chennai for the past five years subhashini sen has been whipping up her signature dishes for friends and neighbours but since the lockdown began the selfstyled home chef is getting more requests from other residents of the sprawling apartment complex she lives inpeople are tired of their own cooking and want something different tasty and safe says subhashini who lives in anna nagar earlier i didnt do it on a daily basis now i put up the menu for the week on the whatsapp group for residents and take orders twice or thrice a week sen whose culinary repertoire includes meat loaf shepherds pie lasagne and stuffed vada pav says she has been selling plenty of bread brownies ice cream and soups like minestrone which is fillingwith the lockdown getting extended many families are not just tired of the daily cooking but also eager to try out different dishes so home chefs and bakers are doing brisk business especially in their own apartment complexes and neighbourhoods as with a pandemic raging people feel getting their grub from the neighbour is safer than ordering it from hotel kitchens mondays are busy for me so every week i order food from a home chef i know where the food is coming from and its healthy wholesome fare says academic coordinator seema balachandran of pallikaranaimohamed ismail who launched wwwwatscookingcom which connects clients to home chefs says they have been deluged with calls during lockdown we have tied up with 11500 home chefs across india and have 66000 registered users we have been getting requests from people who want to get in touch with a home chef in their locality as they will know if the area is safe or not he saysshantha sridharan 77 for instance has been providing food to people in her locality in saidapet for about 40 years i do it on a small scale and generally stick to my regulars but now i am getting new requests and dont turn them down if its from families who really need help recently someone had a death in their family so i agreed to provide food says shantha who supplies breakfast lunch and dinnerhome bakers are also very much in demand now one of them is vanditha kamal who lives in an apartment complex in mogappair earlier my orders were for parties now families who want desserts such as cupcakes brownies or celebration cakes for birthdays or other special occasions get in touch with me says vanditha adding that there is also more demand for healthy cakes made of alternate flours and sugar i use whole wheat flour or ragi and brown sugar or jaggeryhome bakers and chefs are consciously restricting the orders they take on i get about 15 orders every time i post a menu and i keep it that way says subhashini after all the ingredients have to be available and i also have the washing up to do