How cloud kitchens are powering India's new F&B renaissance. All you need to know

India Today

5 days ago

There was a time when opening a restaurant in India required the sort of courage one usually reserves for starting an airline or making a Bollywood period drama. It meant leases, licenses, lavish interiors, and an unwavering belief that people would walk in, order generously, and return often enough to keep the lights on.But the F&B playbook has been rewritten, and the pen was handed over to a new generation of food entrepreneurs who've traded chandeliers for cloud kitchens.advertisementYou can thank the pandemic for some of it. Or the fact that India's young urbanites are now more likely to order an artisanal bao than walk out for one.
Or simply that the dream of launching a food brand no longer needs a storefront on Linking Road or Khan Market—it just needs a strong idea, a shared kitchen, and a few loyal delivery apps.India Today spoke with Sanket S Co - Founder of Scandalous Foods to get more insights.Welcome to India's cloud kitchen boom. Where innovation is on the stove, and real estate no longer dictates success.Cloud kitchens—also called ghost kitchens or dark kitchens, are not new globally. But in India, they've found a particular kind of sweet spot. Think of them as the WeWork of the food world. No dining area. advertisementNo footfall. Just a back-end kitchen, digital orders, and a menu that lives and breathes online.But it's not just the format that's exciting, it's the philosophy. These are not merely kitchens. They are launchpads. They allow young food brands to do what restaurants traditionally could not, experiment, fail, pivot, and try again. All without mortgaging your home or betting on a landlord's mood.From Korean rice bowls to saffron-infused laddoos that last 45 days without a single preservative, the cloud model has become the test kitchen of India's culinary future. A quiet revolution is simmering, one container at a time.A MODEL FOR EVERY APPETITENot all cloud kitchens are created equal. Some go solo, independent spaces owned and operated by one brand. Others opt for co-working kitchens, where multiple ventures share facilities, infrastructure, and sometimes, inspiration. Then there are marketplace models, managed by giants like Rebel Foods, where third-party brands with proven traction are onboarded at scale.For most startups, the first step is humble, rent a space, set up operations, and let the food speak for itself. The beauty of this model lies in its accessibility. You don't need foot traffic when you have order data. advertisementYou don't need dcor when you've nailed your biryani-to-delivery-box experience. And most importantly, you can test product-market fit with agility and precision.But like every good story, there's a twist.THE PRICE OF STAYING INVISIBLE The success of a brand born in the cloud is real, but so is the challenge of staying visible. On aggregator platforms, where most cloud kitchens thrive, the customer often remembers the delivery app, not the brand that made the food. Customer loyalty becomes hard-earned currency in a space ruled by convenience and discounts.Add to that the high commissions and platform-led price cuts, and suddenly, scaling sustainably starts to look like a different kind of uphill climb.That's why many of the new-age brands are choosing a hybrid route. A cloud kitchen for quick market entry, QSRs for recall and visibility, and eventually a dine-in format to deepen the brand experience. Some brands are working behind the scenes, especially, when it comes to the increasing average-order-value (AOVs). These homegrown brands are targeting the irreplaceable Indian habit of post-meal desserts. They source it from the best, and perfect the science of shelf life, and supply sweets to restaurants you thought made them in-house; and just like that the whole cloud kitchen industry stands to accumulate more profits per order.advertisementWHERE WE'RE HEADEDZomato and Swiggy recorded a combined sales figure of $4 billion last year. Online food ordering is expected to reach around $4.5 billion in FY24, with projections indicating growth to approximately $13 billion by 2029 and $26 billion by 2032. It's about the hunger, literal and metaphorical, for innovation. From millet pizzas to plant-based kebabs, the Indian palate is more adventurous than ever before. And in this evolving appetite, cloud kitchens have found their calling. They are no longer the poor cousin of the dine, in dream. They are the idea labs. The rehearsal stage. The proof-of-concept before the main act.But eventually, every food brand worth its salt, and ghee, must step out of the shadows. The true mark of success isn't just a bestseller menu online, but a loyal customer offline. A face to the name. A place where the aroma doesn't stop at the doorway.For now, though, the cloud is a good place to begin.