The ketchup may not be a brilliant red, but you can taste the tomato, the burger patty is not deep fried neither is the milkshake extra frothy - it may take some getting used to- but, the regulars are coming back to the newly opened Westley’s Resto-Cafe, earlier Burgeria, at Mamangalam.
The main aim of proprietors Lekshmi Aravind, and Dirsha Mohammed in this venture is to ensure food safety and they are going the whole hog.
As auditor for restaurants, management consultant Lekshmi , has seen the bad and the ugly when it comes to the food business. The more she read, heard and discovered about what goes into food, her anxiety, as mother of two young children, compounded.
“For example, tomato ketchup is only 20% tomato. This is one of the simple things, it gets more complex and dangerous —ajinomoto, colouring agents, preservatives in seemingly harmless foods like bread. All these raised concerns , which led us to think of food safety,” says Lekshmi.
Multi-grain/home style buns baked on order, tomato and other sauces made in-house, rice bran oil, fresh meat, no unnecessary deep frying or reuse of oil —“We ensure these practices, this is not purely a business venture for us. This is our attempt at propagating food safety, and introduce a healthy eating out culture.” They also have a company, We For Earth Food LLP, which sources organic produce via tie-ups with farmers; they supply to a small clientèle.
Giving burgers and fries, perceived as junk food, a conscientious makeover is not easy but Lekshmi says they have tried with the produce and processes. The burger patties are not fried, they are smashed and the meats are not frozen, no artificial ingredients (stabilizers) go into milk shakes and so on. The sauces are not kept for more than two days, the spices made in-house — “it is more work, but we’d rather do it,” Lekshmi says.
When it came to other foods too, the options and variations were tried and tested. The result of consultations and brainstorming with consultant Chef Siddique, “even then the priority was to make the food safe by using healthier options, and then improve the taste,” says Lekshmi.
They don’t claim to be a 100% organic, but peg it at a conservative 70%. Lekshmi has been able to use the experience gained from the restaurant audits. It has helped her take into consideration a number of factors. “Even the personal hygiene/health of an employee matters.”
Earlier when it was Burgeria, the menu had more of burgers. With the name change, the menu too has changed to include more continental cuisine — fish and chips, lasagna, pasta, stroganoff —salads, soups, sandwiches and gelato made in-house. The burger menu continues to be extensive. Dirsha and Lekshmi have bigger plans with their restaurant and the food business. They are set to open a North Indian speciality restaurant in Kakkanad.