Banana Leaf and the Hyderabad Legacy

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Chef-owner Sri Sambangi’s mission to share his authentic Southern Indian culinary heritage began as soon as he came to America. After all, this is the food of kings and queens. Royalty at its best.

Inherited and improved upon through the centuries, royal and homespun specialties star in a dazzling array of Hyderabadi fare. It is famous for airy, full-flavored biryanis and curries. This special Indian food feels satisfying and is to your all round health.  

Sri was raised in  just east of the famous Hyderabad. Gateway to the north, the area also boasts lush tropical and coastal fish dishes. 

Like many other Indian computer engineers in America, Sri was inspired to learn to cook his favorite dishes because he missed his mom’s food. Not only did he learn the mom in Southern India, he learned from professional chefs and homecooks whenever he found a worthy dish while traveling in India or the United States.

Banana Leaf catering was actually created by popular demand when Sri (Chef-owner, Sri Sambangi) catered meals for his daughters’ dance recitals and holiday boxes for the community. And even today he’s happiest when his two daughters, Neha and Shreeya (in the picture above) are working alongside him. 

Party guests and critics alike love Banana Leaf Catering Company Chef-owner, Sri Sambangi  for his signature bold, beautiful, authentic, full-flavored food and unerring palate. 

Guests do not leave even one of the hundreds of identical appealing Banana Leaf special occasion spiffy meal boxes served at dance recitals, weddings, holiday and birthday party feasts.  Sri’s devoted regular following covers Southern California.  Happy guests range from Orange County to winery pairing dinners in Paso Robles.

Intricate biryanis have always been a favorite.  In fact, Sri’s collection of six Indian restaurants began when he took over a friend’s famous biryani kitchen to save it. In addition to traveling regularly to India for updated full menu ideas, Sri offers the most special, seasonal dishes from the 900 restaurants represented by his ten-year-old branding and delivery liaison company, plus the most popular ones from his own places. 

Another element of Sri’s ongoing mission of championing South Indian food is to raise public awareness of smaller, quality authentic regional Indian restaurants.   

As a high tech entrepreneur, Sri brings his financial expertise and backing to restaurant ventures as a commercial partner.  It includes decades of experience in online branding, along with an unerring palate and vertical knowledge of Indian cuisine.   

Delhi Belly Delhi Belly in Alhambra, California is one example.  It’s chef-partners are culinary and hospitality school graduates who add a refined French technique touch to the cuisine.  The successful restaurants he championed that turns two years old in 2024.

Sambangi founded Clorder, Inc, to initially fulfill this goal.  This White Label company provided branding plus online ordering solution to enable small restaurants to target-market themselves directly.   Sri’s career covers 20-plus years of tech industry experience where he successfully completed the  PO journey from the early-stage startup phase to the public company at CSOD (Cornerstone OnDemand in Santa Monica, CA) (NASDAQ: CSOD).