Nila Mehta

domestic worker

Gujarati snack ghugra

tirangi dhokla

gram flour dhokla

social media stream

With Nila Mehta’s passing, SoBo has lost its fine farsan flavour

One of the city’s first home-based chefs,introduced the city to Gujarati favourites; leaves behind a legacy of fond food memories.The first time I heard of Nila Mehta was when my children were little,” says 70-year-old Pedder Road resident Reema Aswani, who is now the grandmother of two teenagers. Aswani recalls some of her neighbours told her there was a Gujarati woman who delivered dhokla, khandvi to one’s door. “I didn’t order anything at that time. After I had tried her food at my neighbours’ homes, we would order different things from her regularly for small dinners, and family gatherings,” says Aswani, adding that a maleat her home, in fact, even took some of Mehta’s bhel back to his village in UP once, some 15 years ago. “He said it was expensive, but so delicious that he wanted to take some back for his family,” says Aswani, who, like many regular customers, was surprised to find Mehta’s Pedder Road store closed on Tuesday.Mirror has learnt that the senior citizen, who was among the city’s original home-based entrepreneurs, passed away two days ago. She had been in the business of preparing and marketing homemade dhokla, khandvi, bhel puri, sev puri, and assorted farsan like samosas and the, for 45 years. One of her hottest sellers was a ‘’, in which Mehta’s special dhokla chutney was sandwiched between layers of khaman () and white dhokla.According to one of Mehta’s old posts on a, she started her little home-based business in 1974. Her first product was ‘dhokla’, and she sold it door-todoor. Today, Mehta stores are found across the city, including Kemp’s Corner, Cuffe Parade and Pedder Road. Her Facebook page has hundreds of messages from regular customers in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Kolkata, with Tripadvisor reviewers wholeheartedly recommending the place to foreigners.Asha Mulchandani, a Worli resident in her 60s, remembers sampling Mehta’s products for the first time some 40 years ago. “It was at a Sindhi woman’s home in Opera House, and I remember she told me about this lady. My host said she would lower a basket and Mehta would fill it with the snacks, and then she’d pull it up in through the window,” says Mulchandani, who became a regular customer over the years. “Even right now, I have her chutneys – the green, yellow and red ones – in my freezer,” says Mulchandani.Mala Nanwani, a home-maker based in Jakarta, heard about Mehta from friends and has been a regular customer for over two decades now. She tells Mirror that for her no trip to Mumbai is complete unless she returns with packets of Mehta’s bhel “and mainly the chutney that goes with it”. Asha Mehta, a 48-year-old resident of Mahalaxmi, adds that Mehta’s bhel is good, “but her chutney is the best I’ve ever eaten”.Mehta’s recipes will, no doubt, continue to be appreciated by the next generation of food lovers, as her family steps in to manage the business that she built out of her kitchen. But the city will certainly lose more than some of its flavour with the demise of this enterprising Gujarati chef.