'Won't find anywhere else': This cookhouse in Guwahati is making waves with its special menu

Guwhati: In a semi-busy corner of Lamb Road, Riddhi Barua gave wings to her dreams last year.  At 'Riddhi's Little Cookhouse', the culmination of 14 years of experience and hard work, the enterprising chef from Guwahati rustles up a plethora of unique dishes that she asserts "you won't find anywhere else."

"I grew up watching my grandmother and mother cook in our kitchen, and their culinary prowess was truly impressive" Riddhi, 30, shares with Business North East, tracing her journey. From simple pickles to intricate Assamese cuisine that required a lot of hard work, they were able to endow everything with magic. "I learned a lot from them and spent countless hours in the kitchen assisting and observing", recalls Riddhi.

Riddhi's fascination for cooking took her to the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) in Mumbai where she further honed her craft. Thereafter, she worked for four years in bakeries and restaurants in the Maharashtra capital, garnering "valuable experience" along the way. However, her dream had always been to open her own restaurant or café, she tells us.

Once she made up her mind to begin her first startup, Riddhi says she did not want to "invest extensively." Therefore, she handled every task "personally" putting in dollops of her own physical effort and hard work. "I put my heart and soul into setting it up", shares Riddhi. "I personally went to godowns and picked up things for my place. Not only choosing colours, but applying them on the walls with my own hands. While I sought professional help and expertise, I was present every day, overseeing every detail."

At her place, she sought to recreate an environment that resonated with the kind of "vibe and energy" she enjoyed herself. However, creating an aesthetic ambiance and a cozy atmosphere posed significant challenges given the limitations of space. Riddhi says she was aided significantly by her brother and a close group of friends who helped her navigate these day-to-day challenges.

Once the establishment was set up, Riddhi personally curated a menu in which most of the recipes were her own. Although Riddhi was taught to cook many Western dishes by the IHM faculty, she began infusing Assamese dishes and herbs into her cooking, thereby developing her own signature blend. "That's how I developed these recipes, and over time, I added more traditional and contemporary dishes into the mix." 

Baruah has also experimented with fusion in many baked dishes, crafting unique items in the process like ghost chili brownies, Assam lemon loaf cake, tea mousse, and several others. Once she started posting these on Instagram, she gained a large following. Going forward, Riddhi says, she hopes to add these items to her ever-growing menu.

Riddhi's cozy little cookhouse has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few months, mainly through word-of-mouth. Patience, says Riddhi, has played a pivotal role in her initial success. "I've learned to embrace challenges, derive lessons from setbacks, and persist without giving up easily", she stresses.

Asked about the potential of Northeast Indian food on the national stage, Riddhi feels there is "immense potential." "Northeastern cuisine, especially Assamese cuisine, is relatively less known outside the region in comparison to other Indian cuisines. Recently, Chef Vikas Khanna's statement about Assamese cuisine being world-class and the prospect of its appeal beyond the region is something I firmly believe in. The food from the Northeast holds unique qualities that have yet to be widely explored on a global scale", says Riddhi.

Barua constantly reminds herself of this and aspires to share and explore the vast culinary offerings of the Northeast as a contemporary chef-cum-entrepreneur, she tells Business North East.

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