Desis Feel For This Chef Who Failed To Attract Customers At Australian Food Drive

Indian cuisine has always managed to capture the hearts of people. But for one Indian-origin chef in Australia, the effort proved challenging. Padam Vyas, a 67-year-old Indian-origin chef from Sydney, was seen at his pop-up stand, displaying a range of Indian cuisine but with no customers in sight. A video, showing him sitting at an empty pop-up booth, has however managed to win over the internet. When it started to rain, the old man was finally seen packing up the stall and running for shelter.

“Our beloved Head Chef @himalayansaltsydney made food for the people of Sydney but no one came,” The Colonial Restaurants, a Sydney-based restaurant group wrote on Instagram. The video shared by them also featured a range of food items, including samosas, chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, seekh kabab and rogan josh, at Chef Vyas’ pop-up stall.

The video begins with Chef Padam Vyas sitting at his stall with a happy face to welcome customers. When no one comes in for a long time, he could be seen disheartened. Towards the end of the video, Chef Vyas could be seen walking away towards a shelter as it started raining.

The video posted by Colonial Restaurants has garnered more than 9,20,000 views and counting. While the majority of the comments on the video are encouraging, expressing support for the chef, a few individuals have condemned Indian street cuisine and questioned its hygiene.

As always, the internet’s awesomeness ensured that the chef’s day turned out well. Hundreds of users left sweet and wholesome words expressing their desire to eat Padam Vyas’ delicious-looking food and wishing they were in Australia to do so. A user wrote, “His food was probably the best one at the whole market.” Another person commented, “Stop, I’ll eat every food in his stall”.

Meanwhile, Chef Vyas spoke to Hindustan Times about what happened that day and clarified that a few consumers did come to his stall. “A few people came. It was a bad day. It was raining. People who are trolling do not know. They are unfamiliar with the atmosphere and system in Australia,” he added, adding that permissions are required before conducting any outside catering in Australia. “Also, without that, you can’t do catering,” he stated.