Hebbar's Kitchen has taught us to cook and we are loving it!
All of us love to eat but not all of us love to cook. We are always confused between what ingredients to put, in how much amount and even after putting everything as per standards, sometimes we do not get the taste we yearn for. But with Hebbar's Kitchen, not only will you love cooking but you will master it too. In a chat with the team, we unveil some of their success secrets and a lot more!
BG: Hebbar’s Kitchen is a humungous directory of satiating and can-never-go-wrong kitchen recipes but there is no mention of the star behind this light. Please tell us about the team/individual behind this awe-inspiring idea. HK: We have a very small team, my husband (Sudarshan) and me (Archana) operates Hebbars Kitchen from Australia. We both work together in recipe development, creating videos, maintaining website and app. Also, my friend (Shreeprada) back in Mumbai helps me in handling our Facebook page communication, as it will be difficult for me to cope with the time difference. BG: When was Hebbar’s Kitchen started and what was your motivation behind this? HK: Hebbar's Kitchen started as a hobby, which later turned into passion cum profession. I was always interested in cooking but I never thought I would open a blog someday. After I got married and moved to Australia, I wanted to continue my Software Testing profession here in Australia. But it wasn't easy to get a job here in Australia without any local experience. Meanwhile, just to kill time I opened up a free WordPress account and I started to post few basic recipes with step-by-step photos. Well there wasn't any great response initially. In between, Buzzfeed Tasty videos were creating lot of buzz and I was inspired by their videos. Also there weren’t any Indian channels (or could be but not popular) showcasing the Indian recipes with shorter videos on Facebook. Hence I thought to give a try with shorter videos and the response was amazing.
BG: You have a variety of recipes on your website from a large number of cuisines from across the country. How do you manage to keep in mind the taste of different regions?
HK: I get numerous recipe requests from my readers across the demography. And also few of them share the traditional recipe which helps me to try and post with a video on my website.
BG: To make everyone’s lives easier, you have a video recipe, a full text recipe and an image-supported recipe. Please tell us about the hard work that goes behind all this? HK: Yes it is a lot of effort. But it has become routine and my husband and me share the responsibility equally. Hence we are able to manage it as of now. BG: With Hebbar’s Kitchen fans touching 10 million, how close do you feel to your objective/dream? HK: As I have previously mentioned, I started Hebbar’s Kitchen just to kill my time. And yeah now I can say, I have no time for myself. We were thrilled to see us in top 6 most viewed indian channels and top most in health and food channels on Facebook. We have over 6.6 million organic followers at the moment and have a reach of 125 million viewers a month for our content. BG: What message would you like to give to your fans like us for whom Hebbar’s Kitchen has become the recipe Bible? HK: It is really nice to see that many are trying out my recipes and enjoying a healthy meal at home. Also thanks a lot for supporting me till now. Your love and kindness means a lot to me.
