Jyotsna Reddy

Conversation with a Chef: It’s lovely to meet you, Jo. Thanks for getting in touch. It’s so nice to come in here. I really love Koornang Road. I always feel so excited when I walk down here with all the possibilities of different foods. What a great choice of location.

Jyotsna Reddy: It was not intentional, but that turned out to be very positive for us. It’s a beautiful street. It’s got so many different cuisines. If you get bored with one cuisine, you always have an alternative option. The street is very happening during weekends. You’re just happy when you walk down that street. Happy people celebrating their occasions. It’s just a beautiful place.

You have a large venue. We’ve just been talking about two levels, so 70 downstairs and how many upstairs?

Forty, comfortable seating. Because I didn’t want any space to go to waste. We are paying a premium price, lease and everything, so I didn’t want to let go of any space. If you might as well make some dollars out of it, why not?

It’s Namma Bangalore Vibbes, and you’re from Bangalore. What was it like growing up in Bangalore, and how was food a big part of growing up?

Bangalore is a place that’s like Melbourne. There are a lot of similarities between these two cities, because Bangalore is also a multicultural place where a lot of people migrate to make their living, for jobs, for business. That city has a lot of potential. You find so many people from different cultures there, not just immigrants from other countries, mostly people from different states migrating to that city to make their living. A lot of opportunities. So even the food has that effect. A lot of people bring their part of food, and what that food used to be traditionally and what it has turned out to be now, migration has contributed to that change.

Food is a love language that Bangaloreans speak. Street food especially. We are known for beautiful street food. There are so many famous streets, like VV Puram, which is known for street vendors. These days, when people go to a five-star hotel, they feel privileged that they’ve been to a good place. Street food has achieved that level of recognition in a few streets in Bangalore.

What would you buy from the stalls?

Different vendors have different specialities. There are so many varieties. My menu itself has 150 items, in-house-made items. I source from outside, like samosas and a few ingredients. Apart from that, everything we make in-house. Prep is a very important part of it for me to nail all those 150 items. Bangalore has an enormous variety of vegetarian food, because most people think when it comes to vegetarian, you can’t have yummy food. But if you go to Bangalore, or if you try Bangalore cuisine, you’ll be proven wrong. So many varieties of vegetarian food, and you can see vegetarian food presented on a totally different level. You’ll never miss meat.

What’s the level of spice?

Not very hot. Definitely much hotter than northern dishes, which Australia is very used to. Australia is mostly used to northern-style Indian food, butter chicken, naan and stuff. Definitely hotter than that. But spice levels, I’d say medium. Not very hot. When you go down south, to Tamil Nadu and Chennai, it’s much hotter.

I read about your idli. So it’s idli particularly from Bangalore?

Yes, it is. The shape of the idli especially originated from a small town, Bidadi, where the first thatte idli was invented. Thatte means plate. Plate-sized idli is called thatte idli. That was invented there, and then it found its way through and became so popular. So now benne dosa and thatte idli are iconic dishes of Bangalore. That’s how everyone talks. And I make my own batter; we don’t source it from outside. That batter actually makes a huge difference in the texture of the idli, how soft it is, and the taste of the idli.

Maybe this is a silly question, but who was doing the cooking at home when you were growing up? Was that your mum?

Not my mum. That’s very surprising, because my dad was very well privileged. We always had a cook at home. So we had a cook to cook, and one person to help around the house. We were different. Mum used to cook every now and then, but I wouldn’t say she cooked fabulous food. She’s a survivor. She can make a few dishes. But my mum’s mum, my grandmother, was the person I was very much inspired by, because she had that magic in her hand. Even if she put a little salt in any dish, the dish turns out to be the tastiest one. I think she had that magic hand. A few people have it, especially in the mood or the personality or anything. She had that magic hand. Since then, I always dreamt, oh, my kids, my grandkids should say, ‘My grandma’s food is yummy.’ That’s what pushed me to actually start cooking and love it.

How old were you when you started cooking?

Very young. Playful. We’d all play and make rice together, cooking with wooden sticks and fire, camping-style. When we went to our native village, we all used to go near the farm, me and my cousins, everyone, and try to cook rice, try to make some curry out of it. The cooking passion started right from there.

You didn’t think about going into hospitality?

Never in my wildest dreams. I can’t express it. Not even for one second in my entire life did it cross my mind that I would end up in hospitality. But it all happened. We had one of our cousins who was studying hospitality, and then we were like, okay, let’s open. That’s how we started. We planned, and me and my husband both love cooking and feeding people.

I read that you’re quite competitive in the kitchen, or that you have a few disagreements. I was trying to choose the word there!

