A bowl of good health

Want to up your breakfast game, but do not have the time to cook and prefer not to reach out for sugary supermarket cereals? Here are three home-grown, women-run brands trying to make it a little easier to get a nutritious, fibre-rich morning meal 

Rashmi Naik | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Rashmi Naik loves breakfast and looks forward to it every day. “Breakfast is the new dinner. In fact, I would argue that breakfast is the little black dress of all meals,” says the founder of this Puducherry-based micro-bakery that specialises in making small batch breakfast cereals using high-quality ingredients. 

As a lifelong fan of Jane Austen, “such a wonderful role model for women,” Darcy and Company is named after the founder’s favourite literary character, Austen’s famous romantic hero, Mr Darcy. “There are things in the business to take seriously, but you should also have the opportunity to have fun. And Jane Austen allowed us to do that,” explains Rashmi, who recently introduced four limited-edition flavours of granola to mark Austen’s 250th birth anniversary to her product range: Longbourn & Pemberley (Shortbread), Chatworth House & Barton Cottage (Scottish Cranachan), Camden Place & Netherfield Park (Sticky Toffee Pudding) and Hartfield & Highbury (Chocolate Orange). 

Rashmi, who has a background in public policy, advocacy and communications, first began making granola in 2021, when she moved to Puducherry from Mumbai. In an attempt to eat healthier, she began experimenting with breakfasts of homemade granola and yoghurt, “along with fruit, which took care of more than half the protein we required for our breakfast,” she says, pointing out that while people are often focused on eating right, it also needs to be accessible and easy to put together.

For her, a bowl of granola with Greek yoghurt, a drizzle of nut butter and seasonal fruit is an easy lift. “It is satiating, guilt-free and competently does the job of hitting all the right spots. More importantly, it is sustainable; the chances of you getting bored or tired easily are low, and it can be had at any time of day,” says Rashmi, who finds this sort of versatility “most appealing.”

She started by sharing her slow-baked granola, crammed with ingredients like activated nuts and seeds, with family and friends. As demand for this “delicious” product, made with “clean ingredients,” increased, she finally decided to go the entrepreneurial route.