• Naveed Cader and Nadeem Rajabdeen of Food Studio 

The last five years have seen an immense amount of change, not just in the broader sense of what we as a nation have been through, but in terms of our culture as well, especially our food culture.

One aspect of our food culture that has developed these past five years is our food court culture. In the old days, a food court wasn’t seen as an experience in and of itself, but that has changed, and, in many ways, this is because of the efforts of two visionaries who wanted to bring the culture of the food courts of Singapore and South Asia to Colombo. 

Naveed Cader and Nadeem Rajabdeen founded Food Studio in September 2018, almost exactly five years ago with this vision, and now, five years later, The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with this entrepreneurial duo for a chat on what the Food Studio journey has been like and a taste on what’s coming next. 

The beginnings of Food Studio

Food Studio was born out of Naveed and Nadeem’s vision to revitalise food court culture amidst Colombo’s rapidly-growing mixed-use developments like Colombo City Centre (which opened in 2018), One Galle Face Mall (2019), and Havelock City Mall (which opens later this year).

Before launching Food Studio, Naveed and Nadeem were friends who bonded over a shared love of food. The two had often discussed the possibility of opening an internationally-branded food court someday – similar to the ones they had visited in places like Singapore and Malaysia. 

“My family is primarily in the cinema business and Food Studio initially came about when I realised there was the development of a mall (Colombo City Centre) taking place. We were already looking at it as a space for innovative cinema experiences,” Naveed explained.

“I then happened to meet Lim Tai Toon, one of the founders of Food Republic – a food court that we had always aspired to be like. Long story short, I met Toon through a mutual friend and while it was initially a challenge to convince him to consider Sri Lanka, there was a sheer determination in him as well to do something unique given the development of mall culture in Sri Lanka. He felt the growth potential we all felt.” 

With Toon coming in as Chairperson of Food Studio, Naveed then reached out to Nadeem to partner in this vision of developing food court experiences within Sri Lanka’s growing mall culture, set to boom even further with the impending opening of the One Galle Face Mall as well as the Havelock City Mall.

“We saw the opportunity to create Sri Lanka’s first food court operator – Food Studio – and manage the food courts in these three malls,” Nadeem said.

In running Food Studio, Naveed took on the role of Managing Director, focusing on building structures of working, finance, and strategy, while Nadeem took on the role of CEO, focusing on daily operations, the product itself, working with tenants, and building teams. 

The Food Studio concept

“What we wanted most to achieve in a food court space was variety in a common seating area; to be able to attract people from different demographics and walks of life and give them enough choice to come and choose whatever they wanted to eat,” Nadeem explained, outlining Food Studio’s first core vision. 

He added that overall, what Food Studio did was elevate the experience of food court dining by giving it a more restaurant-like quality.

Key within how Naveed and Nadeem designed the Food Studio experience was looking at the culture that develops around malls – the culture of stopping in during the workday for lunch or to pick up something to go, the culture of sitting down to enjoy a delicious meal while shopping, tourism, and the ability to showcase a variety of local and international cuisine to travellers. 

Above all was wholesome food. “People love to have home-cooked meals and being able to provide that fast was what we needed to achieve. That fast turnaround was what set us apart from restaurants; that, and the variety we could offer,” Nadeem shared.

A critical component of any food court is its tenant mix, and this was Nadeem’s key focus, as well as ensuring food quality. 

In terms of the larger impact that they wanted Food Studio to have, Naveed shared that what defined food court culture the most in other countries was the types of food available and how food courts offered an alternative to working people in getting something to eat during the workday. Food Studio also wanted to serve as an affordable alternative to bringing in food from home and this too played a role in how the Food Studio experience was designed. 

“The initial persona of the food court is Chinese, Thai, and different international cuisines without a lot of choice and authenticity,” Naveed said, noting that Food Studio turned this perception on its head by offering authentic cuisine in a food court setting with more of a casual dining concept. 

Adapting to the Lankan rollercoaster

Food Studio is a business that has spent almost its whole history dealing with adversity – the political instability caused by the constitutional coup in 2018, the aftermath of the Easter attacks in 2019, the pandemic in 2020, and the economic crisis in 2022. Each of these events have taken a substantial toll on business and on growth, but through it all, Food Studio has persevered and thrived. 

