Tucked away in a little lane off Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru, is ‘Eating Love,’ a pizzeria founded in 2018 by Jaydev Vyas and Niharika Peri. While it may be one in a handful of purely vegetarian pizza places in the city, what makes it unique are its pizza boxes — they feature the work of budding artists.
Niharika, who worked in an art gallery in Chennai for a few years before joining an art magazine, felt she could carve a similar niche for herself when she had to relocate to Bengaluru. However, when things did not pan out, she turned to her passion for baking.
“I am quite fond of bread and during any of my jaunts in Europe, I would try out the different breads available there. I had always wanted to learn how to bake and since I had decided to give this a try, I took classes from Antonio Scirocco, an Italian chef based in Puducherry. He also guided me on the best brick ovens and even built one for us.“
“I wanted to create something wholesome and decided at the onset that ‘Eating Love’ would be good for the tastebuds as well as the stomach. That is how we included whole wheat bases as well as gluten-free, vegan, Jain and eggless options in our menu.”
“As a vegetarian, I have often faced a dearth of options. Once I had decided on ‘Eating Love,’ I began connecting with people in the city to source cheeses, vegetables, olive oil and herbs. Today, our pizzas feature greens such as kale, watercress, arugula and fresh oregano with a combination of cheeses such as stracciatella, smoked scarmoza and chevre.”
Art by Kanika Agarwal featured on Eating Love pizza boxes | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After another stint in Puducherry to learn the nuances of making sourdough pizza, Niharika launched ‘Eating Love’. Just as they were settling in, COVID-19 hit. “Suddenly there was a lack of conversation, that personal touch with customers was lost. Orders from delivery platforms were no match for personal interaction,” she says. While powwowing with Latheesh Lakshman, a friend of hers, the duo came up with an idea to create pizza boxes which could be conversation starters. Latheesh, a design director in the advertising industry for close to 13 years, met Niharika when she was working with the art magazine. “There is a fine difference between art and design; it lies in how you conceive an idea and explain or display it irrespective of the medium,” he says, adding, “My taste in art has always centred around design — it might not necessarily qualify as fine art.”
According to Kochi-based Latheesh, an image appearing on a box needs to blend art and design. And the works of the three artists Niharika and he zeroed in on reflect a fine graphic form and layout sense.
“When COVID-19 hit, there was no chance for people to go to galleries; this was one way art could reach them. While we decided to showcase interesting and unusual artists, the ones we chose had not exhibited their work in the mainstream art world and this was a good chance to showcase their work.”
He says the work of Mumbai-based artist Kanika Agarwal who works with collages perfectly mirrored how a pizza is made. “It comprises bits and pieces of different ingredients and I found the parallel interesting.”
Reshidev R K who hails from Kerala, is currently based in the United States and has a background in design and illustration. “His works display a sense of balance and are well laid out. I was trying to identify that kind of artistic sense. Besides, it looks well on a box,” says Latheesh.
Art by Reshidev R K featured on Eating Love pizza boxes | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The third artist was Jyothi Venugopal from Bengaluru. “I have seen her work on social media and used to marvel at how unique her style was. I was scouting for the right opportunity to showcase her style and it came with Eating Love,” he says.
“I wanted to draw attention for them because an artist needs an audience and when there are no galleries, no conversations evolve and it gets quite depressing,” says Niharika.
Apart from these images appearing on the pizza boxes, the originals are on display at ‘Eating Love’ and are available for purchase.
According to Niharika, in the event a painting is sold, the boxes with that work of art printed on it will continue in the delivery of pizzas till stocks last. “We will feature three other artists the next time we are placing an order for boxes. The idea is to build a gallery on our website, irrespective of whether the art gets sold,” she says.
To view the work of participating artists, log on to eatinglove.co.in
Published - February 22, 2022 03:57 pm IST
