There is no one more fun and energetic than Shom Chowdhury, the founder of one of our new favorite eateries, Indie Fresh. Their menu offers high quality American-style Indian food that combines unique flavors, like broccoli and coconut or lentil and hemp. We sat down with Shom to ask him a bit about his innovative culinary concept. While make-your-own salad bars and juice shops saturate most NYC blocks, it's not often you stumble upon a healthy and modernized Indian-style menu. If you haven't tried Indie Fresh, we highly recommend giving it a go. So much so that we're offering you a discount code at checkout - TOVITA10. Our personal favorites? Try the tomato, lentil, and hemp heart soup with the Bison burger (add a fried egg) and you'll thank us later!
What influenced you to start Indie Fresh?
I was working as the COO of Juice Press selling juices and raw food, which was great for helping people reach a health goal, but I found that juicing and raw food was not sustainable for most people. I wanted to offer food that people can enjoy every day that tastes good.
What is the Indie Fresh motto?
Well, our tag line is "chef prepared, nutritionist approved." To dig deeper into that, all of our products can be a sustainable meal in itself, and our juices are the accessories.
What does a day in the life of Shom Chowdhury look like?
Sweat once a day is a rule I live by and encourage everyone else to follow. I always do cardio in the morning, anything else in the day is "gravy". I usually do another activity like Barry's Bootcamp or Flywheel later in the day. I try to get at least three of the two a day workouts per week. When I do that I just feel my energy increases unbelievably. I really eat mostly Indie Fresh, besides when I go out for dinner and enjoy a bourbon. At work, we are facing unchartered territory every day. There is always a new challenge, and right now we are looking at all of our opportunities and cherry picking those that have the highest impact.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I like to say I'm a recovering management consultant. After that I went to Juice Press which introduced me to the food and beverage world, and I started Indie Fresh last November.
What is your favorite restaurant in NYC right now?
Definitely Seamore's. I'm Bengali so I grew up eating a lot of fish and Seamore's is all fished locally. I really love every single thing on the menu, which is rare.
Any story behind all the tattoos?
I wish I had a better story but growing up I always thought I'd be in a band and I just thought it was a cool thing to do. My latest one is my wife's name on neck. She's Russian, they get their claws in you one way or another.
Where do you see indie fresh in the next 5-10 years?
For the past year, we have been focused on perfecting our menu. All of our products have been through probably 20-40 changes until they are just right. Now we are moving to a new handling facility that will allow us to be able to distribute our product nationally. We want Indie Fresh to be available in grocery stores and anywhere that is offering healthy food. We want everyone to have access. Whether you want it delivered, available at your grocery store, or even on your flight to LA or Europe, our goal is all access. We also are getting a new smart fridge where you can swipe a credit card and take the product out without using a cash register. Pretty cool.
Any last things you want people to know about Indie Fresh?
I want everyone to understand that you can eat healthy every day. It doesn't need to be a plan or program. Health is sustainable.