Chaitali Chakravarty

NEW DELHI 30 DECEMBER

KITCHENS OF India is all set to sizzle mega malls around the globe. To begin with, ITC is planning to showcase its gourmet food brand, Kitchens of India in Selfridges and Harrods in London in 2002 summer. This is the first time that ITC is marketing its brand abroad on a large scale. Not just that, this is perhaps the first time that any company is hard-selling the "made in India" tag in Europe. Sources said despite the popularity of Indian cuisine in the UK, the food halls of the retail malls do not have any authentic Indian cuisine to speak of.

Kitchens of India will be launched in the UK with a high voltage summer campaign. The idea is to gauge the consumer response first. "If the product movement is good, ITC may even start exporting food products which can be cooked in microwaves. The company is currently working on them," sources said. The obvious idea is to hook the teeming NRI population in Europe and cash in on the Indian food boom. Following Dal Bukhara, the inaugural premium packaged good from the Kitchens of India, ITC has now launched two other signature dishes from Welcomgroup’s heritage restaurants : Kundan Qaliya from Dum Pukht and Chicken Chettinad from Dakshin. Vegetarian dishes Mirch Baigon Ka Salon, Sabz Miloni and Dal Dakshin will soon follow. Sources pointed out that all six will be made available in Selfridges and Harrods.

ITC has pumped in Rs.4 crore in a food research centre at Gurgaon, currently functioning as an "experimental kitchen". The aim is to convert it into a full-fledged food technology and research centre. The experimental kitchen will work on heritage Indian recipes, sourced from food experts.

The master chefs from ITC Welcomgroup will give a special touch to the recipes by adding treasured formula masalas and flavours. By pushing more signature dishes in India and abroad, ITC’s food business hopes to clock domestic sales of Rs.4 crore and exports of about Rs.30 crore by March 2003.