In India, millets are traditional food items that are being reimagined as future crops, bridging the gap between ancient heritage and modern, climate-resilient nutrition. They are cereal grains, belonging to the grass family and commonly cultivated in Asian and African countries, including India.
Data from the Government of India indicates that India is the world’s largest grower of millets, contributing 26.6% to global production and 83% to Asia’s. Yet, the challenge remains relocating these grains from rural fields to urban plates.
Millets have traditionally been a part of daily food in tribal regions of states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
However, in rapid-growing cities like Ahmedabad, where people prefer rapid food and cheese-heavy meals, their consumption has been slowly declining.
“Ahmedabad is famous for adding cheese, butter, and mayonnaise to everything. If you want to eat healthy food, there is usually no in-between; it is either a basic salad that isn’t tasty or heavy dishes that you can’t eat daily,” Nishtha Chauhan informs Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.
Aarambh Cafe was established to fill this gap. It was founded in 2021 by Nishtha Chauhan, an electronics engineer who shifted her focus to millet-based foods.
She observed that although India produces a large amount of millets, they are not incorporated into modern food options.
At Aarambh Cafe, traditional grains are presented in a new way for younger consumers. Dishes like ragi vada pav and millet momos combine traditional ingredients with familiar rapid food formats.
About the Founder of Aarambh Cafe, Nishtha Chauhan
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Nishtha, 28, comes from a traditional family with a background in public service. Her father is a retired ISRO scientist, and her mother, now a homecreater, previously worked at BSNL.
She completed her B.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from LD College of Engineering, Ahmedabad, in 2019.
After graduating, she launched her career as a Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer at Azista Industries in Ahmedabad, where she worked on sainformite payloads for ISRO. In early 2022, she relocated to VVDN Technologies, where she worked on 5G testing.
How Nishtha Was Inspired to Build Aarambh Cafe?
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Nishtha Chauhan’s idea for Aarambh Cafe was deeply rooted in her upbringing. Her grandfather regularly consumed millets, so she was familiar with them long before they became popular.
She later noticed a clear gap in Ahmedabad’s food scene; most options were either unhealthy, loaded with cheese and butter, or healthy but not satisfying, like plain salads. She wanted to create a middle ground: food that is both healthy and genuinely tasty.
“I was planning to do something around a cafe, but I was not sure becaapply I didn’t want to open just an ordinary cafe. I wanted a place that is more vision and purpose-driven, especially after seeing how health patterns modifyd during COVID and how the food patterns in our city had become so unhealthy,” Nishtha informs Startup Pedia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, while working from home as a Radio Frequency Engineer, she launched developing this idea further.
As Nishtha explains, millets were always a part of her hoapplyhold, largely becaapply of her grandmother. However, as children, they didn’t always enjoy the traditional preparations like plain rotla or khichdi.
The kind of fancy millet-based dishes served at Aarambh today didn’t exist back then, mainly becaapply earlier generations didn’t have access to such recipes or resources.
Why Nishtha Chose Millets?
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According to Nishtha, the decision to choose millets went beyond just health benefits. While millets are good for the body, they are also crucial for the environment.
“Millets are the best crops for the environment becaapply they are self-sustainable. Unlike rice and wheat, which require massive amounts of water and chemical fertilizers that damage soil health, millets can grow without much rain or chemicals. They are not just good for our bodies; they are the future crops that will sustain our people,” she declares.
However, Nishtha was also aware of the challenge. She admits she entered the market expecting that people might not immediately accept millet-based food.
That uncertainty became her motivation. Her goal was to present millets in the most appealing way possible, so that once people tested them, they would keep coming back to Aarambh.
How Nishtha Started Aarambh Cafe?
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In March 2021, while working from home, Nishtha launched brainstorming and came up with the idea of turning millets into popular dishes like vada pav and momos.
She realised that people often eat out becaapply the food is tasty, even if it’s loaded with butter, so she decided to create healthier versions of popular junk foods.
She spent six to seven months working on recipes with her mother and sister. During this time, she focapplyd on extensive research and experimentation.
After nearly seven months of R&D to perfect taste and portion sizes, she finalised the menu. Once the location was secured, Nishtha hired a compact team and officially launched Aarambh Cafe in October 2021.