Most of the time! Because his cuisine is completely different. He’s from Telangana. It’s a different state, and his style of cooking is different to mine. Initially I never had an issue. He loves cooking too, so he used to cook most of the time. But he never liked whatever I made. He used to criticise everything. Then one fine day I said, ‘No, it’s not right. It’s not fine what you’re doing. You never appreciate what I make, but anyone who comes home, they love it.’ It’s just the male husband ego. I know what it is, but he never agreed.

When we were planning for a restaurant, I said, ‘Whatever you want to do, if you want me to support you, it has to be something very different, very unique. We need to nail it. I don’t want to be just another Indian restaurant. I need to have a significantly different niche to other restaurants.

My mum’s mum, my grandmother, was the person I was very much inspired by, because she had that magic in her hand. Even if she put a little salt in any dish, the dish turns out to be the tastiest one. Since then, I always dreamt that my kids, my grandkids would say, ‘My grandma’s food is yummy.’ That’s what pushed me to actually start cooking and love it.

Jyotsna Reddy, Namma Bangalore Vibbes

You had a cousin who was studying hospitality, but it’s still a really big leap. You studied construction. What made you think, ‘This is what we’re going to do’?

My husband decided. He wanted to open a restaurant. Initially, the budget we planned ended up four to four and a half times more than we thought. Once we’d got into it, my only thing was, before we go in, we can think. But once we’re in that mess, we need to come out of it. How we come out of it, how we plan it, that’s what matters. He planned it and then we said, ‘Okay, let’s see.’ That conversation was going on, and then this place came up. He brought me to Koornang Road, and I was attracted. ‘Okay, let’s see, let’s do it.’ That’s how we started.

Before that, I did a lot of research. Cooking in a home atmosphere, in a domestic kitchen, is very different compared to a commercial kitchen. When you cook for 30, 40 people at home in a domestic kitchen, and then do the same thing in a commercial kitchen, it’s a different challenge. The temperature, the stove, it’s very different because the flames are high. The vessels are huge. Everything changes. It’s a whole new ballgame. We were both so used to cooking at home for easily 40, 50 people.

We’d put massive feasts on, different starters, mains, desserts, everything. So that was a little bit challenging, but this is completely another level, very different. The recipes I’d figured out in that home atmosphere, I had to tweak a little bit, make those changes when it came to a commercial kitchen. We did face a lot of challenges in the initial days, but the local community supported us so well. Today, I’m here surviving just because of the Carnegie community helping me above and beyond.

What role do you play? Are you in the kitchen, or are you more recipe creation?

All the recipes are mine. We trial and error, and there are a few recipes that are my husband’s signature recipes. There are a few recipes my husband created for me that are also on the menu, like Chicken Jo. That’s pretty famous. Because I’ve created the recipes and trained my team, I’m mostly in the front, maintaining customer interaction, because it’s a very different cuisine. If you don’t go and talk to a customer, and you give the menu and walk off, they don’t know what it is and they make the wrong choices. They wouldn’t come back because they wouldn’t taste the best dish, what I want them to taste. So I go to every table, mostly every table, especially if they are non-Indians. I explain to them. If they are trying to order something that doesn’t go well, I insist on them not ordering that and ordering the right thing. They’ve all had a lovely experience, and they’re enjoying the food.

Do you get a lot of people from Bangalore coming here as well?

Yes. Recently it shifted a little bit more, but most of my clients were Australians. Initially that was also very challenging. My recipes were all catered to Indian taste buds, spicier. South is much spicier than north, so that was very challenging. When I saw the crowd walking in my doors were Australians and Asians, who eat much less spice, they were not enjoying it. I could see that. Then I re-tweaked all the recipes. We changed our spice levels, we brought down the spice levels, and then we build up the spice level if someone requests it. Otherwise, our spices are whatever we can bring down while still keeping the authenticity, not changing completely. For example, the butter chicken you get in India is a completely different dish to the butter chicken you get here. We didn’t change anything that drastically. We kept the authentic taste. Wherever we could bring down the spices and chilli, we did, and that worked out.

So this huge menu, is that because you run breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Yes, we do. That’s one reason. Another reason is they’re all small dishes. We all have our own favourites. Also, my menu, the first word of every dish is named after a place in Bangalore. Everyone who’s been to Bangalore, or who grew up in Bangalore, can relate to that particular place. They’re like, ‘Oh, that’s in Australia. Let’s go visit.’ That is another way I thought people would walk through my doors. They have all the Bangalore names. And the menu is big because at home I was able to do multiple dishes.

