Dr Rukhsaar Sayeed’s dream of becoming a chef took roots when she was just 12 and made a caramel custard.
She then completed her education in food technology and got a PhD. She loved the technical, preservation and research aspects of food products.
She exemplifies the never-say-die attitude and runs a food venture-Khalis foods, and is one of the finalists of MasterChef India.
The birth of Rukhsaar’s venture stemmed from her need to provide healthy food for her children, which she was unable to find outside.
She wanted to help busy mothers like herself serve healthy food without processed ingredients and preservatives.
She worked for 8 months on increasing the shelf life of her healthy snacks before launching it in August 2019.
Her online, frozen food venture from Pampore had to be shut in a few days as the Indian government revoked Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir
All her frozen food turned bad as she didn’t have access to freezers and the mobile networks were cut off, resulting in a loss of Rs 70,000.
The resilient woman restarted Khalis Foods in November 2020, which she had to shut yet again in two months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Undeterred, she continued and rose like a phoenix in September 2021 to provide healthy, unadulterated food to children.
“Pursuing a dream is never easy. It comes with its own set of challenges, especially in Kashmir. If I fail again and have to start from scratch, I will do it all again in a heartbeat,” says the entrepreneur.
She sells frozen products like chicken popcorn, crispy chicken strips, breaded chicken nuggets, kalari cheese samosas for children, and chicken keema samosas, Turkish adana kebabs, and chicken spring rolls for adults.
Focused on quality, she makes only one batch per week to ensure freshness. She employs six people and gets about 600 to 700 orders per month.
She hopes to expand out of her 10x10 room and open a culinary school in Kashmir one day.
Rukhsaar is one of the top four finalists in MasterChef India-Hindi and one of the first Kashmiri women on the show.
She’s been wowing the judges with her dishes, where she uses traditional Kashmiri ingredients in creative, restaurant-quality dishes.