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The Pizza Twins

By LIFS January 2, 2007 at 9:45 AM

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Twins have double the fun and surely double the energy - so no wonder Miki and Radha Agrawal, 27, are involved in a dizzying array of activities from appearing on an American reality show to owning their own gourmet pizza place.The girls are identical twins and were born in Montreal, Canada, to an Indian father and a Japanese mother - so one can just imagine the workaholic genes! For starters, they speak five languages.

Jokes Miki, "Growing up, we attended French school during the weekday, Japanese school on Saturday and Hindi school on Sunday. Our parents tricked us into believing that all children went to school seven days a week!"

The twins decided to go culinary instead of medical when they both became lactose intolerant and had to give up favorite foods. Says Miki, "I looked at what was happening in the health industry and the organic and natural industry as well and as it was exponentially increasing, the pizza industry was slow to respond." So she decided to open a healthy, all-natural and organic pizza place, and the result was the popular Manhattan spot, Slice. The guilt-free pizza had arrived!

Slice is just one year old and was named by Time Out magazine as one of the best pizzerias in New York. While Miki is the majority owner, there are several silent investors and Radha, who is the creative director, owns a stake too. As if feeding hungry New Yorkers isn't work enough, Radha and Miki have also starred on an ABC reality show One Ocean View. Recalls Miki, "The experience itself was surreal. We had a big gorgeous house on the beach and we were living with a bunch of good looking people. And we had a camera in our faces the entire time. It was wild and a fantastic experience. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!"

Adds Radha, "I felt like a lab rat in a way, being filmed morning till night, every move recorded, and being told when we could leave the house, where we were allowed to go because of permits and regulations and having an 11 o'clock curfew."

Talking of twin-energy, both of them are also working on the production and creative side of TV commercials and are becoming Spin instructors at gyms to be role models for a healthier lifestyle - and also build up the Slice name.

It does seem as if the twins are at the right place at the right time. Says Miki, "There is no better time to integrate 'healthy' and 'pizza' than now. New York City just banned trans fats and we are probably one of a handful of New York City restaurants that is entirely trans-fat free from the get-go!"

So what's cooking now? Radha and Miki are planning to open a second location, as well as market the pizzas in retail and wholesale. They are also speaking to kids in school about healthy eating. Says Miki, "Kids are responding positively, especially because we bring them free pizza! We hope to get schools involved in serving their cafeterias better food for the kids."