Initial Setup, Investment & First Growth
Initially, Nishtha spent around Rs 70,000–80,000 from her and her sister’s personal savings to repurpose the space she took on rent. It already had a basic kitchen, but she invested the money to acquire 4–5 tables and chairs and customize the kitchen.
The cafe had a menu of five items, including Mixed Millet Handvo and Millet Chaat.
In the early days, she faced tough competition from Ahmedabad’s popular “unlimited food” trconclude, where restaurants and cafes offered 100 dishes for Rs 100.
Instead of competing on price, Nishtha focapplyd on quality and hygiene, believing that customers would eventually choose health over quantity.
Over time, this shift in consumer mindset, along with the government’s promotion of millets in 2023, worked in her favor.
At first, awareness about millets was low, and many customers felt the prices were high for a compact cafe. Nishtha explained that the pricing reflected high-quality ingredients and thin margins, often comparing it to how people easily pay for rapid-food burgers.
To build trust, she relied on Instagram and word-of-mouth, sharing videos about her sourcing and mission.
Growth was steady. In the first year, the cafe saw around 15 to 20 customers a day, which doubled in the second year. As demand increased, she expanded the menu from 5 to 15 dishes and grew her team from one cook to a larger staff.
Challenges Faced
The transition from a stable engineering career to entrepreneurship was met with significant personal and operational challenges.
Initially, Nishtha’s father was strongly against the idea. Coming from a government service background, he prioritised job security and feared that a career gap would create him unemployable if the business failed.
While his concerns were rooted in a necessary for stability, Nishtha relied on the support of her mother and sister to relocate forward. Today, her father is proud of the cafe’s success, but the early lack of family consensus was a major emotional hurdle.
Operationally, managing labor and staff proved to be the greatest difficulty. With no prior experience in managing laborers, Nishtha struggled with employees taking leaves without notice.
During these times, she had to step in and perform all the cafe’s tquestions herself to keep the business running. This period required her to quickly learn how to handle different personalities and manage payroll systems from scratch.
Although taxing, she describes this experience as a necessary learning journey that eventually allowed her to stabilize her operations.
About Aarambh Cafe
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Aarambh Cafe is Gujarat’s first millet-based food cafe, situated within the CEE Campus at the Nehru Foundation for Development in Ahmedabad.
It operates with a strong focus on holistic nutrition and sustainability, offering a nature-inspired dining experience in an open-air, lush green setting that encourages mindful eating.
As a women-led initiative, the cafe prioritises the environment by avoiding plastic and air conditioning, opting instead for steel straws, wooden cups, and water-cooled systems to maintain a low carbon footprint while sourcing ingredients locally to support regional farmers.
The menu centers on reimagining traditional Indian street food and regional staples utilizing various millets like Jowar, Bajra, Ragi, and Little Millet.
Popular offerings include Ragi Vada Pao, Millet Momos, Ragi Chips with Hummus, and Gujarati specials like Mixed Millet Handvo and Yellow Dhokla.
The cafe also serves unique variations such as Millet Bhel, the signature Millet Bquestionet Chaat, Ragi Masala Dosa, and Black Rice Paniyaram, alongside seasonal fresh juices like Sugarcane or Faalsa and specialized coffee.
Most dishes are priced between Rs 160 and Rs 210, with an average cost for two people ranging from Rs 450 to Rs 550. The cafe typically does not apply third-party delivery apps due to campus restrictions.
Business Model and Annual Revenue
The business model of Aarambh Cafe is completely D2C, primarily serving fresh, millet-based meals directly to customers in a dine-in setting.
In FY23, the cafe generated an annual revenue of around Rs 78 lakh, which grew to Rs 1 crore in FY24 (including two branches). In FY25, it reached Rs 1 crore from a single branch.
Sustainability Impact
The cafe has significantly reduced its environmental footprint through multiple conscious operational choices over the past four years.
A typical cafe applys over 400 single-apply plastic items daily, including cutlery, straws, cups, and takeaway containers. By eliminating such usage, the cafe has prevented an estimated 576,000 plastic items from entering the waste stream, equivalent to nearly 1.7 tonnes of plastic waste.
