Maggi Kitchen Journeys : Celebrating the Journey of Charmi Dave

One of the underrated but most commonly used skill is “Cooking”. As a token of appreciation of its belief that ‘Cooking Can Change Lives’, Nestle India has started the ‘Maggi Kitchen journeys’ initiative, promoting the stories of 12 handpicked women who followed their passion and have fulfilled their dreams using their culinary skills, against all hardships. We flew to Vadodara to meet Ms Charmi Dave, one of those talented ladies who have made a life for themselves following their love for food.

Success stories of individuals who pursued their dreams to the core through perseverance and hard work to make it a reality, are truly inspirational. These can serve as a source of motivation for others who wish to fulfill their dreams but lack strong motivational drive. Such talents must be recognized and brought into the notice of the world so that they can inspire more people. Nestle India has joined this effort  with its ‘Maggi Kitchen Journeys’ initiative. It’s an interesting initiative by Nestle India to appreciate and share with us 12 inspiring stories of women who have used food as a medium to establish their own identity, empowered themselves and inspired others.  It celebrates the story of their journey in pursuit of their passion, describing how efficiently they have used their culinary skills in  running cooking classes, tiffin services, food truck or restaurant.

Maggi Kitchen Journeys:

As a part of this initiative I, along with a bunch of food bloggers flew to Vadodara with Nestle India Team to meet Ms Charmi Dave, a young foodpreuner, the owner of MaggeVala. I was very excited to meet this young entrepreneur from Gujarat, and know about her inspirational entrepreneurial journey filled with struggle and hardship.  It was very interesting to understand how she transformed a simple bowl of Maggi, that’s almost an integral part of every Indian household, into a promising business venture by creating the brand “MaggeVala”. MaggeVala is a munching paradise for Maggi lovers , especially college students and working professionals.

Meeting Charmi Dave, Owner MaggeVala:

Charmi Dave is a 28 year old young and brave restaurateur who is the brain behind MaggeVala. Charmi’s journey has been full of hardships not just on the professional front and but also on the personal front. Her quest for her dreams, didn’t go down well with her in-laws. The zeal to succeed transformed her into a stubborn fighter, who fought for her passion against all odds and moved forward with her business venture, despite much opposition and minimal support.

The passion for food kept her going and today she is not only successfully running MaggeVala in Vadodara but the restaurant is expanding into other cities like Rajkot, Surat, Chennai and more to come. She is an apt testimony of how dedication, perseverance and never give-up attitude serves as catalyst in one’s pursuit of success.

About MaggeVala:

MaggeVala is a cozy, vintage themed beautiful café serving innovative recipes developed from of our very own Maggi noodles. It was started with serving only five variants of Maggi based dishes five years back.  Now, they have expanded its menu options to 31 scrumptious recipes of Maggi and other Maggi based dishes. We spent our day in Vadodara trying out items from MaggeVala’s menu while having a casual conversation with Charmi at her first outlet about her journey and future plans for MaggeVala.  During the conversation, Charmi told us that they are consuming approx 360 packets of Maggi in a month at just one outlet.

We took the kitchen tour and the chef showed us the making of Schezwan Maggi. They make it using in-house schezwan sauce with Maggi noodles and tastemaker. They keep adding new items to the menu. We tried many items from the menu and loved it. My personal favorite was chilly garlic and tandoori Maggi. They have Maggi pizza, toast, shakes and drinks too on the menu.

It was a day well spent with lots of Meri Maggi and interesting conversation.

Thank you Maggi India for making me a part of this celebration and this lovely experience.

Don’t forget to watch Charmi Dave’s  interview and stories of other inspiring ladies on the Maggi Kitchen Journey show hosted by Renuka Sahane  that will be aired on 29th September at 6:30 pm on Zee Tv and 1:30 pm on Living Foodz Channel.