Prerna Pahwa and her female brigade of 5 have started the first eco-friendly restaurant in Brisbane. Prerna, Jimmy, Hansha, Shatabdi and Mandy are all self-confessed foodies hailing from the different States of India. Their passion for authentic Indian food brought them together, but their mission goes beyond sugar and spice. These ladies endeavour to serve authentic Indian food with pure spices and use the least amount of any processed food. They pledged to use eco-friendly packaging to save the environment.
On being asked what motivated them to start this venture, Prerna says,
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
" कितनी ख़ूबसूरत है जंग ज़िन्दगी और सपनों के बीच (How beautiful is the battle between life and its dreams)
सपने पूरे करने उठते हैं सपने छोड़कर ." (We wake up to fulfil our dreams by casting dreams away.)
"We did a lot of brainstorming because we wanted to reduce the carbon footprints. Think about it, in India in the olden days they cooked in clay ovens and clay pots, food was served at large functions on banana leaves. Ther's always a scientific reason for these things." Thus was born the concept of starting an eco-friendly restaurant with authentic and nutritious dishes from the various States of India. "We wanted authentication rather than Aussiefication of dishes," says Prerna with a chuckle.
So what does the restaurant use in place of plastic packaging? Prerna tells us they use packaging made from sugar cane plant because it is light and bio-degradable. For that the beautiful brigade did a lot of research, trying out the containers, suitable for curries, how long food could be kept in these containers and whether they were microwave safe. It has all worked out well says Prerna, "We hope other restaurants get inspired by us."
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
