Chennai’s foodies trip on a spicy Chinese food truck

Grabbing a quick bite while on the move is a reality of modern metropolises. And the concept of food trucks, which is popular abroad and in many Indian cities, is relatively new to Chennai. Karthik Kannan, through his newest venture Karam Food Truck, that operates out of Velachery is attempting to break the mould and bring food trucks to the mainstream. He begins by telling us, “I have been in the restaurant business since 2004 and have travelled across the world on work. When I decided to start something of my own, I wanted to do something different. There are so many eateries that have opened up in the recent past. But I wanted to give Chennaiites a different experience. Thus the came the idea of a food truck about six months back,” he says. 

Karthik was wary of similar ventures that were compelled to shut shop. He says, “I did market research for close to one year. I realised similar outfits were initiated by people who came from a non-hospitality industry. I then worked out a model that would be profitable for me and pocket friendly for my customers.” 

The first task was to find the truck. “The truck had to be spacious enough to make any kind of cuisine. I purchased a Tata Ace mini truck, and redesigned and modified it on my own. I spent close to Rs 7 lakh to get things started. One can modify the vehicle within Rs 3 to 4 lakh. But I didn’t want to compromise on the quality. So I got it modified a couple of times and thus the cost escalated,” he says. 

“Earlier, we had planned to offer our customers a choice of various cuisines. But then we decided to just stick with Chinese.” Karthik adds, Keeping prices competitive has been on Karthik’s priority list, as he explains, “An individual can have a hearty meal for Rs 100. We tried to keep things simple. We make our own masalas and procure fresh ingredients for the items.  Our plan is to grow gradually and build a solid and dependable customer base.