Madhura's Journey As a Businesswoman

Madhura's Journey

People say, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”; I on the other hand was more focused on turning those lemons into achaar, lemon rice, lemon muffins, and much more! My name is Madhura , I am a YouTube chef and a businesswoman.

YouTube chef! Who knew there would come a time when you could introduce yourself with a career like that!

I am sure all of you are thinking that you are looking at an expert chef, who has been into cooking even before she could think of anything else, but what if I told you that I never really cooked or knew very much about cooking before I got married? Surprised! Well, let me tell you why.

Madhura's Journey

YouTube chef! Who knew there would come a time when you could introduce yourself with a career like that!

Journey

I am a product of a rough childhood, where making ends meet was difficult, but it was a job that had to be done at any cost. My whole life revolved around college, work, and freelance opportunities to make as much money as possible. While early mornings were dedicated to college, the rest of my day was dedicated to a 9-6 job and evenings were for taking up freelance appointments like Mehendi and rangoli designing.

I had spent 8 years of my life climbing the corporate ladder, and by the time I reached the right age for marriage, I was working a good job, in a good position. I was financially independent, my family was in a good place, and I was ready for a companion.

Marriage and More

My marriage process was an arranged one, and in between the cups of tea and hot samosas I met Mangesh in the year 2006, the man who became an irreplaceable part of my life and what I do. Mangesh bagged an on-site opportunity in the United States of America in the year 2007, and we were on our way to the windy city of Chicago to rebuild our lives on a stronger foundation.

Once we were there and settled, the professional in me could not sit idle. I was quick to land myself a job in a reputed bank and I was back to my 9-6 routine. With my new marriage, new home, new country, and a new job, I was also exploring my new love for cooking in my free time.

Experiments

I had never explored cooking before marriage, because I never really had the time, but after marriage I found myself some time to indulge in trial and error to improve my cooking skills. I developed an interest in Marathi cuisine, and experimented in my free time to get the aroma and taste right.

In between all these developments came the news of my pregnancy that changed my life for good. I worked until the very last day of my pregnancy, 9 months and 9 days to be exact, through peak winter, until my daughter was born in year 2008.

I had never explored cooking before marriage because I never really had the time, but after marriage, I found myself some time to indulge in trial and error to improve my cooking skills. I developed an interest in Marathi cuisine and experimented in my free time to get the aroma and taste right.

Entry into the Digital World

As a new mother, I decided to resign and spend my time taking care of my daughter and making a career shift. While I was dealing with this confusion, the world saw the launch of an internet-breaking platform – YouTube. What was initially just a video streaming platform, slowly saw people finding ways to make their presence known around the globe.

I was curious, very very curious, and the home chef in me started hunting down cooking videos and recipes. I was amazed at the number of videos I came across. From South Indian, Punjabi, Gujrathi, to Chinese, French, Mexican, I found recipes to bring to life dishes from around the world, but upon detailed research, I realized that YouTube was missing the flavors of Marathi cuisine! I searched and searched but could not find recipes that would touch Maratha’s hearts, and this is when the writer, producer, businesswoman, and YouTuber in me was born.

The Inception of Madhura's Recipe

I combined my love for cooking and my love for my native place to begin a channel that I did not know would receive the kind of response that it did.

From shooting with cameras around the house to using table lamps for lighting, we managed to make the best out of household items and put out videos that reflected Marathi cuisine on YouTube.

YouTube as a platform was not very famous in India at this time in 2010 but the response, I received for my videos was amazing. I received comments from India, America, Mexico, France, and other continents from across the globe. While I was using English to communicate with my audiences, the primary focus of my channel was to make Marathi cuisine global and upon getting comments from international viewers, I knew I was on the right track.

Madhura’s Recipe

Growth and New Additions

My First channel MadhurasRecipe was doing well. I got the silver button for crossing the 100K mark and started earning after 3 years of consistent effort and hard work.

After spending close to 7 years we decided to come back to India in the year 2013. I spent 6 years on YouTube making videos in English and the response was great but in the year 2016, I decided to use my mother tongue and launched the Marathi version of my channel, which hit 1 million subscribers in just 18 months and crossed 4 million in less than 4 years! And here we are, this is how Madhura’s Recipes Marathi was born.

Madhurasrecipe is the first Marathi YouTube channel to have crossed 4 million subscribers. This channel boasts of over 3,000 unique recipes with a cumulative millions of views. While these recipes are largely Maharashtrian, Madhura has mastered almost any dish you can imagine, from international cuisine to desi street food. The good news is, with Madhurasrecipe, anyone can master cooking! Across different platforms, over 7 million people follow Madhurasrecipe.

Products

After working hard, for over 9 years on YouTube, and building a strong fanbase, we decided to launch products that would bridge the gap between Marathi cuisine and our viewers. I worked on a recipe book in Marathi and about Marathi cuisine. This book was launched in 2018 to bring our fans closer to their

When you attract a fan base as big as 7 million subscribers, you want to make sure you keep them happy, and when we came across feedback where our home-chefs were unable to get the desired color or texture to their recipes, we knew we had to work on a solution. We worked on a line of spices and masalas that are the basic requirement for Marathi cuisine.

We wanted to launch this line of aromatic spices that would work beautifully with traditional Marathi recipes which were once prepared by our grandmothers and great grandmothers. Through the launch of these products we not only built strong awareness around Marathi flavors but also made Madhura’s Recipe the first and only brand on YouTube in India to introduce products in its own brand in the year 2018.

The Conclusion

We had come up with the highly popular concept of “Angat Pangat” aimed at preserving authentic Maharashtrian cuisine. My main objective has always been to share authentic Maharashtrian recipes with the world which I am doing in three languages – Marathi, Hindi, and English.

After working for 10 years, I feel this is just the start and a long way to go. Enjoy this website for various delicious, homemade, easy recipes that can be easily cooked with available ingredients at your home. Remember to drop your comments and suggestions which will help us to improve and make this website and content better.

– Thank You