For the love of cooking: The Flour Works

The Flour Works is a serene European styled restaurant neatly tucked away in a tree shaded lane in Pune. Meeta Makecha always wanted to open a bakery and that led to the starting of The Flour Works.

She shares her thoughts today,

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I have always felt a strong attraction towards food, and when I moved to San Francisco with my husband, I decided to take up a professional course. I got a degree from the California Culinary Academy. We returned to Pune, and for a few years I consulted with several restaurants, however the satisfaction of consulting wasn't really there because any changes you recommend never stay sustained. I decided to move beyond, and start my own place. 

Initially, I wanted to open a bakery that served premium baked goodies and quick bites. However, the space that I finally decided to rent out had a huge outdoor seating space, and once people started coming in to our bakery, they also started demanding main courses. We moved organically to meet their demands, and we are now a full-fledged European styled restaurant. 

We opened in January 2012, and we recently celebrated our fourth anniversary. This is my first business venture. Entrepreneurship teaches you various lessons but the important things to remember are to always work with people who share the same vision. Getting in a professional relationship with people who share a different vision or no vision at all is detrimental to you and the business.

I think the restaurant business in itself is really challenging. There are so many things that need to be perfect, but since it is people-driven business, perfection is a far cry. 

We have always had customers who come in and nit-pick about something or the other. Instead of trying to change what we do best, we let our customers come to us because we serve authentic European food. We also have a really beautiful space, and that created a mental block that we were too expensive as a restaurant, however, we are really competitively priced.

I think my team and I have managed to build a successful brand that customers love. Pune has accepted us really well. We already have started our expansion in Pune, with the launch of The Bakery by The Flour Works at Wanowrie, Pune. The Bakery is originally what The Flour Works was supposed to be - a bakery with some exclusive limited quick bites. We are already planning more of The Bakery outlets across Pune at the present. 

My day begins at 7 am with a call to the restaurant to make sure everything is in order. I come to the restaurant around noon. Depending on the day, it’s mostly meetings with various people, be it vendors or investors. I always spend a few hours in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the business and needs to run smoothly. Talking to the chefs about new ideas, streamlining, training of new staff are some of my daily priorities.

If not a chef, I would have been a doctor. A doctor because I actually like helping people and taking care of them. 

These days lots of women run their own businesses and managing the finances of their families. To run the business totally by yourself is still very tough in India for a woman. Men still don't respond well to a woman telling them what to do. 

Despite this, I believe that things are changing and people's attitude towards women entrepreneurs is changing and it can only get better. A big step in the right direction would be for corporate India to treat women entrepreneurs with the respect and courtesy that male entrepreneurs are accorded.

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