The Mavalli Tiffin Room Kannada: ಮವಳಳ ಟಫನ ರೂಂ (commonly known as MTR) is

the brand name of a food related enterprise located in India. Having its origin in the city
of Bangalore, it is famous for the MTR restaurant located on the Lal Bagh Road in
Bangalore and also for the pre-packed food articles which are sold in packets having the
MTR brand. MTR also claims to be the inventor of the popular South-Indian breakfast
item, Rava idli.

History

Many prefer to relax in the cafe's waiting hall on the first floor before and after the
breakfast

Idli served with pure ghee and sambar

Many prefer to relax in the cafe's waiting hall on the first floor before and after the
breakfast

MTR was founded as a restaurant by Parampalli Yajnanarayana Maiya and his brothers
in the year 1924.[1] In the mid 1970s when India was under emergency, a Food Control
Act was introduced which mandated that food was to be sold at very low prices. This
move made it difficult for MTR to maintain high standards in its restaurant business and
forced it to diversify into the instant food business, selling ready-to-eat snacks such as
chutneys and rasams.[2] Since the 1970s, MTR has expanded and diversified, with MTR
Department Stores opened next to the restaurant, and an outlet opened in Chennai[3].
Currently the MTR brand represents two separate entities; the MTR restaurant business
and MTR Foods, the pre-packaged food business.

MTR Restaurant

A lady on glass etching on the staicase of Mavalli Tiffin Room,in Bangalore

MTR restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant located in Bangalore, India. It was founded in

1924. It has also been featured on television in the travel-related series, Globe Trekker. It
is said that once a Chief Minister of Karnataka stood in a queue to have masala dosa at
this restaurant.[4] The restaurant building comprises two floors, the ground floor being a
fast food outlet serving tiffin and snacks and the first floor having tables and chairs for
customers to eat-in and savour the lunch. It is recommended to reserve a table for lunch
since unreserved customers have to wait in a waiting room, sometimes for hours[2]. The
food served at the MTR is a regular, wholesome Karnataka Brahmin fare and has its
origins in the Udupi Brahmin cuisine of the coastal region of Karnataka.[2] The decor is
outdated, as more attention is paid to cleanliness and food quality than ambience. For
many years, the customers entered the restaurant through the kitchen so that they would
be able to satisfy themselves about the restaurant's cleanliness before they ate there.[5]
During World War II, MTR found it difficult to make idlis since rice was in short supply.
According to MTR, they experimented with using semolina instead of rice and thus
invented the very popular breakfast item of Rava idli. MTR also holds a record of being
the first fast food restaurant in the world to serve 21,000 customers in seven hours.[5]
MTR restaurant is currently headed by Hemamalini Maiya (granddaughter of
Yajnanarayana Maiya).[1] One of the uniqueness of this restaurant is that silver tumblers
are used to serve beverages. This restaurant was closed in the period of Indian emergency
(mid 1970s) when the Food Control Act made it non-profitable to serve food items until
it was reopened in 1984.[6] To save the jobs during the time it was closed, MTR started
selling spices and roasted flour mixes. That was the beginning of its entry into the
convenience and instant food business and in a sense, a turning point.

[edit] MTR Foods

MTR Foods was headed by Sadanand Maiya (son of the Yajnanarayana Maiya) until it
was sold to Orkla, a Norwegian company for $80 Million in March 2007[7]. It produces
packaged foods in different ranges - spices, instant mixes, ready-to-eat foods, vermicelli,
ready-to-cook gravies, range of frozen products, papads, pickles, chips, snacks and ice
creams.[4] It bought the packaging technology from the Defence Food Research
Laboratory in Mysore and there are no preservatives added to the food while packaging.[5]
MTR is also the first Indian processed foods company to be certified with the Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification which is a rigorous standard of
food safety and hygiene.[4] It has also been sponsoring magic shows and theatre
performances using them as a means of giving live demonstrations of their products and
to hand out free samples to the audience[8]. MTR Foods is also the first company in the
world to have created a frozen dosa, which can be heated and eaten right away.[5] MTR
Food products are exported to the countries in the Persian Gulf, United States and United
Kingdom
Our Heritage

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, known more popularly as MTR, was started in 1924. It was set up
near Lalbagh Fort by two brothers, Yajnanarayana Maiya and Ganappayya Maiya who
came down from a place called Parampalli, near Udupi. In
1936 Ganappayya Maiya decided to go back to Parampalli
and Yajnanarayana Maiya assumed full charge of the
restaurant. It was originally called ‘Brahmin's Coffee
House', but the name was changed when it was shifted to a
bigger premises in 1960.

