Ramki, a mechanical Engineer from PSG Tech and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, has always been trying to change the way people live.
In his avatar as a garment manufacturer, he invented acron, a two layered fabric with a synthetic outer layer and cotton inner layer, to change the way people dress. Nothing much happened. He quit.
Then, riding the dotcom wave, he founded Schooling India, making all students a part of the same virtual platform, trying to change the way they learn. He went broke before he could realise his dream.
Then he tried changing the way people cook. He got lucky here but it took him over 15 years before it could start happening!
8 years back he started talking about OPOS in Chennai Food Guide and other food forums. A few listened and most mocked. The discussions almost always resulted in heated exchanges, thanks to his belligerent attitude. He soon got kicked out from all these forums.
He started a Facebook group 5 years back. The community managed to remain united by food and saw magic happening. Recipes soon crossed community barriers. Usili appeared in Muslim homes, Nonbu Kanji and Biriyani got cooked in Brahmin homes.
He started the OPOS project with Paneer Makhni in 2014, vowing to create the simplest cookbook ever written. With recipes that would work for anyone, anywhere, anytime. The Paneer Makhni recipe derived its punch by using the no water pressure cooking technique on which the group was working on for a couple of years.
A clone of this recipe was posted in 2016 as Butter Chicken for the Instant Pot and went viral.
For the next 4 years, he would spend an insane amount of time trying to get people to cook the OPOS way. Every day he would track a recipe to its roots, uncovering its key building blocks, showing how it has changed over time. This was necessary to demolish bad recipes hiding under the 'traditional & authentic' cover.
Not all were happy. Some mocked, some left, some were blocked and some became serious students. A core group of homemakers were the first converts and were instrumental in making OPOS techniques respectable, getting more people to try them out.
Soon, magic started happening. With Flash cooking, a key milestone was crossed. He realised how traditional recipes can be dramatically improved. He would spend the next year fine tuning core recipes, across cuisines.
Slowly the OPOS structured lessons took shape. When he was convinced these techniques can work flawlessly for everyone, he opened the OPOS School. The initial few months were tough, as not everyone liked the discipline OPOS demanded. Slowly, a disciplined group culture emerged. A core group of volunteers came up and shouldered the burden of interacting with hundreds of members every single day.
Magic started happening again. Marathis, Gujarathis, Bengalis and many others used OPOS to dramatically simplify their own cuisines, making even more people try out OPOS.
He is now on a mission to take OPOS to the world. To cover all cuisines and cultures.
He believes he has been given a great gift and that it is a sin to hold it back from those who need it. He strongly believes it is his duty and destiny to share the OPOS magic with everyone. To ensure blood, sweat or tears have no place in any kitchen. He is confident it will happen in his lifetime!
