It is a match made in heaven — beetroot pesto and garlicky mushrooms. Nothing fancy, a straight forward pizza. The creamy pesto with a hint of sweetness forms the base while the toppings are button mushrooms sautéed in butter, some split black olives, and charred onions, home-made balsamic glaze and arugula. A simple combination of sweet, earthy and fresh tastes, and the lingering sourness of balsamic glaze brings an interesting flavour to the taste buds. “Beetroot pesto is my mom’s recipe and we have converted it into pizza,” says Siddharth Sethi, one of the founders of Van Dough Cafe and Pizzeria. When three friends —Siddharth , Pavithraa Priya, and Dhiren Khturia, who share a common passion for food came together, they started The Cloud Kitchen Project, a cloud kitchen based in RS Puram that offers an intimate culinary experience for patrons as well as themselves. “Initially, we started pizzas as weekend delivery menu of the parent brand. It clicked and here we are,” says Pavithraa Priya.
They want to also promote art along with good food, and there are plans to host live mural painting sessions by local artists at the cafe. “We might use Impressionism style as the cafe is named after Van Dough. We want to engage with artists regularly and have lined up events like a design contest to create a pizza box for us,” explains Siddharth adding that they tried as many as 50 new menus in the cloud kitchen including Japanese, Vietnamese, and modern Indian before setting out to start a cafe offering artisanal pizzas in continental and South Indian flavours. “We wanted to put in new, better dishes and what better way to go than the pizzas? We make everything from scratch. We get our fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, micro greens and arugula from hydroponic farms here. The marinara is made using tomatoes sourced locally while for sherry leek sauce we sauté garlic, leeks and shallots in butter, and add non-alcoholic red wine and cream. This brings a huge flavour difference,” explains Siddharth pointing to the delicious, piping hot Kundapuri ghee roast paneer pizza waiting to be savoured. “We studied at Manipal and we frequented Kundapur, an hour’s drive from Udupi to savour the famous ghee roast chicken and prawn. We recreated that on the pizza,” adds Siddharth, smiling. The Kerala chicken roast pizza with pickled onions and in-house eggless mayo transports us to the local eateries of God’s Own Country.