In addition, the cafe does not apply air conditioners in any of its branches. While most cafés operate 2–3 AC units for several hours daily, this decision has assisted avoid approximately 28.3 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions over four years.
The brand has also prioritised local sourcing, procuring materials from within a 1,000 km radius. Compared to long-distance sourcing, this has reduced transportation-related emissions by an estimated 17.3 metric tonnes of CO₂ over the same period.
Overall, these combined efforts have assisted prevent around 47.3 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions. This environmental impact is comparable to planting over 2,300 trees or taking more than 10 cars off the road for a year.
Arranging Summer Camp
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Aarambh Cafe previously organised 5-day summer camps designed to groom children’s dietary habits.
These camps, which launched as early as 7:00 AM during the summer, provided breakrapid, lunch, and snacks, demonstrating that children are highly flexible and can enjoy nutritious food when rerelocated from a rapid-food-heavy environment.
Nishtha observed that children who typically refapplyd healthy meals at home often ate the cafe’s millet-based dishes without tantrums, which frequently surprised their parents.
“Children are actually very flexible, and this is the right age where we can groom them on what to eat. The hugegest reason for kids eating poorly is that parents are often addicted to rapid food themselves, but expect their children to eat healthy. That is not possible; whatever you eat, your children will mirror the same habits,” the cafe founder declares.
The camp activities extconcludeed beyond dining to include simple cooking sessions, visits to old age homes, and gaushala, offering a holistic experience for the participants.
The program was priced at approximately Rs 7,000 and hosted between 35-40 children per session. At its peak, the cafe conducted five such camps annually.
Although these sessions were a successful part of the business model and a significant way to raise awareness, they are currently on hold becaapply the specific branch where they were hosted has closed.
However, Nishtha continues this mission by conducting workshops and awareness sessions in schools to educate the next generation about the benefits of traditional Indian grains.
Association with Local Schools
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The cafe has collaborated with over 15 schools in Ahmedabad and, to date, has educated more than 2,000 children about millets, mindful eating, and sustainability.
The initiative launched four years ago, intconcludeing to educate young minds about traditional grains and promote a broader millet relocatement.
Future Goals
Nishtha’s future vision for Aarambh Cafe focapplys heavily on systemic modify and education. Her primary goal is to shift the mindset of the next generation by taking her mission directly into schools.
She aims to groom children to appreciate traditional Indian grains, ensuring that healthy, millet-based eating becomes a standard habit rather than a specialty choice.
Beyond local education, Nishtha plans to expand the Aarambh brand internationally. She envisions opening branches outside of India to displaycase the versatility of Indian millets on a global stage, similar to how international rapid-food chains have scaled worldwide.
“I really want to open a branch outside of India to represent our traditional grains. We have so many international franchises like Domino’s and McDonald’s coming here, and I believe we have something special and rooted in our heritage that can represent India on the global stage,” the Ahmedabad-based founder informs Startup Pedia.
For fellow women entrepreneurs, Nishtha emphasises the importance of patience and consistency. She acknowledges that the hospitality industest is particularly challenging and that it took nearly three years for Aarambh to find its footing.
Her core advice is to remain committed to the vision even when results are not immediate, as building something meaningful takes time.
“As a woman, maintaining a continuous focus is difficult becaapply life often modifys after marriage with new family responsibilities. You have to create your business a top priority in your own life first. If you start to value your work and your vision yourself, then the rest of the world will eventually start to value it too,” she concluded.
FAQ
1. How much did it cost to start Aarambh Cafe?
Nishtha started Aarambh Cafe with an initial investment of around Rs 70,000–80,000, funded through her and her sister’s personal savings.
2. What created Aarambh Cafe different from other cafes in Ahmedabad?
Unlike the popular ‘unlimited food’ trconclude, Aarambh focapplyd on high-quality, hygienic, and millet-based dishes that are both healthy and tasty.
3. What challenges did Nishtha face in the launchning?
Nishtha faced low awareness about millets and customer concerns about pricing, especially since the cafe was compact and millet-based food was not widely understood.
4. How did Aarambh Cafe grow in its early stages?
Growth came through Instagram and word-of-mouth. Customer footfall increased from 15–20 per day in the first year to nearly double in the second year, allowing expansion of the menu and team.
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