restaurant which serves with
dropping Maharashtrian food near my
house I’ve eaten all across the world
but that still remains to be my favorite
restaurant I mean go figure right when I
was in America eating my way across the
country there was this food movement
going on of vegan farm-to-fork cuisine
and it’s something that really resonated
with me there were these suave vegan
chefs that were doing some really really
interesting things with their produce
they were treating the ingredients with
so much care and they were highlighting
their beauty so much this is something
that really resonated with me because as
a vegetarian when I went out to eat a
lot of the menu was always paneer cheese
and masala and this is something I’ve
never really resonated with me because
this is not how I eat at home when I eat
here there was such a major focus on the
textures and the tastes I remember this
one particular dish that I ate and
that’s still like is very memorable for
me it was this humble sweet potato dish
where the sweet potato is cooked in
three different ways
now it was so simple and easy to
understand I could taste all the
ingredients I didn’t have to be a food
critic or even use Google to understand
what was what my palate was enough when
all the eating this because it was so
easy for me Nana made me very nostalgic
I started missing my mother and no it’s
not because this is how my mother cooked
sweet potato at home it’s just the
entire experience we love eating it it
was so clean and so fresh and it really
made me miss her I went so far to
understand something that I already knew
why are so many if I’m so confused by
some as something as simple as what we
eat something that fuels our lives on a
daily basis I blame a lot of this on the
media there is so much misinformation
and half information just for example
think about what’s happening in Seoul
healthy food space forty or so years ago
it came out that saturated fats are bad
for you because
because cholesterol which lead to heart
attacks this led to everyone saying all
fats are bad avoid fats there was no
distinction between good fat and bad fat
it was just fat and he was bad for you
so all your grocery store stores that
all these like low fat products and
people jumped on the bandwagon azar
buying them because he thought they were
being healthier but what they didn’t
realize is they were having high carbs
in the form of saturated starch and
sugars sure enough a couple of years
later this information came to light at
which one people are like well fats are
not bad it’s the carbs which is when
people who are like ok we’ll have high
protein and low carbs when I look at
this it kinda it makes me laugh I’m like
why do we look at nutrition as so
segmented why can’t we look at the way
we eat more realistically no one know
we’re so confused why can’t we just take
a cue from the US Navy and just kiss you
know keep it simple stupid and that’s
exactly what we did a candy and green
food philosophy focuses on ingredients
centric eating what this means is that
we don’t focus on a particular cuisine
we highlight the ingredients that are in
season and we use different cuisines and
cooking techniques to highlight the
beauty of this produce we also focus a
lot on clean eating and let me tell you
something about clean eating it’s
deceptively simple it’s not about
counting your calories or carbs it’s
about having ownership about what you
eat and about knowing where it comes
from and having minimally processed food
to promote this idea of clean eating at
Kandy in green we serve our customers
the freshest produce we serve really
good quality ingredients for example
things like the oil your food is cooked
in it’s so often overlooked but it’s so
crucial we also use a lot of things like
locally sourced prod or produce like
cheese’s milks honeys whenever possible
we use no preservatives and no MSG and
everything including the breads and the
sauces are made from scratch people find
it very scary to eat well in the city
and I don’t blame them look at the
things that have entered our food chains
adulterates pesticides can be
skills but I wanted to show people that
it’s not so difficult to eat well in the
city that’s why I Canyon green we set up
a 750 square feet rooftop farm over here
we grow a lot of our own greens micro
greens leafy greens herbs we grow small
produce like Chile’s edible flowers
depending on the season on our rooftop
we focus on three main things we focus
on our sustenance seasonality
attainability
while I was preparing for this talk I
read this one very interesting article
it came out in 2002 and he was reported
by the Toronto Globe and Mail it said
that customers then would have to have
eat oranges to get the same amount of
vitamin E that their grandparents would
have to get from one orange shocking
right I thought so too so I read it till
the end and I was like well how do you
deal with the declining nutritional
content in our produce the answer was
really simple use healthier soil when we
were setting up the rooftop farm at
candy and rain the entire team was very
closely involved everyone from the
kitchen to the front of house and even
the management everyone was a part of
the process we picked the structure we
picked the strain of seeds the rowing
medium and the organic fertilizers what
we did is we give the kitchen staff the
control of the rooftop farm and in a
beautiful poetic way it’s the same
people that are cooking the food that
are actually harvesting it this not only
lets us control the quality of the
produce but also helps has reduced our
wastage because they grow to car they
know exactly how much they need and if
they have a fault short they can go back
and cut some more this also made us less
vulnerable to the market because we grow
on green we have a lot more over new
ownership of what we grow we can also do
things like grow a lot of exciting
produce that’s not available in the
market easily because it’s not as
popular things like blue pea flowers
purple basil Salons finish another thing
that we grow is our own microgreens I’m
sure you guys have seen these and a lot
of grocery store shelves and they’re
really expensive but they’re so easy to
grow you can grow them in your own house
and we do this so that we can garnish
all our dishes with it
another thing that our rooftop farm
helpers do is being more sustainable as
a business because we grow on our own
rooftop it means that our produce
doesn’t travel any miles we call this
zero carbon produce or carbon free
ingredients think about a lot of the
fads and trends out there you know the
ones that tell you that this is the new
superfood or like you know you have to
have acai berries from South America or
organic avocados from Mexico it’s about
the environmental strain on your eating
habits and ask yourself this should your
eating habits really have such a big
environmental impact do we not have
other nutritious foods in our own
country which is more indigenous to our
lands that we can use and have another
big thing that we promote in our rooftop
is seasonality it’s very important like
I mentioned we only have 750 square feet
of growing space so that means that we
can only grow to season and the greens
that have very short grow cycles this
helps us get the highest possible yield
from from the produce to highlight
whatever we’re growing that season on
the in the rooftop we also change our
menu every season to highlight exactly
what we’re growing our rooftop farm it’s
a great part of our restaurant bills
never something that we’ve used to
define our concept it’s something that’s
there for us which helps us communicate
our idea of clean eating for our
customers we’ve set up a small display
farm in our rooftop where we actually
allow our customers to come up and feel
the quality of the produce this enables
them to understand the difference
between the pesticide Laden produce and
the really fresh ones
and because seeing is believing we want
them to do this with it they can feel
more closer to the concept a lot of
people tell me they’re like I can’t
believe that there’s an urban farm in
the middle of breach candy and when I
set up Canyon green I wanted to be more
than a restaurant I wanted to support
this entire lifestyle of clean eating I
wanted to show people that clean eating
is not just for the rich and it’s
accessible to everybody not just the few
I wanted to bust this myth one thing I
always tell people that they can do is
they can set up their own kitchen farm
and a great way of doing this is drawing
hydroponically
hydroponics is a great innovation in
farming it’s basically soilless farming
it uses water which is mixed with the
mineral nutrients that feeds the plants
this is something I really recommend for
homes because there is no because there
is no soil there is very less chance of
infestation is very less messy and you
can use it to grow a couple of your own
you know household greens like your
Tulsi and your coriander even your hubs
and it’s great to have ownership over
your food you say what basically I’m
saying is when you have ownership over
your food you no longer need to be
scared of what you’re eating you don’t
need to give into fads and trends food
does not have to be complex to be
beautiful thank you so much [Applause]
Please follow and like us: