Globally, health has become a pressing concern. It’s no longer an issue reserved for the older generations, with declining food quality, environment and lack of access to a nutritious diet becoming harder to access across the board. And while many systemic changes need to come around, sometimes it’s the passion of individuals that drives the change. For actress and activist, Payal Rohatgi, her passion has taken the form of a self-driven cloud kitchen and the brand, Healthy Hustle.

Started just over a year ago as a small food stall, Payal was determined to learn the essence of a business and educate herself on what it takes to provide healthy food while balancing a sustainable business. For a year, she was front and centre for every step of Healthy Hustle’s growth into a project dedicated to serving the best quality ‘ghar jaise khana’, at prices that would be affordable to everyone.

Healthy Hustle is a concept which is about healthy, tasty and nutritious food and Payal’s journey has been one of grit and passion. Times Now caught up with her to learn how she made her dream a reality.

What inspired you to start Healthy Hustle?

I got into the food vertical because people need healthy, tasty, nutritious food available to them. As a celeb, I keep travelling for work. But even when I stayed at 5-star hotels, I realised that is not available even in the best of fine dining. I thought of it two years back. After the reality show (Bigg Boss), I realised that I enjoyed cooking, but I didn’t want to become a chef. As my husband is a health advocate, food is a very important aspect for him and he needs proper food, not restaurant fare. But I realised that this is not just the need for actors or spokespersons. This is the need of the common man too.

The common man also spends day and night working. He also needs good nutritious, healthy, tasty food. We want to give ‘ghar jaisa khana’ to everybody. Affordable food to everybody and the food has to be tasty and nutritious. It’s a basic concept, but this basic concept is lacking in today’s fast-paced life, where everybody is running around behind processed and packaged food.

What makes your approach to good food different from other ‘healthy restaurants’?

When I say I want to serve people ‘ghar jaise khana’, I literally mean the khana that I eat at my house, the khana that my husband eats, that my mother and father eat. And the most important thing is the oil that we use at our house. Oil, cold-pressed oil is the seed of Healthy Hustle. Cold-pressed oil is different from refined oil. In every five-star, you get refined oil, maybe from a better company. But cold-pressed oil is expensive and it is made after crushing the seed of the oil. So cold-pressed oil is expensive. It is something that is good for your health. So my food is supposed to be cooked in that oil. Anywhere you go, they are using gravies, they are using the wrong oils, and they are trying to cut costs because they have to do business at the end of it.

With celebrity restaurants being so trendy these days, how is your different?

All these celebs open restaurants, but they don’t know how the business will run, and eventually they all close because they are completely dependent on the experience of their hospitality partners. I was told that as an actor, I should get into the makeup, hair or soap business because that is what will suit my personality. I said, no, I want to get into the food business because I’m passionate about food. So as a celeb getting into this profession I decided not to be blindly dependent on anybody when I started and got the experience needed which is what most celebs in the space forget.

I have actually gone to wholesale markets and figured out how to identify good materials from bad materials. I’ve done so much backend work that I understand how to cut costs without cutting on the quality of the product. They just go to an inauguration with their blow-dried hair or their designer clothes and they say, this is our next step, let’s do a photo conference. They actually don’t understand the process. But for me, I’ve actually worked on the process.

How did you decide what to serve?

The recipes have come literally from my home. The USP of my food is that it is not being cooked somewhere else, outsourced from somewhere else and being sold under my license. The recipes are very simple home-cooked recipes right now, but the aim is to make sure that your home-cooked food has healthy recipes with filling combinations, a whole meal.

This new tie-up with the Indian Railways is something that I’m going to be exploring passionately because India has one of the biggest railway networks in the world. The railways have a lot of customers and these customers are looking at having good healthy food at affordable prices. Often when you travel by train the food we’re getting is stale, not healthy, sometimes rotten even. So if I get into this sector, where I can give them healthy food it will make a huge difference.

What does your diet look like?

In my daily life, I strive to maintain a healthy diet. I consume eggs when I feel like it, otherwise, I opt for a variety of fruits. My day begins with black coffee, followed by a combination of fruits and oats, or sometimes dalia or eggs, as I enjoy that mix.

For lunch, I typically have dal, sabzi, and roti. Occasionally, I include white rice, though sometimes I opt for brown rice. I am also exploring bamboo rice. The choice of rice depends on what suits the customer best. I have millet options available on my menu too for an even healthier experience for the customer. However, sending millets for railway journeys is challenging due to travel time, so I provide wheat roti instead. For passengers, I offer multi-grain paratha or cheela, which are also part of my household menu.

I am dedicated to maintaining my metabolism by eating small meals every two hours. My dishes are designed to meet clients’ preferences, ensuring a balance of health and taste. While I may not indulge in sweets, I offer high-quality, nutritious options made with gud (jaggery) to my clients. The combinations I prepare are both healthy and delicious.

What is the next phase for Healthy Hustle?

The next phase is to get into schools and colleges because colleges need good food. I visited certain schools in Bombay. They take so much money from parents and serve kids noodles, white bread and sandwiches. If you give children gulab jamun and chaat, how are those children going to be fit? They’re going to sleep halfway through the day. How are they going to be active? So when you’re talking about healthy and fit India, you need to target users at this ground level.

I’m looking for investors to help me build my dream. When I had the idea, I jumped into the ocean. But it will be always better to swim in the ocean with a teacher with somebody who knows how the waters are so that I can go to the other end. People never risk jumping into the water because they are scared of the water, thinking the water is going to be cold, or dark, or too deep. But I have jumped into the water. That’s the nature that I have.

Healthy Hustle is a dream where I’m working very hard to kind of get good, affordable, healthy, quality food for everybody. It comes down to what you put inside your body to give you the kind of energy.