Doodh, Where’s My Carbonara?

Doodh creator Nick Regos discusses his love of food, hopes for Dubai’s F&B scene, and doing what makes you happy

What started as simply cooking for himself for his own enjoyment and entertainment at home, very quickly became more serious when Nick Regos started trying recipes out of his comfort zone, flopping, and figuring out where he went wrong.

“I was just honing my skills which graduated to people saying, ‘Hey, you know, that cake you made a couple of weeks ago? Would you make it for my kid’s birthday?’ with an offer to pay me for them. It got to the point where I had to ask myself if it was a viable business or just a hobby.”

Regos came up with the name Doodh after a 90s milk advert in India, the jingle of which remains firmly stuck in his head. “I crafted a logo; I knew exactly what the lettering would look like. I launched it very discreetly on Twitter and people loved it. I built the website, created the menu, and figured out a payment system and it went from there. I want to go from my kitchen to a restaurant or café which is also a speakeasy. I want to create somewhere cosy where people can come in and focus on the food and not necessarily feel like they need to Instagram everything,” he said.

One of the desserts Rego has mastered is ice cream, which pushes the limits with unique flavour combinations. It only took him four batches of vanilla ice cream until he felt confident in using the machine and was able to balance the sweetness.

“Once I had that base mixture right, I knew I could branch out to any flavour, and know exactly how to do it. When it comes to flavours, I love to ask people if they could have any flavour ice cream what would it be? They get taken aback and don’t know what to say because the whole world is open to them,” he said.

DREAMING BIGGER
Doodh is still in the home kitchen phase of Regos’s plan, relying on word of mouth, because the reality of launching a business in the F&B space requires investment, permits, licensing, and a lot of time and energy.

During a holiday in Pittsburgh, he visited a pop-up food incubator similar to Time Out Market Dubai. Instead of restaurants, it hosted aspiring home chefs seeking investment to launch their businesses. They each had a kitchen and a menu, and it gave these individuals a taste of what running their own establishment would be like. More importantly, it allowed investors in the area to sample the menu, see how the kitchen was being run, and ask for a business plan.

“I would love for something like this to exist in Dubai because I know there are so many talented home chefs but there’s nowhere they can go to other than their families and friends. If you give people that opportunity, put them through the basic health and safety courses, tell them how things are supposed to run and give them a week to slum it out in the kitchen running a business, they’ll realise very quickly whether this reality is what they want to pursue or not,” he added.

IGNORING STEREOTYPES
Regos grew up in a home with traditional gender roles where women were in the kitchen and breaking away from that in his teens and early 20s was a hurdle, but he feels men have more freedom now to decide what they want to do with their lives, without being hemmed in by stereotypical roles, attitudes, and belief systems.

“Just as women’s roles evolved over the years men’s roles have also evolved, and nobody out there should criticise you for it. If you want a nine-to-five job and be the breadwinner for your family, do it. If you want to work for a couple of hours a day and then do art classes or musical theatre in the evening, do it. Do what makes you happy. I feel sorry for men who don’t realise that that opportunity is there. Obviously, there may be financial or family obligations but even within those restrictions, there are freedoms that you should allow yourself. I think the sooner men realise that the sooner they can become a better version of themselves.”

Nick Regos’s top 3 things to make:

1. His signature carbonara
   “It is the ultimate comfort food for me.”
2. Dark chocolate cookies
   “They give you a real hit because of the cocoa content.”
3. Chocolate cake
   “I made this cake for a bake sale and it was sold out in 10 minutes.”

This article appeared in Issue 002 – the Men’s Edition