In 1950,Yajnarayana Maiya undertook a European tour to

see for himself how restaurants in other parts of the world
functioned. The cleanliness and hygiene there opened his eyes. He resolved that MTR
would adhere to the same standard of cleanliness. He distributed small booklets on
health, proper eating habits and recipes. He introduced the system of sterilization of
kitchen items. He also introduced the system of opening up the kitchen to the scrutiny of
any customer who was interested. In fact, for a long time customers entered the restaurant
through the kitchen so that by default they saw with their own eyes the hygienic methods
of food preparation.

In 1968 Yajnanarayana Maiya passed away and the reins of the restaurant was taken over
by his nephew, Harishchandra Maiya. Yajnanarayana Maiya’s son, Sadananda Maiya
also joined in a few years later.

In 1976, when the Emergency was declared, the government called five of the most well
known restaurants in the city – including MTR – and told them that they had to reduce
the prices of the food at their restaurants according to government approved rates, to
bring it within the reach of the common man. The prices of the items were to be the same
in all the restaurants. Some restaurants paid up, others started compromising on the
quality. MTR did neither. MTR kept the quality of the food as high as ever and put up a
board stating the losses for the day outside the restaurant. MTR continued in this way for
16 days. On the 16th day it closed down. During this time, MTR opened a small
departmental store next to the hotel and started making and selling mixes for rava idli and
other items. The restaurant opened again once the Emergency was lifted.

In 1994 the company split into two divisions. The packaged food business was taken over
by Sadanand Maiya and the restaurant was continued by Harishchandra Maiya. MTR
Foods, the packaged food division was sold to Orkla of Norway in 2007. Today the MTR
restaurant still stands in the same place it did 50 years ago. In 1999 Harishchandra Maiya
passed away and the business was taken over by his eldest daughter, Hemamalini Maiya.
There is a sweets and an egg-free bakery division as well. There is also a sandwich parlor
next to the hotel.

The restaurant opened its first branch in 2004, a small fast food outlet near
Sheshadripuram in Bangalore. Thereafter, two more branches have opened in Bangalore
– a full fledged restaurant in Rajajinagar and one in Hebbal.
Galary

MTR Trivia - Did You Know?

» During World War II, MTR found it difficult to make idlis since rice was in short
supply. MTR experimented with using semolina instead of rice and thus was
invented the very popular breakfast item of Rava idli.

» For many years, the entrance to the restaurant was through the kitchen to enable the
patrons to get satisfied with the cleanliness in the kitchen before actually eating the
food.

» MTR was once featured on the Discovery Channel series Globe trekker.

» Chandrahara is an exclusive sweet served only on Sundays. It was invented by

Yajnanarayana Maiya. When he first made it he did not know what to name it. At
that same time there was a movie called ‘Chandrahara’ running in a theater next to
the restaurant. He decided then that the sweet should be named Chandrahara!
Contact Us

Tiffin Timing Lunch/Dinner Timings

Morning - 06:30 am to 11:00 am Lunch - 12:30 pm to 02:00 pm
Evening - 03:30 pm to 07:30 pm Dinner - 08:00 pm to 09:15 pm

Address

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms

#14, Lalbagh Road, Bangalore : 560027
Contact No : 080 - 2222-0022
Office No : 080 – 2223-0471
Bakery/Sweets/Departmental Stores: 080-2223-5115
Email: mtrhotels@gmail.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MTR Maiya's:
No. 127/128, Esteem Mall,
3rd Floor, Hebbal Main Road, Bangalore - 560024
Contact No: 080-64548877

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MTR Moments:
#185/Y, 12th Main,
3rd Block, Rajajinagar,
Bangalore - 560010
Contact No: 080-23117449

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MTR Galaxy:
#6, SNS Plaza, Kumara Krupa Road,
Bangalore - 560001
Contact No: 080-22207761

Rava idli
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rave Idli
 Rave Idli
Origin
Place of origin India
Region or state Karnataka
Dish details
Course served Breakfast, Snack
Main
semolina
ingredient(s)
yogurt, chopped cilantro, curry
leaves, ghee, crushed ginger, mustard
Variations
seeds, cashew nuts, green chillies,
baking soda

Rave Idli (Kannada: ರವ ಇಡಲ) or Rave Idli is a variation of the popular South Indian
breakfast item, idli, made with Rava (or Suji) or Bombay rava.

