- THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS: 21.10.2009
 In a world where new ideas are vetoed because of doubt, these three city people drew on their most innovative, interesting deep thoughts and gave their passion a bold new direction. Expresso brings you the stories of three pioneers who have changed the way we see Chennai.
- ECONOMIC TIMES: 28.08.2009
OF Jasmine strands and filter coffee: City based website seeks to define and refine the city's palate. We speak to Kavita Chesetty the innovator behind the concept.
 
Chennai’s Online Gourmet Guide: Want to know where to to get your favourite cheese, or that new beverage? Kavita Chesetty’s new online venture hopes to answer all your questions about the city’s chow, from the mouths of experts. The emphasis is on food as an experience to be celebrated.
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- BUSINESS DAILY: 08.05.2009
Gourmet Reckoner: Sravanthi Challapalli, Did you know something called self-lighting barbecue coals existed? If you did, did you know you could get them in Chennai? Never mind, now there’s a new web site promising to be the ‘Food Google’ for the city’s gourmets and gourmands.
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- DECCAN CHRONICLE: 05.05.2009
Online Guide For Chennai's Food Needs -
Renuka Nadkarni
Kavita Chesetty’s passion for food K led her to many things—enrolling for a pastry course in Australia, dabbling in the catering business and now she has launched malli.in, an online food guide for Chennai. The website has everything that one needs to know about food – right from where to buy the best vegetables, to exotic recipes and even stores that retail utensils.
“Malli the flower is closely associated with this city and it is also the short form for kothamalli (coriander leaves) which is an essential ingredient in any kind of cooking,” says Kavita while talking about the name of her site, “I’ve always wanted to know where you get the best of everything, soon I realised that there were a lot more people like me and that’s how I started the site.” She says that it took her almost six months of extensive research to zero in on the content and even though the site has writers contributing to it, Kavita stresses that she goes through everything in detail. “I even ensure that I try out all the recipes posted on the site.” Designed using pleasing colours this portal has various categories that are clearly marked and this also makes it easy for the user to navigate.
The section on where to buy things like organic food, diabetic products, spirits, etc. makes for interesting reading as it saves the viewer a lot of time.
Encouraged by the positive response that the site has received, Kavita has some ambitious plans in mind, “I would like to take this model to other cities as well.
Another thing I want to do is make the site more interactive, get into tie-ups with hotels and still maintain the USP of it being a boutique site,” she smiles.
- METRO PLUS CHENNAI: 04.05.2009
 An Online Food Guide:
Malli, Chennai’s newest food portal, is inviting but needs to do justice to the city’s culinary possibilities.
Chennai is the city of sizzling bajjis on the beach. Of caviar and champagne in stiletto-deep carpeting. Take classes here on everything from sambar-saadham to sangria. Party all night fuelled by mojitoes alone, or spend an entire afternoon polishing a traditional meal off a banana leaf.
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- THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS INDULGE: 01.05.09
As real foodies and those that feign an interest gathered at The Park for the launch of www.malli.in, a gourmet portal by Kavita Chesetty, one thing was clear. Those who truly enjoy food look healthy, while those who claim to be foodies in reality worry too much about their intake.
 Kavita chesetty launched her food website, a.k.a ‘Chennai’s Gourmet Guide’, www.malli.in, at The Park Hotel on April 24th. Kavita asked and answered the question on all our minds, ‘Why Malli?’ ‘Malli,” she says, ‘comes from the word mallipoo (jasmine) which is typically South Indian. It also means coriander,
Which adds freshness to our food. So it seemed the ideal name for a site that is all about food.’ Celebrating with her were friends, all of whom were self proclaimed food aficionados, well-wishers and prominent members of the world of food in Chennai like Chef Willie, Chef Rajesh and Chef Joseph Chahine. Sharan Apparao, of Apparao Galleries, served as Chief Guest for the evening and with the touch of a button the homepage was projected onto the screen.
The website is near and pretty with visually appealing colours of white and green and mouth watering pictures of food flashing on the screen. There are four pages to visit-Home Entertaining, Recipes, Restaurants and Features.
Home Entertaining gives you information on making your parties successful like DJ’s you can hire, bartenders, caterers etc. While the Features page provides you with information about wedding planners, menus and cooking classes in the city. Both the Restaurant page and the Recipe page have what Kavita calls, ‘the Malli rating,’ which is a grade that each recipe or restaurant gets out of five stars. Restaurants are listed alphabetically and by clicking on the name you get information like how to get there and recommended dishes that you must try.
I was fascinated by two special features of the website. The first was the ‘Where Do I Get …’ feature. I cook a lot, sometimes using the recipes that call for unusual ingredients and when I don’t know if they are available in Chennai or where to get them from, I use my creative skills and substitute these ingredients with easily available products. Kavita mentioned that, ‘many of us don’t know that Mascarpone and Chorizo are available,’ but now by visiting www.malli.in we will have the information on our fingertips.
The second feature, the Tiffin Box Planner, had me amused. This planner provides daily menus to leave your kids satisfied. There are recipes provided for each suggested snack which are easy to follow and quick to make, thus ideal for busy moms and dads rushing to get their kids to school as they head off to work. There is also cheat (are you sure this is cheat? What is cheat day) day for the kids! The Tiffin Box Planner will be updated during the working school year.
Kavita and her team have designed www.malli.in to make it accessible to everyone – residents and non-residents of Chennai, those returning to Chennai and those visiting Chennai, the young and the old. Her vision for the site was to share information with everyone from her perspective rather than get into a ‘debate’ about it. It is a fun website with healthy living tips from Vidhya Singh and daily ‘Kappi’ cartoons by Chennai’s very own Biswajit. With Malli as her vehicle Kavita hopes to become the ‘food google of Chennai’.
 Know About Food And Wine, Just Click: FROM a cup of coffee to the best of Chinese food, find out the best restaurants in Chennai. Get more information on cookbooks, television cooking shows, food festivals, recipes
and a lot more, just by sitting at home. The new website, www.malli.in gives a fascinating take on food and drink in and around Chennai. The website was formally launched at a grand event at The Park.
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- DECCAN CHRONICLE - 27.04.09
 Sumptuous Start: The recent launch of a gourmet website, www.malli.in witnessed hoteliers and true blue foodies from Chennai gather in large numbers. Kavita Chesetty, the director of the web portal was a gracious host. The online food guide was unveiled by Sharon Apparao and Omana Thomas. The evening was a potpourri of activities comprising a dose of fine wine and great conversation among the attendees. Sneha and Kanwaljeet, who had specially come down from Bengaluru actively took part in the event. Present at the launch were hotelier Nina Reddy, Vikram Cotah, VP of GRT group, entrepreneurs Kaveri Lalchand and Kiran Rao, Sameer Singala, Madhavi Raj, Manchal and Swathi among others.
- RETAIL PLUS, THE HINDU: 26.04.2009
Website Launch: The launch of www.malli.in at The Park on Friday saw many artists and food enthusiasts like Sharan Apparao, Samir Singla, Kiran Rao, Omana Thomas, V.V. Giri, Mathangi. Kavita Chesetty, who has developed the site, has brought together a team of experts who have created the site that provides us with information on the latest restaurants and gourmet food in Chennai. The launch was well-attended by experts in the food domain and friends of the promoters.
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