Inspired by the magic that food evoked in guests at her family’s Hotel Sharabheshwara in Karnataka, Shivaranjini started her food venture ‘Suggi Oota’ when she moved to California in 2013.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that I would be cooking for people,” she notes referring to the tiffin service she had been running in Bengaluru in 2011.
But the real push came when she hosted her son’s first birthday at their place in the Bay Area and cooked traditional South Indian food for over 20 guests.
The praise, the compliments, and the love she received led Ranjini to start the home cooking service in 2015.
Today, Suggi Oota, which translates to ‘feast’ in Kannada, is a manifestation of that dream — a realisation of one woman’s passion for food.
She says it is all thanks to the word that spread about the authenticity of her food. “People began circulating my contact.”
In 2020, fuelled by all the love she received for her home-delivered orders, she started her very own commercial kitchen where she whips up North Indian and South Indian thalis.
“I cook for an average of 100 people every day,” Ranjini (as she’s fondly called) says proudly.
A few dishes include holige (an Indian sweet flatbread), masala puris, dosas, and other South Indian delicacies.
She also has a special post-natal menu for mothers that includes foods rich in millet.
Suggi Oota delivers around California to areas such as Tracy, Brentwood, Mountain House, Berkley, Walnut Creek and more; they plan to expand in the coming years.
She credits hard work for her success. “If you have a dream, and show up for it, there is nothing that can stop it from happening,” Ranjini remarks.