I took 30 dishes off the menu. Initially when I opened, I had [unclear number] dishes. I thought it was feasible, but when it practically came into a commercial kitchen, it was nowhere near possible, because most of the dishes needed their own station and their own team member doing that constantly. I didn’t have so many Bangalore people walking in who would know the dishes and order them. So a lot of food wastage was happening. We learned lessons in three months. Then I changed the recipes, the spice level came down, and we took the dishes that we couldn’t produce or couldn’t do justice to off the menu. We made a few changes, and we also took customer feedback, where they thought doing this way would be good, or this is not tasting that way. We took all the feedback and made whatever changes we could. Today our menu speaks for it.

Tell me about the different sections of the menu.

First is soups. We have three beautiful soups. One is vegetarian, tomato soup. We boil fresh tomatoes with carrots and all the ingredients and make it in-house. We have lamb bone soup, and the other very, very famous one is goat leg soup. We chargrill the goat legs and then boil them and make it. It’s very healthy and nutritious and very tasty. People who know that soup travel a distance to drink it. Then the appetisers follow: samosas, bajjis, then chaats, then vegetarian starters, egg starters, chicken starters, goat starters, lamb and prawn. They’re all the starters we have. Then come the main biryanis, dosa with curries, and we also have dosa with chutney and sambar for people who want to eat breakfast-style, and a few condiments.

Your biryani is a bit different. You don’t use basmati, right?

We use a short grain called seeraga samba rice. It’s a very flavourful rice, similar to jasmine, but jasmine has got more starch in it. This is less starchy but very flavourful short-grain rice.

Do you use that for a particular reason, because it soaks up the flavour, or it has its own flavour?

It’s the flavour of that rice. It’s so good. Like jasmine rice, even when you’re full, you can’t stop eating it because of that lovely smell. Thai fried rice, why do we end up eating so much? Because of jasmine rice. In the same way, this plays a very important role. It’s very flavourful. When you take the biryani to your lunchroom and just reheat it in a microwave, the whole tea room will smell of that rice. That rice has that magic. That adds depth to my biryani.

What else goes into a biryani to make it particular to you?

Mine, the way it’s done is also different. Mine is mostly a green-colour biryani. The green colour comes from fenugreek leaves, mint, coriander, huge bunches of coriander, mint, fenugreek leaves, green chillies. When we cook and then grind it, that masala, the green paste, goes into my rice. That brings that authentic donne biryani taste, the green colour.

Tell me about CTR?

CTR, Central Tiffin Room. They’re very famous for their dosa. It’s not new. It’s been there since before independence. That place has been standing since before India’s independence. It’s a very old heritage place where you get beautiful dosas. So with the names I’ve kept, people can relate to the places. I might not be able to produce exactly what they’re doing because of the ingredients, the produce you get here, the climate, the water. We can’t do an exact replica, but I’ve tried my best. But I can assure you the best dosa in Melbourne is mine.

I love dosa. I’ve only been to the north, so Chennai, Mumbai, and then Rajasthan. And I loved it. We had dosa and I just think they must be so hard to make. They’re so thin, but supple.

The way you spread the batter on the pan, and also not just the batter, the pan shouldn’t be greasy. It should be the right temperature, and the batter has to be properly fermented. It can’t be over-fermented or under-fermented. There’s a bit of science behind it. That’s how we get that crispy, shiny outer and soft inside. It’s about how well the batter is fermented to the right consistency.

We were talking before about the expensive lesson you learned in doing things yourself to set up the business. What else have you learned about hospitality along the way?

Very difficult. It’s very challenging. You need to constantly keep up with what’s going on in the market. In winter, we did have someone managing our socials, our Instagram, posting and everything. But in winter we were so quiet, we couldn’t afford to have them. We had to let them go. Then I had to manage everything because of the cost. It was a bit of a struggle during the three months of winter. I didn’t know it would be so quiet. When summer was going on, we had initially opened, and there was a lot of debt we had to clear. So those things were taken care of. I never thought there would be winter months where it would be quiet. I should have been prepared. Three months were very challenging for us. But now after the awards, recognition and everything, Good Food, bless them, because of them things started changing and people started coming in. So we’re in a good place today.

When you get a review like Dani Valent’s, it’s really beautiful. The way Dani writes is always exceptional, and you feel like you’re actually in the place. Did you know she was coming?

No idea. It was one of the cafés on Carlisle Street, The Wall. The owner came in and dined with us. Then he brought his whole family to dine with us. We had a conversation with him. He said, ‘I love your story. I love the way you are doing your regional food. I’ve written to Dani to come and visit you. I don’t know if she will come, but that’s a humble effort I’ve made to support you guys.’

