September 09 2026
Shivani Sharma: Building a millet-focused food business for healthier eating in India and the UAE
(Sep 9, 2026) Chef Shivani Sharma has taken her Indian-origin food philosophy from a single kitchen in Mumbai to a multi-city business and, most recently, an international operation in the UAE. With a culinary certification from Le Cordon Bleu, London, she has used natural millets to reimagine everyday foods, contributing to India’s growing focus on millet-based food for healthier living. Her products have also been supplied to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Shivani Sharma always wanted to be a chef. She was eight when she bought her first cookery book by renowned cooking instructor Nita Mehta and learnt to cook Indian dishes. The idea of transforming raw ingredients into an entire, satisfying meal — fascinated her.
Otherwise, she would spend hours in the kitchen watching her mother and grandmother cook. Shivani learnt to observe and, more importantly, to sense. She stayed true to her vision, worked towards it and eventually became a chef.
“The best cooking comes from combining instinct with knowledge. Experience tells you what feels right, while technique allows you to execute it well,” smiles Shivani, Chef-Entrepreneur and Founder of Maison Gourmestan, in a chat with The Global Indian.
That early fascination with food eventually grew into Maison Gourmestan, which Shivani founded with the vision of turning everyday kitchen essentials into an experience and making Indian-origin natural millets a part of daily living. What began with a kitchen in Mumbai in 2016 expanded to Delhi and Goa in 2021, followed by Kolkata in 2022 and the UAE in 2025.
Today, the food business makes and supplies everyday food essentials, from millet-based breads and batters to crackers, cheese, cakes and other baked products, while also operating café and kitchen formats in select locations. Its UAE expansion marks the latest chapter in the journey, taking Gourmestan’s Indian-origin food philosophy to an international market.
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Culinary education
Shivani studied at MGD Girls’ School and then went to Sophia College in Mumbai. She later studied at the London School of Economics before following her heart to Le Cordon Bleu, London, where she earned a culinary certificate. “Each experience broadened my perspective in a different way, but my connection with food had begun much earlier, at home.”
Her mother and grandmother were a huge influence on her. “I learnt a great deal about cooking from both of them, and the kitchen was always a space where I felt comfortable and curious,” says Shivani, whose early experiences gave her an appreciation for home cooking and for the role food plays in bringing people together.
Long before she could explain why something worked, she could sense when it did. She began understanding food through its aromas, the way flavours come together, the contrast of textures and the different layers that develop as something cooks.
In my growing up years, I learnt to recognise when an aroma was right, when a flavour needed more depth or balance, and when a texture had reached the point it needed to. That sensory instinct has stayed with me.
Shivani Sharma
Over the years, that childhood interest developed into a professional career, and her culinary experience took her across very different areas of food. “I have worked with cakes, boulangerie, confectionery, artisan breads, sourdough, puff pastry, crackers, biscotti, cheese and everyday food products.”
Each requires a different understanding of ingredients, technique and texture, and Shivani enjoyed that variety.
From culinary training to food product innovation
Le Cordon Bleu, London, was an important turning point in Shivani’s journey because it gave structure to something that had always been a passion for her.
“Until then, cooking was something I loved and had grown up doing. At Le Cordon Bleu, I learnt to approach it with the discipline and precision required in a professional kitchen.” Her training taught her that cooking is as much about consistency and attention to detail as it is about creativity.
“You have to understand your ingredients, respect technique and be able to reproduce the same quality repeatedly.”
The experience also broadened the way she thought about food. It made her realise that culinary expertise can extend far beyond a restaurant kitchen. “You can use that knowledge to develop products, understand ingredients differently and think about how food can reach a much larger audience.”
That perspective has stayed with Shivani throughout her career and has become particularly relevant as Maison Gourmestan has evolved from a culinary business into a wider food and FMCG enterprise.
From Mumbai to multiple cities, with millets at its core
Maison Gourmestan was launched in 2016 with a simple business proposition conceived by Shivani to create healthier versions of everyday foods without asking consumers to compromise on taste. “We started with a single kitchen in Mumbai, bringing together nutrition, flavour and convenience.”
Millets soon became an important part of Shivani’s product development, allowing her to rethink familiar foods while retaining their taste and functionality. From there, the business began to expand.
“We entered Delhi in 2021, during the pandemic, supplying everyday kitchen essentials to conscious households.” Later that year, Gourmestan expanded into Goa with a café and kitchen, followed by Kolkata in 2022.
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A diverse portfolio of institutional and individual clients
“The nature of our business also evolved through the clients we worked with.” Alongside its geographic expansion, Gourmestan developed a diverse portfolio of institutional, corporate and high-profile individual clients, which included leading names across Indian business, entertainment and sports.
The company also supplied government and institutional clients, including the Prime Ministers Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs. “This breadth of experience has enabled Gourmestan to cater to requirements ranging from individual and bespoke orders to institutional and large-scale supply.”
Millets and the better-for-you food portfolio
A particularly important part of her work has been developing products with millets.
Millets behave very differently depending on how you use them, so working with them requires an understanding of structure, texture and flavour, as well as how to retain the qualities people love about familiar foods.
Shivani Sharma
That is what she finds most exciting about culinary development — taking something people already know and enjoy and finding a way to make it more thoughtful without losing the sensory experience that makes it satisfying.
Shivani says it’s FMCG portfolio includes better-for-you versions of everyday categories such as breads, crackers, biscotti and puff pastries, alongside cheese, batter, confectionery and other bakery products.
Maison Gourmestan’s UAE expansion
“The UAE represents the next significant stage of the brand’s evolution,” says Shivani of her cloud kitchen and cafe in Dubai.
Maison Gourmestan entered the UAE market in 2025, taking their Indian-origin food philosophy into an international market while simultaneously establishing the infrastructure to support larger-scale production. Importantly, the UAE strategy goes beyond a retail or food-service presence.
Maison Gourmestan is developing a manufacturing-led platform across multiple food categories, including dedicated facilities for cheese and cream cheese, a batter plant capable of producing both fresh liquid and dehydrated formats of the brand’s signature millet batters, and a confectionery manufacturing facility designed to cater to the aviation sector.
“This infrastructure is being developed to serve a diversified customer base spanning aviation, educational institutions, government offices, supermarkets and both B2B and B2C channels.”
“The expansion marks a shift from a predominantly culinary and central-kitchen operation towards a broader food manufacturing and FMCG enterprise.” By developing its own production capabilities, Shivani aims to strengthen scale, consistency and distribution while creating greater opportunities across institutional, retail and international markets.
The UAE operations provide a foundation for serving institutional and consumer markets while creating a platform for wider regional and international expansion.
Shivani Sharma
Future plan: To launch a culinary school in the UAE
Shivani’s immediate focus is on building Maison Gourmestan into a home-essential FMCG brand and strengthening their manufacturing capabilities in the UAE. One of the projects she is particularly excited about is her planned culinary school in the UAE, with a specialised focus on FMCG product development.
“The idea is to go beyond conventional culinary training and explore how culinary knowledge can be translated into commercially viable products, from formulation and innovation to manufacturing and scale,” she says.
“I have been interested in food my entire life, but today I find myself equally interested in what food can become. That is where I see the next chapter of my journey,” she signs off.
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Written By: Mallik Thatipalli