Albin Sunny recalls a fond memory from his university days when his friend, Jack, came over to his place try south Indian food for the first time. It's a cuisine the 25-year-old graduate had eaten his whole life, but for Jack it was a joyful revelation. "He just absolutely loved it. He was having three different portions," Albin says, laughing. "It was a surprise for him, because he wasn't struggling after - he said we could go to the gym after and we'd be fine. He was like, 'What is this type of food?'"
Jack's reaction to the light and flavoursome homecooked dishes was "good feedback" for Albin - so promising, in fact, that it gave him the idea of opening his very own restaurant in Cardiff specialising in south Indian cuisine. Months later, and Albin's dream has come to fruition: he is busy preparing to welcome customers next week through the doors of Little Kochi, named after a city in the state of Kerala where his family is originally from.
Hospitality wasn't always the goal for the business-minded 25-year-old, who graduated last year with a masters from Cardiff University. Working full time for a start-up tech company in London, Albin says he wanted to experience something other than the conventional 9 to 5 grind. But it was only when he met his close friend and the restaurant's future general manager, Melvin Salimon Mathew, that the idea began to become more of a reality. You can read all our latest Cardiff stories here.
