Today we’d like to introduce you to Poornima Noubad. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Vittle Vibes is a vegetarian and vegan-inspired food truck with an Indian fusion menu located in North Austin and run by Chef Poornima Omkant.
Growing up in the Southern part of India, Poornima loves cooking vegetarian and vegan delights for her family and friends. Her family has always encouraged and appreciated her various vegetarian continental dishes. In fact, her favorite part about cooking is seeing the smiles on her family’s and friends’ faces when they take a bite of her masterpiece.
Her passion for cooking began in her early childhood watching her mom cook for a big family! Testing her creative mind, she became fascinated with the new inventions and art she could create by using striking ingredients and fashioning captivating recipes. From there, she began to research, learn, and experiment with a variety of ingredients, whether it was mixing two types of cuisines or making a completely new dish. As time went by, she improved greatly in cooking and began developing her own special recipes that she can teach both of her lovely daughters.
In 2013, she started a blog and Facebook page, Poornima’s Cuisine, a place for food enthusiasts to discover and learn how to make vegetarian and vegan dishes. She held many cooking/baking summer camps for kids and appeared as a speaker and demonstrator at the Texas VegFest’s Youth Cooking Demo for several years. Poornima has also garnered recognition with her numerous award-winning recipes from multiple online contests. Within the past two years, she also held Indian cooking demos at St. Edward’s University for their international cultures class and was a part-time professional chef instructor in after-school enrichment classes for kids. She enjoys the satisfactory feeling of the overall taste and appearance of her food art and is always on a hunt for exotic tastes to enhance her culinary art. Crafting food is a type of art that has always interested her. There’s no limit to formulating new cookeries!
With that in mind, after resigning from her IRS job late 2019, she was finally able to work on opening her dream food truck and making something of her own, yet again testing her creative mind. She believes you have to be passionate, loving and serving-minded to choose this type of work. Nothing is permanent so being happy is her key of motivation through cooking, feeding everyone with love.
Today, Chef Poornima uses her love for cooking and style of combining recipes from around the world as an inspiration for her delicious Indian fusion menu for her newly opened Vittle Vibes food truck!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have always wanted to open my own food business as I enjoy cooking and feeding everyone around me! In 2019, we came up with the idea of opening an Indian vegan/vegetarian food truck after driving around the city and discovering its need! It was exciting, but unfortunately, when our food truck was ready to launch in February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, we did a soft launch in April 2020 to help our Austin community get the food they need! As COVID-19 has caused some stressful times, we also had moments where we supplied the community with delicious free surprises! At the time, we did take-out, opening only on weekends for safety precautions. It was tough the first year, as it was very challenging finding the right people to work with us. So, we decided to operate as a family business for the time being. My husband and my two daughters help and encourage me a lot by doing whatever they can! I never considered myself a business person, so I have been learning everything the hard way. Every week, I learn new things, especially from making mistakes. Although it doesn’t matter how stressful the week might have been, it always feels rewarding when I get messages from customers personally thanking us for the delicious food at the end of the day! Now, we have been building a great customer base with new people joining us each weekend! It’s been such a pleasure serving our community and seeing all the happy faces.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I always enjoy experimenting with traditional recipes by tweaking it and making it my own. I love fusing different cuisines together and creating new ideas. Whenever I watch reality and competition cooking shows, I always get really excited to try new recipes right away. My kitchen is full of various spices. When I travel, I love exploring new vegetarian and vegan places. It’s one of the ways I get inspired to try new recipes at home. A lot of our customers, family and friends encouraged me to write a book which is in progress now.
What matters most to you?
“Quality food and great customer service is our motto”.
Contact Info:
- Email: VittleVibes@gmail.com
- Website: www.VittleVibes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vittlevibes/
- Facebook: VittleVibes
Image Credits:
Noubad family