I still remember he told us that. I had no clue about people coming to write reviews or the Good Food Guide. I had no idea, because I’m not from hospitality. Then one Sunday she came, and she was just like another customer. I think she came midday and was here for a couple of hours. Later on, at three o’clock, I was inside the kitchen. In the initial days, we didn’t have a chef too, so I was managing the kitchen as well. She called me out and said, ‘I would like to write a review on you. I’m from The Age.’ She introduced herself and said she’d send a photographer. She sent a photographer, and then she took my interview on the phone. Even then, I didn’t know it was that big.

Everything happened and they left. Then the photographer brought his family to dine with us. He mentioned, ‘Be prepared.’ The following week the review was being published in The Age. He said, ‘The minute your article is released, you’ll be crazily busy. Make sure you have enough staff, your stock, everything is checked.’ That gave us a heads-up. And we did struggle because most of our team had already gone on holidays. It was January. We struggled, but somehow we managed to get through that busy period. Queues were up until next door, and it was beautiful to watch.

But I feel back then I still lacked knowledge of how to retain that customer. I was just thinking, ‘Okay, today is the day. Let’s make sure this day finishes.’ I didn’t think about a long-term relationship with the customer. I didn’t have that personal touch with the customer. But this time around, I’ve learned lessons. I’ve improved so much. I go and talk to every table. I know about them. I keep track of what they like, what they don’t like. I feel I’m more attentive and more customer-centric than I was.

Do you enjoy it?

I enjoy it. I love it. I enjoy every time, because I feel if I don’t enjoy it, the business will go down. I have to enjoy it. The situation I’m in right now, the amount I have invested, two young kids, and so much financial burden and financial commitments, I have to work it out. That’s the only thing in my mind. For my kids, I have to work it out, I have to come out of it. Make sure we’re doing good. That’s my only motto. How I do it, I have to do it, have to push myself. I tell my husband, ‘We don’t have the luxury to get sick. We don’t have the luxury to rest. The next two years will decide where we’re going to be and what we’re going to do.’

You do some events as well.

We did one whisky tasting event with Amrut. Amrut is also a Bangalore-based distillery. They’ve won a lot of awards in single-malt whiskies. One of their salespeople came to us and spoke to us. They’d like to collaborate and do a whisky tasting event. That was another blessing, like Dani Valent. That was also a blessing for us, because such a big company coming to us, we felt it was an honour. So I threw a grand whisky tasting event for free. Literally, we didn’t charge anyone anything for the event. I did a public video where people could register. We got 400-plus registrations, and then I had to choose among them. The event was very successful. Everyone celebrated, and most of them didn’t know Indian whiskies were so good. When the food pairing came along so well, they were all very happy. And dosa tacos! That day I introduced dosa tacos, for fusion, and based on popular demand I’ve brought them onto the regular menu as well.

That’s cool. I didn’t know there were Indian whiskies either.

Beautiful whisky. Especially their Fusion, it’s a standout.

What brought you to Melbourne in the first place?

That’s my mum’s dream. My mum always wanted someone from our family to go outside India, to settle abroad. In India it’s a thing where one of the kids goes to the US or Australia or somewhere. It’s a big proud moment for the family. No one in my family ever, except my dad, went on a few trips and a few Lions Club meetings and stuff. Apart from that, no one stayed outside. One fine day I was in class studying and the teacher came in and said, ‘Who wants to go to Australia?’ He was just playing with us. The word ‘Australia’ stuck in my mind. Then I told Mum, ‘I need to go to Australia.’ She wanted that anyway, so she wholeheartedly supported me. My dad never wanted me to go. He was like, ‘You’re my only child, my only girl child. How would I?’ Because we didn’t know anyone there. But my mum was like, ‘No, she’s bold enough, we can send her.’ I came here when I was 19 years old.

Wow, so young. Was it a shock?

Because back then the media and internet weren’t as accessible as they are now, I had no idea what the climate was. I landed in June. I had only one single sweater. I didn’t even know the adapters were different, the plugs. I landed and through my uni I had accommodation. A taxi driver took me and dropped me there. She was a Fiji Indian lady, a lovely lady. That was a blessing. She taught me. She took me to Chadstone, my shopping centre, and I bought a Target jacket and an adapter and everything. I still remember those days. So she helped me out. It was very different, very challenging, but I never wanted to give up.

You did your studies here. What kept you here, rather than go home?

Being in this country, this country is very beautiful. Lovely people, lovely culture. And getting PR, permanent residency, I felt that in the future, my kids, if they want to go abroad or anywhere, this passport, whatever I achieve, will help them in future. That motivated me to get my permanent residency. Being from a construction background, it was a lot easier to achieve that. Otherwise getting permanent residency was not easy. That’s how I got that.

