By Tanya Faulkner
After what once started as a food truck in Belgrave, a local restaurant has received top accolades for its home-inspired cuisine.
Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen has recently been hatted, after food critics from The Age paid a surprise visit to the local restaurant in the Hills.
Co-owners, Billy Crombie and Max Kamil Hassan, were both shocked when they found out about the accolade.
Ms Crombie said their journey began around 15 years ago, and she never looked back.
“Max and I met about 15 years ago, when I was travelling in South India.
“He had a restaurant in Kerala, overlooking the Arabian Ocean, which was quite beautiful.
“I just fell in love with him,” she said.
It took a few years for Ms Crombie to convince Mr Hassan to move to Australia.
“He lived in paradise over there,” she said.
The pair moved to Australia together in the early 2010s, moving back to her home in the Hills in Monbulk, with Mr Hassan making the move back into work in hospitality.
Ms Crombie said things were tough in the beginning for her partner.
“He started working in hospitality right at the bottom.
“It was hard because he was underpaid, felt like he wasn’t being respected, and started to become really miserable.
“To go from owning a restaurant to working at the bottom, is quite a tough move.
“I said to him, ‘if you’re going to survive in this country, we have to start a business,” she said.
Though the pair had no money in the bank, they decided to start cooking Dosa – an Indian lentil pancake – and would sell it at the local markets.
Ms Crombie said they had no idea what they were doing.
“Max called his mum back in India to find out how to make Dosa, and we took it to the Upper Ferntree Gully market and the Belgrave Big Dreams Market.
“The CFA had an extreme fire risk day that day, and we didn’t understand what that meant or what we needed to have with us,” she said.
From there, the pair endeavoured to take on bigger events, starting to sell their Dosa at the Queen Victoria Night Market for quite some time, and music festivals around the state, including the Golden Plains Music Festival.
Eventually, the pair managed to settle in a takeaway store in Belgrave’s main centre on Burwood HIghway, opening Babaji’s Kitchen to the HIlls.
For them, it was the chance to bring new cuisine and culture to locals in the Hills.
Ms Crombie said a lot of locals don’t know about South Indian cuisine, but they stuck to their guns and wanted to bring their authentic food to the Hills.
“Most Australians think of Indian food as just being butter chicken or chicken tikka, but that’s not what South Indian food is all about,” she said.
The pair’s journey took a turn just before covid, which Ms Crombie said was the push they needed to take the next step.
“Just before covid we got the opportunity to take over the laundromat which was next to our takeaway store.
“My brother, who owns Sooki’s, said he wanted some extra storage space and that he would go halves with us.
“I was too scared to do it, but I agreed.
“After I signed the lease, he said he didn’t want it, which was intended all along to make us take the step and open up the restaurant,” she said.
Shortly after opening, the Covid19 pandemic hit Victoria, causing more challenges for the new restaurant.
Ms Crombie said most of their staff at the time were non-residents, so they didn’t have the same support as other businesses may have in the area.
“That was the fire in my belly to do something.
“We look after our staff and we’re very much a family.
“We had all of these international students who couldn’t go home and couldn’t survive in the country,” she said.
The pair started delivering their food across the Yarra Ranges, all the way up to Kings Cliff, which Ms Crombie said opened new doors to a new community, and the introduction of Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen as it stands today.
Their experience through Covid19 made Ms Crombie realise they needed to focus more on the food of Max’s childhood, and bring his true regional cuisine to Belgrave and Victoria.
“There is lots of regional cuisine in India that Australians don’t know about, we just don’t get it here.
“We wanted to promote the food of Kerala, which got us noticed by the Melbourne – Kerala community, who regularly come to visit us,” she said.
The years of hard work has paid off for the pair, who have now opened their second premise in Warburton, and deliver authentic Keralian food to the Hills.
Ms Crombie said receiving recognition from The Age and being hatted was both shocking and amazing.
“We are one of only two Indian restaurants in Victoria to have received a hat.
“The Age said their reasoning came down to the whole experience they had with us.
“They said it came down to our staffs’ ability to share information and recommend different Kerala dishes to them,” she said.
Ms Crombie and Mr Hassan have a team of 22 staff between their premises, including Keralian chefs and local young adults, all sharing a passion for their craft.
“I am so proud of our staff being able to share about the Kerala food to whoever it was that came in.
“We are proudly diverse, which makes us quite unique.
“Max isn’t a trained chef, he just cooks the food he knows from home.
“Sometimes he still has to call his mum to ask her how to make something,” she said.
Ms Crombie said she hopes other smaller businesses and restaurants in the Hills will also have their opportunity to be recognised at this level, just as they have.
“Most of the restaurants who are recognised or hatted are fine dining restaurants.
“This recognition goes to show that good food doesn’t have to be ‘fine’ food – good food can come from small businesses as well.
“It’s about the recognition of little food stalls and the hard work they do,” she said.
Ms Crombie said they are both very grateful for the recognition, their staff, and ultimately the support that their community has given them over the years.
