After losing his corporate job during the COVID-19 lockdown, Punjab’s Deep Singh Cheema started The Pizza Factory, a food truck business.
“In Delhi/NCR the food truck culture was very prevalent. However, when I set it up in Dhaliwal, the initial reactions were far from welcoming,” he says.
“This was a crowd that enjoyed their samosa, pakoda (deep-fried fritters), and chai (tea). And I was trying to introduce new foods and flavours to them,” he says.
It was to get more people to come and try his offering that Deep priced his menu at Rs 199. Today, four other food trucks have established their presence at the very same spot.
“When I started I encountered so many challenges. The biggest of them being people’s mindsets. They would refer to my food truck as a rehdi (street vendor) and call me the pizza burger wala.”
“I’m happy that the mindset is changing. Making and serving food is a great thing and I did not understand why it was looked down upon,” he says.
He attributes a lot of what he has learned to chef Ranveer Brar. “From using the readymade pizza base to learning how to make the dough, it is all thanks to his tutorial videos,” he says.
Having started this in August 2020 with an investment of Rs 4 lakh, Deep is today earning close to Rs 2 lakh per month.