How did you meet your husband?

We knew each other, but not very closely. There was a website called Orkut before Facebook, a Google social website. That’s how we met. Then I went to India. I went to India taking all my things, because my parents were like, ‘We need to get you married. You’re not looking for a guy.’ I shipped all my things and went to India. After going to India, I think through matrimony he saw my ad and asked me. Then I spoke to my parents, and they were like, okay. That’s how I got married. Within a year I came back again. My mum always wanted me to settle here.

Have your parents been here?

They keep coming. Recently my dad came for 15 days for a holiday.

They must be so proud.

They’re very proud, very happy. And this is a beautiful country. Who doesn’t want to live in this country? The facilities, everything. These days a few things have changed, but that comes with population. Anywhere you go, it’s part and parcel of the city growing. It comes with a few negatives too. But Melbourne is heaven. People are lovely here, very, very kind.

Whatever I’ve seen, I used to live in the city for six years, all my studying period. Not once did I feel unsafe. I used to come home at three in the morning, four, five, from work. Never once did I feel unsafe. Those things you can’t get anywhere else, I feel. It’s a beautiful country.

You’ve got a motto for the restaurant, ‘Namma Adda Maga’. What does that mean?

That means it’s our joint, it’s our place. Back home, school kids, everyone will have a small shop or a café or somewhere where they all gang up and sit and chit-chat. They call that an adda, a spot. So I wanted this to be a spot for people to come and make it their own.

You must have regular customers now.

We have quite a lot of regular customers. They love it. I know them when I see them. They just raise their hand. I order what they want to eat. I change their menu, whatever I say, they’re more than happy. They’ll sit, whatever I order they’ll eat, they’ll finish, they’ll go. Because they trust so much. And I don’t overdo it. Just because they’re trusting and I need sales, I don’t push them. I know their appetite, most of their appetites, how much they eat. Based on that, I order what new combination they can try. They’re enjoying it, loving it.

When a new person comes in, how do you guide them to get the best Namma Bangalore Vibbes experience?

First thing I definitely ask is their spice level, veg, non-veg, what they like and what they don’t eat, their preferences. Based on that I start suggesting. Normally what happens is when an Australian or non-Indian, or even a non-Bangalorean Indian, walks in, they ask for samosa. I definitely say no. Samosa or aloo pakora, onion bajji, those you find everywhere else, in all other restaurants. That’s for people who only want that. But no, I want you to try something we’re very special with. So they’re like, ‘Okay, I’m open to you. Surprise me.’ Then when the dishes come, they’re so glad I did that. They’re so happy. That’s how I push them not to order their known dishes and to try something new.

What are you looking forward to over the next year or so?

To open another branch.

Oh, of course you are!

West of Melbourne. We plan to, because a lot of customers are requesting it. There’s a big Indian community there and they want Namma Bangalore there. Probably down the line, three months. It needs a bit of work because before opening I need to have a set structure so that both places run identically. I want a person tasting the dish here, and the same person going to another restaurant, tasting exactly the same thing. That’s very difficult to achieve, but I want to achieve that. Only then do I want to open another franchise. Going forward, I’d like to do franchises as well.

Otherwise it’s very difficult to get your money back in hospitality with the amount you’ve invested. You can’t make money in food. Cost of ingredients has gone up, cost of labour has gone up, cost of bills has gone up, and rent, everything. You can’t make money. It’s very difficult. You just make your living, you survive. But the only thing that promises you’ll be okay and growing in hospitality is either franchising or opening another branch with one main kitchen, using the same chef in both places and making extra money there. That’s the only way you’ll be looking at making some money.

How exciting. What you’ve achieved in a year is amazing.

I definitely agree on that. A customer called us. I didn’t even know we were a top-five finalists for the Critics’ Pick of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide Awards 2027. I was doing rosters and a customer called and said, ‘You’ve been picked for the final five, and I want a table tonight to celebrate that.’ Like, ‘Oh, really?’ Then I started investigating and Google mentioned, yes, there you go. It was news given by a customer. I was so happy, because it’s something we didn’t expect would happen. I didn’t know they’d give it to an Indian restaurant. It was beautiful.

That night, when we went to the Good Food Guide awards function, after one and a half, nearly two years of struggling to make this restaurant work, me and my husband never had our own time. That night we forgot everything. We had such a beautiful time. It showed our hard work had paid off. It was beautiful.

Namma Bangalore Vibbes, 118 Koornang Road, Carnegie