“Year 2023 is actually the first financial year (so far) where we have had uninterrupted continuity of business. The last four out of five years have been very challenging, with so many macroeconomic issues outside our control,” Naveed shared.

“From my perspective, having gone through this gave us a lot of resilience. We had to go back to the drawing board on several occasions and rethink the way we thought and worked. Looking back, it’s given us a lot more clarity on how to run our business – we’re fortunate in a way that we were forced to think differently.” 

Nadeem also shared how these successive crises had bred innovation, noting that, as a rule, Food Studio had learned to work smart, plan ahead, and prepare for the worst.

“[The last five years] have enabled us to be an open-minded and adaptable workplace. We’ve kind of been able to see everything over the last five years and had we been stuck in one space and stayed helpless because of the macroeconomic situation, we wouldn’t have been able to push forward. That approach of thinking ahead and preparing for the worst has helped us take advantage of the situation when the economy began to upturn over the last six months.” 

The last few years have also taught Food Studio about the importance of diversifying risk and staying innovative – from developing its own brands in order to have greater control over its product offering and quality in unstable times, to investing in the human side of the operation to ensure adaptability in and out of the kitchen. 

“Human capital has proven to be critical and we’ve focused on building strong teams, involving them in achieving our goals, and constantly upgrading their skills. The competitive nature of the hospitality job market, both locally and internationally, challenges us to retain and nurture talent,” Nadeem said.

Taking more control of its food offering, Food Studio also opened a subsidiary: Big Studio Inc., a research and development hub with partner Chef Jesse Aston, which pioneers all Food Studio’s food concepts and develops new products and brands that can strengthen Food Studio’s offering.

Food court culture in Sri Lanka

The food court culture in Sri Lanka’s malls, which have been around since the 1990s, had a rather generic offering. Despite the growth of the F&B industry in the city, driven by franchises and standalone restaurants, it didn’t significantly influence the existing food courts within malls – and this gap is what Food Studio looked to fill. 

“Our goal from the outset in 2018, starting with Colombo City Centre, was to bridge that gap by curating a diverse mix of unique food offerings within Food Court,” Nadeem shared. 

“We aspire to innovate further, but we are mindful of the disposable income of our footfall. We’ve considered the slow growth of business and holiday tourism and primarily use local produce to ensure affordability. We aim to strike a balance between local and imported ingredients to serve the best quality meals while paying close attention to the supply chain and farming for a sustainable future.”

Naveed also weighed in on Lankan food culture and why Food Studio has been able to make the mark it has: “People’s expectations have evolved. Sri Lanka went through a great deal of evolution up till the early 1990s, and then, for many factors beyond our control, evolution stopped and the mindset of people was more focused on surviving on what we have. There was very little creativity,” he explained. 

“That was why when something new (like fast food chains) came in, it was a wow factor. But in terms of food courts, especially because there was no development in malls, the culture was stagnant. Post-war, once people started travelling more and exposing themselves, expectations started to become a bigger discussion, and it became the perfect time to enter the market and give a new push to Sri Lankan food culture.

“With general fast food being seen as a go-to, it was a defining moment for us to be able to step in and meet people’s demand for authentic food, regardless of cuisine, that was affordable and quick in a food court setting.”

Naveed added that over the last five years since Food Studio had opened its doors, the culture of eating in a food court as an experience had caught on, which he attributed to Food Studio’s ability to create a restaurant experience in a food court setting while serving meals of quality. 

The future

Food Studio’s next big milestone is the opening of a branch at the Havelock City Mall. This will be the first Food Studio branch to exclusively feature in-house brands and is set to open later this year. 

“It’s not going to be the conventional food layout. We’ve designed it around an all-day dining concept with six counters offering 10 cuisines,” Nadeem said of the upcoming food court. “From a technology perspective, we’ve benchmarked what’s been happening in other countries in terms of going cashless and creating easier customer ordering processes and will be working on some of this as well.”

In terms of the bigger picture, Naveed shared with Brunch that Food Studio hoped to serve as a bigger player in the food and beverage industry. “Despite us being predominantly focused on Sri Lankan retail, we also have a bigger vision to focus on other aspects of the F&B industry and to assist ease of supply chains in the country. We’re also looking to see how we can take certain retail elements of Food Studio to a global market.”