History
It is a speciality of the state of Karnataka in India and the popular restaurant chain,
Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) of Bangalore claims to have invented it.[1] According to
Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, during World War II, when rice which is the staple item used in
idli was in short supply, they experimented in making idli using semolina and created
Rava Idli.

Rava-Idli translates to semolina-idli in the native Kannada language. It is usually found in

restaurants that serve the Udupi cuisine. Rava idli is served hot and is to be eaten along
with Saagu and Coconut Chutney. A dash of Ghee poured on the top of Rava Idli adds to
the overall taste.
MTR Foods Ltd.

Address:
2971, First Floor, Esturi Tower
K.R. Road, B.S.K Second Stage
Bangalore, 560 070
India

Telephone: (91) 80-676023

Fax: (91) 80-6760227
http://www.mtrfoods.com

Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1924 as Mavalli Tiffin Rooms
Sales: $26 million (2002 est.)
NAIC: 311991 Perishable Prepared Food Manufacturing

Key Dates:
1924: Mavalli Tiffin Rooms restaurant opens.
1975: Sadananda Maiya, a member of the founding family of the restaurant, branches
into packaged food and founds MTR Foods Ltd.
1983: MTR begins its push into a wider regional market.
1994: The firm is reorganized and embarks on nationwide distribution.
2002: Super Shop restaurant chain debuts.

Company History:

MTR Foods Ltd. is one of India's leading purveyors of packaged foods. Its products
include a variety of vegetarian snack foods and chips, ready-to-eat meals, and partially
pre-cooked meals, emphasizing the cuisine of southern India. Other products include
pickles, vermicelli, and over 30 varieties of ice cream and ice cream cones. The company
is one of only a few that sell packaged food nationwide. MTR Foods also exports canned
foods to the United States in an arrangement with the grocery chain Kroger and sells
spices in the United Kingdom through the British company Centura Foods. MTR
products are also available in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and other Asian countries.
In 2002, MTR Foods began opening franchised fast-food restaurants across India that
served its vegetarian specialties. These are called MTR Super Shops. J.P. Morgan
Partners owns a 28-percent share of MTR Foods. Another 14 percent of the company is
owned by Magnus Capital Corporation, a venture capital group based in Mauritius.
Chairman and company director Sadananda Maiya owns the remainder. MTR operates
seven manufacturing facilities. The company is the first Indian processed food company
to pass strict global food safety and hygiene standards, preparing the way for MTR's
penetration into a broader export market in the 2000s.

Roots in a Popular Restaurant

MTR Foods Ltd. began as a single restaurant in Bangalore called Mavalli Tiffin Rooms.
Tiffin is a word traced to colonial rule in India and refers to a light meal or lunch. Mavalli
Tiffin Rooms opened in 1924 and was run by members of the Maiya family. The
restaurant soon established itself as one of the city's hottest eating spots. It was a modest
restaurant where diners paid a single price to a cashier in front and then sat down to a
five-course vegetarian meal. The restaurant did not serve alcohol and took only cash.
MTR, as the restaurant was known, had a reputation for savory food and high standards
of hygiene. It became a favorite with politicians and movie stars, yet the restaurant
showed no favoritism, and the VIP's waited in line like everybody else. The restaurant,
which still exists but is not part of MTR Foods Ltd., also became a favorite dining spot
for tourists in Bangalore. In 1951, MTR was one of the first Indian restaurants to
introduce steam sterilization, furthering its reputation for cleanliness. The popular eatery
later branched into catering.

