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"Most people find it difficult to balance the spices and flavors of chai (tea) in the US market,” observed caterer, culinary author, blogger and instructor Perinaz (Peri) Avari.  A few months ago she deployed her culinary expertise to launch Chai Tea Blends under her banner, Simply Bhonu.
The San Francisco Bay Area resident’s specialty is being promoted as "a premium artisanal tea product, crafted with attention to every detail, paired with my intuitive sense as an Indian native and avid tea drinker.” Distinguishing "Chef Peri’s handcrafted chai blends” are the distinctive "aromas of freshly ground cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg… (along with) small but significant aspects like using ginger root instead of ginger powder, and dried mint and lemongrass…”
The Indian style Masala Chai and the Parsi Choi are the two products included in Avari’s variety boxes. She planned her launch in November 2022, in time for the US holiday season, and was delighted that sales were "stellar since they make a perfect gift for any occasion. At some points during the season I was sold out.”  With single packs of 40 g being sold at $ 8.50 (Rs 704) and the variety box with both blends at $ 18 (Rs 1,490), she found that "during the holiday markets my Parsi Choi… sold more units due to its uniqueness along with the sampling and tea-making demos,” mentioned the entrepreneur when responding to Parsiana’s queries by email. Although she can sell her products anywhere in the world, for the present she has chosen to restrict her market to the US. Currently she does not have any full-time employees. The tea blends are hand packed in small batches in a commercially licensed kitchen in northern California. Preferring to outsource her work, her social media is handled by a virtual assistant in Kenya while her branding is done by a local graphic designer who attends her cookery class.
Besides her Chai venture, Avari continues with her private and corporate classes in Indian and Parsi cooking conducted on virtual platforms from her home kitchen. "During the pandemic, my virtual classes came to life thanks to requests from subscribers of Peri’s Spice Ladle, my food blog which I have been writing since 2012… My classes have attracted hundreds of participants (including Parsis) in the last two years from Europe and India in addition to the US.”
Since all the classes are recorded, those enrolled can refer to the videos at their convenience. Further, she has been conducting corporate experiences with a partner company HungryVX for large organizations like Google, Salesforce, Microsoft and Disney. While she serves as the principal instructor, the participants receive a kit from HungryVX with all the ingredients needed for the cooking experience. "My virtual cooking experiences for making ‘Samosa and Chai’ and ‘Flatbread Making’ can run from groups of 10 senior executives to team events of 300 per session, all cooking along with me!” she stated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I have always wanted to create awareness of Indian and Parsi cooking in the western world and bring artisanal food products to the US market,” maintains 50-year-old, Bombay born Avari. After her early education at St Anne’s in Poona, she completed her schooling from the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Bombay, studied at St Xavier’s College for two years and then joined the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition. She earned her bachelor’s from Bombay University and did an executive management program from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Her career took off once she completed her hospitality training with India’s Taj Hotels. She had opportunities to manage state visits of high-ranking dignitaries and international celebrities like former US President Bill Clinton, scientist Stephen Hawking, supermodel Cindy Crawford and singer Elton John, and even traveled to China to promote Indian food. 
Relocating to the US two decades ago, she took a break from work to raise her sons Varun and Rohaan. She resumed by starting her blog, writing two e-cookbooks Spice Up Your Celebration and Tikka Tikki and Spicy Bites in 2014-15, and co-founding a Silicon Valley corporate catering business, Spice Ladle that she ran for four years. Her dhansak meal specials "would sell out within a day at 300 to 500 orders,” she recalled.
Currently in the process of testing and launching Parsi products like batasa, Parsi cake, dhansak vaghar blend and more in the US market, Avari  acknowledges the inspiration she derived from her maternal grandparents Roshan and Pirojshaw Wellington and paternal grandparents Ratta and Kaikobad Avari who were enterprising individuals. Making her regular meals and special Parsi favorites like bhakras, chapat and caramel pudding, Roshan taught Perinaz the most valuable learning as a chef: "Good food is never about the equipment and gizmos; it always comes from the heart of the person cooking it.”
Family support for Perinaz has also come from her mother Hilla, an insurance advisor with Tata AIA in Bombay and father Pervez, a retired auto-industry veteran who worked with Tata Motors for over 35 years. She has two younger sisters: Delna who launched Delna Avari and Consultants after working with the Tata Group for 15 years while youngest, Mehrnavaz is currently area director of the Taj Hotels in the UK.
Perinaz’s elder son Varun is a sophomore at the University of California Davis doing a double major in arts and math, while younger son Rohaan is a junior in high school. "I use their help for everything from creating web graphics and presentations to helping out in the kitchen, setting up the cameras for classes to packaging the Chai products.”
Currently she is not very active with the Zarthosti Anjuman of Northern California as distances in the Bay area "make it difficult to attend in person meetings.” When she was earlier in Dallas, she would visit the then new center of the Zoroastrian Association of Northern Texas every Sunday "so that the boys could be closely connected with the Zoroastrian community.” She appreciates that "my Parsi community is wonderful at recommending me with pride or helping me spread the word.”