PuneWaali 3 celebrates the journey of chef Meeta Makhecha and photographer Uma Dhanwatey.

Pune, June 18, 2018

“When I set up my first restaurant in Pune, I struggled for months to get staff because the male chefs who interviewed for the job simply did not want to work for a woman. It is only my complete determination to make it work that prevented me from giving up on my dream,” Meeta Makhecha, entrepreneur and owner of Pune’s popular The Flour Works restaurant said recently.
Makhecha was in conversation with author Sudha Menon, at the third edition of PuneWaali, a chat show series with accomplished Pune women, that the latter is helming for ShethePeopleTv.
In the years since then Makhecha, who trained to be a chef at California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, has set up two more restaurants and is part of the small group of female-chef led restaurants in the city. “I worked for over five years in the US at different places including a Michelin-star restaurant but eventually returned to India because this is home and this is where I wanted to be,” Makecha said.
The journey into culinary world was not easy for Makhecha who comes from a conservative, vegetarian family but her passion for cooking made her stick it out despite the high-pressure environment of restaurant kitchens where she learnt everything from deboning chicken and meat to plating up dishes with the same consistency every day.
“Being a chef and working in a restaurant is phenomenally crazy but phenomenally fun. My advice to anybody who wants to be a chef is that they should be prepared for very long, gruelling hours of work, very little money and personal time. Get into it only if you are passionate about it.” Makhecha herself wore several hats including that of a travel and tourism professional and a gym owner before she discovered that her passion lay in cooking.
“Days before we were to start work on our first restaurant my business partner backed out, leaving me high and dry but I stayed firm and borrowed from friends and relatives to set up The Flour Works. It is a decision I have never regretted,” Makhecha said.
Photograpaher Uma Dhanwatey did her Masters in Social Work but felt the urge to explore her creative side with photography, her passion leading her to assistantship with ace photographers Farrokh Chotia and Girish Mistry in Mumbai. “I was the girl from a small town who knew nothing about fashion photography, models and glamour but I stuck to it despite the hardship and in return I got great hands on experience into the world of photography,” she recalled.
The young woman pursued her passion further at the International Center of Photography in New York City where she worked in their library during thee days in order to fund her training and learnt the craft in their evening classes. Once the training was done she stayed on in New York , taking up temporary photography jobs so that she could hone her skills. “Among other things I have been a photographer on the Staten Island Ferry taking tourists to the Statue of Liberty and I made my living selling pictures of them posing by the statue. I also worked all nights taking pictures at night clubs and the music scene in the city, getting paid handsomely for working the night shift. It was tough. Sometimes I would question what I was doing alone in a big city where I did not belong. But each time I reminded myself that I was getting to learn more about my chosen craft and that kept me going.” Back in Pune now, Uma has set up her own photography studio and also works on independent projects such as a Mother and Daughter series of photographs she exhibited a couple of years ago.
“I am often asked how it is being a female chef and I say that initially most people assume that women can’t take the rough, hard, strenuous life in a restaurant kitchen but once you are inside it, nobody notices your gender if you are able to do your work like everyone else does,” Makhecha said.
Dhanwatey’s take on photography is simple: “Photography is about emotionally connecting with your subject/client and touching their soul to bring out the perfect picture. Cameras and expensive equipment can’t do that. Only your interest in a person can get them to show you their best side.”
Pune Waali, moderated by Menon who writes books on the journeys of women, celebrates the lives, achievements and journeys of women who can motivate and inspire other women. The chat show has been launched by SheThePeopleTv, the country’s biggest digital platform for telling the stories of women. They also has similar chat shows celebrating the lives of women in Bombay and Bangalore, among others.