Change was forced on the restaurant in 1975 during the State of Emergency declared by
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Gandhi's rules for the emergency required every restaurant
to conform to prices set by the government. The Maiya family felt unable to abide by the
government price list. The prices were so low that the restaurant would have had to cut
the quality of the food it offered. MTR had made its reputation on hygiene and
cleanliness, and the owners felt that compromising the quality of the food they offered
would have been disastrous. Rather than following that course, the family shut the
restaurant. Its workers, many of whom had been with the restaurant for years, were
suddenly unemployed. The Maiya family accommodated a few of them by offering them
places in a small grocery store attached to the restaurant. At this point, Sadananda Maiya
got the idea to expand the grocery by offering a bigger line of products under the MTR
brand name.

Maiya was an electrical engineer by training, and he was able to bring together his skills
with both food and technology to launch MTR Foods Ltd. He set the restaurant's former
employees to work packaging a mix for the popular breakfast or snack pancake called
rava idli. The MTR brand rava idli mix proved a good seller, and when the restaurant
reopened after the State of Emergency was lifted in 1977, Maiya continued to
manufacture the mix and ventured into other packaged foods as well. His company
became MTR Foods Ltd., while the restaurant continued in the hands of other Maiya
family members. MTR Foods began putting out other dry food mixes, as well as spices,
special spice mixtures, and then pickles. The packaged food company built on the
restaurant's reputation for purity.

A Dominant Regional Player in the 1980s

At first MTR Foods sold its packaged food through the MTR restaurant grocery. As the
food mixes gained a following, the company persuaded other retailers in Bangalore to
carry its products. Through the early 1980s, MTR distributed exclusively in Bangalore,
selling at various department stores and major groceries. In 1983, MTR decided to press
into other southern cities. It sent distributors to Madras, Hyderabad, and Vijayawada to
introduce its products. The next year, the company made a major technical innovation. It
began packaging its foods in what was called a polyester poly standy pack, the first of its
kind in India. This was a high-quality plastic bag with a pyramidal base which enabled it
to stand upright. The upright bags greatly increased the brand's visibility on store shelves.

Through the next ten years, MTR Foods worked on bolstering its reputation in southern
India. It faced a slew of small competitors in a highly fragmented market. The only big
food companies operating across India were Hindustan Lever Ltd., a subsidiary of
Unilever, and the Swiss food giant Nestlé. The company consolidated its position in
southern India and expanded its manufacturing facilities in and around Bangalore. MTR
claimed to have leading market share in several product categories. Overall, however, the
Indian packaged food market was still small. MTR was in a sense a pioneer, offering
ready-to-eat food when such products were still a novelty and not entirely a necessity. In
India, most food was cooked from scratch at home, and women had not yet started
entering the workforce in significant numbers. MTR worked its way into being a
respectably sized regional player in the 1980s, while the whole packaged foods market in
India was valued at only around $30 million.

Big Changes in the 1990s

MTR began a push to become a more prominent company in the early 1990s. Beginning
in 1993, the company increased the number of products it offered and actively sought out
new markets. It pushed into more cities in southern India, where it eventually gained
leading market share in every region that enjoyed a predominantly vegetarian cuisine.
Market opportunities also increased in Bangalore, which had become the so-called
Silicon Valley of India, the center of the country's booming information technology
industry. MTR began providing lunches to workers at several prominent technology
firms. By the end of the 1990s, Sadananda Maiya estimated that about 80 percent of
Bangalore's high-tech workers were MTR consumers. Overall, the convenience food
market in India was growing. As income levels rose and more women were holding jobs
outside the home, packaged food boomed. The category was expected to triple in sales by
the early years of the new century. MTR changed its structure in 1994 in order to
accommodate future growth. The firm was broken into two divisions, one for its main
food lines, spices, and vermicelli, and another to specialize in chips and other snacks.
MTR also launched an export division. Sales at MTR grew as much as 40 percent
annually in the late 1990s, and MTR planned to spread into more markets. Successful in
southern India, MTR began penetrating into northern markets by 1998.

MTR launched a new product in 1998 in order to gain a nationwide following. This was
its Softy ice cream cone. The ice cream market had long been dominated by big food
companies, most prominently Hindustan Lever. MTR's new cone was an immediate hit.
The company was able to price its ice cream competitively against Hindustan Lever and
still maintain a high profit margin. In some cases, MTR was able to retail its frozen treats
for half what Hindustan Lever charged. The company quickly expanded its ice cream
portfolio, bringing out several sizes of packaged hard ice cream, some of which it sold to
five-star hotels. MTR's reputation for purity evidently helped it pick up new customers.

