Growing up in Hyderabad, India, Raghupathi Reddy Gujjula, learned a lot about the intersection of life and food from his mom — that it was all about the smiles and the happiness when you give food with your hands to others.
This led Reddy to pursuing a career as a chef — serving happiness and smiles to the communities he lived in.
After years of working in India with the Taj hotel group, in 2012, he immigrated to Canada with hopes of gaining experience in a bustling Indian kitchen in Canada.
Now, Reddy recently opened his own restaurant in Port Coquitlam along Kingsway Avenue — an expansion of what started in the comforts of his Surrey home.
He remembers, however, the Indian food scene in Metro Vancouver was minimal upoon arriving in B.C.
So, he pivoted: working with the Parq Vancouver, Shangri-La group of hotels and then Fairmont Pacific Rim in Canada Place until the pandemic struck, plunging the hotel and restaurant industry in a turmoil.
It was during this time that Reddy launched his private venture: Raghu's Biriyani Drive from his Surrey residence, catering to his passion and the people he served, authentic and flavourful Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani.
Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani, Reddy explained, is marinated meat layered with cooked rice and cooked on low heat for a couple hours in a clay pot.
"When we started, we did a trial kitchen: just preparing at home and serving within our friends and families," Reddy said.
"Then even without my notice, my friends and family spread word to friends within their groups. So it just spread by word of mouth."
But owing to health regulations, city by-laws and the pandemic restrictions around commercial food preparation, Reddy switched spots — getting a commissary kitchen in Langley to cater to the general public.
There, with the help of his team (Reddy, his brother and three employees), he set up Raghu's Biriyani Drive take-out restaurant which brought in hungry customers for authentic dum biriyani, leaving them satiated.
Growing Indian population in Metro Vancouver meant people seeking home-style foods and authentic foods from his community, he said.
People flocked to buy the chef's biriyani — clients coming in from as far as Abbotsford, Vancouver and Victoria to Langley, after word spread.
"We just wanted to keep it simple and made everything fresh for lunch and dinners; we usually sold out on the same date," he said.
"One of the [bigger client] came from Victoria and took back almost 100 boxes in the ferry," he added in amusement.
With the buzz spreading, it was time for the restaurant to expand. After a lot of research, Reddy said they found a spot in Port Coquitlam (2570 Kingsway Ave.) that will allow them to serve to a larger clientele across Metro Vancouver.
"The location is close to Maple Ridge, Port Moody, Coquitlam and to Burnaby Central and Guildford mall in Surrey, so we thought it’d be a little more radius to serve more clients," he said.
While the new spot in Port Coquitlam is a bigger space than the shared kitchen in Langley, Reddy said that it will still only focus on the production side of things for the moment.
There is a strong smell while cooking biriyani and not all customers might be comfortable with the strong smell from the kitchen while dining in, so for now it will be only a take-out spot, he said.
Reddy, however, hopes that with more customers coming in, they can expand to a bigger location with dining area in the next couple of years.