The company also expanded its line of snack foods such as chips and fries. In addition, it
brought out a new line of ready-to-eat meals based on North Indian recipes and entered
an arrangement with another company to help with distribution in northern India. MTR
also continued to upgrade its packaging technology. The company used a method that had
been developed by India's defense department and eventually began supplying ready-to-
eat food to the Indian Army. Its new packaging was called the retort pouch. The retort
pouch was first developed in the 1970s and kept food safe with no refrigeration. The
consumer simply dropped the unopened pouch in boiling water for a few minutes to heat
the food. MTR's packaged meals were thus extremely easy to prepare and left virtually no
cooking mess. The company brought 11 new prepared meals in retort pouches into the
northern Indian market and debuted a smaller line of southern cuisine in the new
packaging.

By the late 1990s, MTR also had plans to bring out a line of frozen food. The company
proceeded slowly, because a distribution network for frozen food did not exist
nationwide. Nonetheless, the company was thinking ahead, hoping to score big in the
export market with frozen meals. By that time, the company was exporting some of its
products to Australia, Singapore, and other Asian and Pacific countries. MTR saw great
potential in exports and worked assiduously both to become a truly national presence in
India and then a leading brand abroad. In 2002, the company received ISO 9002
certification, meaning it met globally recognized standards for food safety and hygiene. It
also qualified under a similar global food safety program, the Hazard Analysis Critical
Central Point. With these certifications, MTR had surmounted major barriers to export. It
was able to get its foods into the United States through an arrangement with the grocery
chain Kroger and began exporting cooking sauces to England. The company
contemplated European markets as well, with a possible first venture in France.

The Vegetarian McDonald's

MTR Foods had made great strides since 1983, when it set it sights beyond Bangalore to
become a major regional company. By 2001, the company still did 90 percent of its
domestic business in its stronghold in southern India, yet the company fully expected to
have half its sales earned in northern India within just a few more years. It had
distribution in some 500 Indian towns and cities in that year and planned to reach over
800 locales by 2002. The company was also beginning to set foot in a global market that
promised even greater sales. At the beginning of the 2000s, MTR took steps to ready
itself for further growth. In 2000, the company raised cash by selling a 20 percent stake in
itself to an investment group in Mauritius, Magnus Capital. Magnus was primarily run by
Indian immigrants in Singapore. Chairman Maiya hired a new chief executive for MTR
in 2001, bagging the former head of the beverage division of Hindustan Lever,
Jayaraman Suresh. In 2002, Magnus Capital reduced its stake in MTR to 14 percent, and
J.P. Morgan Partners, a division of J.P. Morgan Chase, paid $4 million for a 28 percent
stake in the firm. This new infusion of cash was to fund MTR's most ambitious plan yet--
to open a string of fast-food vegetarian restaurants. The company opened its first MTR
Super Shop in Bangalore in 2002, with ten more planned for other Indian cities. The
Super Shop was a combination restaurant/store that featured MTR brand ready-to-eat
meals customers could buy and take home and a restaurant area where hot food was
served. According to a profile in Business Line (March 22, 2001), the Super Shops were
to be a "vegetarian replica of McDonald's." The company seemed to be completing a
circle, from a modest restaurant to a packaged food manufacturer to a chain of franchised
quick eating joints.

Revenue at MTR rose rapidly as its expansion rolled onwards. Sales stood at just under
$9 million in fiscal 2001 and were expected to hit $26 million in fiscal 2002. Maiya and
new CEO Suresh expected revenue to grow even more, passing $100 million by the
middle of the decade if things went as planned. Exports were to account for 20 percent of
revenue. This lavish growth did not seem unrealistic. The company had come far already
and was now on the brink of even greater market penetration both inside India and
abroad. MTR contemplated a public stock offering in 2003.

Principal Divisions: MTR Foods Ltd.; MTR Enterprises; MTR International; Sudarshan
Enterprises.

Principal Competitors: Hindustan Lever Ltd.; Tasty Bite Eatables Ltd.; Nestlé S.A.
 About Us | Our Heritage | Food Safety Policy | The MTR Difference | Career
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