"It's about time people understand varied cuisines that India offers"

The Bohri cuisine has indeed come a long way. Dawoodi Bohras, who are considered to be a sect within Shia Islam, originated in Yemen and soon spread to the different parts of the world and which is why the cuisine has influences from all the places it has been. Today a significant number of Bohras are living in countries like Yemen, Africa, Pakistan and the Middle East. The cuisine has also a major influence of Gujarati food as a result of early settlement of Bohras in Gujarat before they spread to Mumbai.

This cuisine has kebabs and tikkas, which is influenced by the Mughlai cuisine. It also has dishes influenced from Arabic culture. However, the question is that despite being so rich, unique and distinct, why is it still not considered to be among those well known and culturally rich cuisines we have? In a wake of people getting more adventurous in exploring different food and culture, some restaurateurs are getting on board to offer this cuisine via various pop-ups, events and food festivals.

Home chefs, who play an important role in disseminating different regional cuisines, are now being invited to restaurants’ kitchens to organize the pop-ups. Not only this provides diners a different experience but also gives home chefs a chance to showcase their talent out of their home kitchen.

What started in 2014 as fun experiment to keep Mom-Chef busy, ‘The Bohri Kitchen’ has now turned into one of the most sought after dining experiences in Bombay. The Bohri Kitchen in Mumbai is serving authentic bohri food since last four years and has fed over 4000+ guests in Colaba. The menu changes every weekend but the experience of sitting around a thaal and gorging oneself with 7 brilliant courses of home-cooked Bohri delicacies stays the same.

While various restaurants have now come up with Bohri cuisine in their menu, there are other restaurants, which are organizing various pop-ups to give diners an experiential gastronomic experience with this cuisine. For instance, Hotel Sahara Star, one of the luxurious hotels in the country is hosting a pop-up called The Bohri Food Festival, where it will be serving Bohri dishes to its customers.  As part of Cultures of Mumbai Food Festival, after having a successful run with the Parsi Pop up, the hotel will now host unique delicacies of Bohri food.

Chef Alifya and Chef Aziz Amrelliwala will take customers on to a culinary delight of traditional Bohri recipes from 11^th to 24^th October at Earthplate, Hotel Sahara Star. Bohri Chicken Cutlet, Bohra White Mutton, Daal Ka Samosa, Daba Gosht and Khichada are some of the dishes, which will be a part of the menu to tantalize the taste buds.

Bohri’s believe in eating food from a thaal, which is laid on a tarakti. The thought behind it is that the families, who eat together, stay together. Bohri meals are incomplete without a dessert. The meal starts with a dessert and is ended with a Paan and Mukhwas. With not just the delectable bohri dishes, the restaurant will provide a soulful environment with a mix of Sufi, Gujarati folk lore and Bollywood music.

Set in the heart of one of Mumbai’s most desirable neighbourhoods, Destination 72 is located in the ATL Corporate Park on Saki Vihar Road.

A flagship brand of Foodsense Hospitality, Destination 72 is modeled with a keen insight into the city’s diverse food and beverage scene. With the tuneful tagline, ‘Khana, Peena, Gaana’ six multi-ethnic business professionals joined hands to create a buzzing space for the fun, the cool, and the eclectic.

“It’s our goal to provide a concept that displays the country’s rich culinary history in a one-of-a-kind way,” shared Vinod Salian, Director, Foodsense Hospitality.

The menu offers large and satisfying portions of regional Indian, Pan-Asian and International cuisines. Designed by celebrated Chef Sebastian Fernandes, the main menu brings to the table a unique blend of traditional cuisines inspired by the diverse regions of Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western India.

“The menu at Destination 72 is fresh and extensive designed to satisfy many different taste-buds,” added Chef Fernandes.

Signature dishes include Lagan Ka Murgh, Methi Seghdana, Goat Curry Yakhani, Prawn Ghee Roast, Peking chicken Dimsum, Grilled Masala Chicken Bao, Salmon Maki Roll, Cold Soba Noodle with Peanut Dressing, Button Mushroom Wasabi, Malaysian Randang Curry, Chilli Sausage Canopy, Herb Crusted Sslmon, Grilled Tiger Prawns, Ricotta Cheese and Spinach Lasagna.

The restaurant covers a sprawling area of 6000 sq. ft. featuring modern textures, rustic elements and distinctive flooring based on a specific and strong design concept. Decked out in playful LED lights synced with up-tempo music, the ambiance is bold yet lively, quirky yet elegant.

The owners wanted to create a buzzing space of fun, cool and the eclectic with an aim to offer locals and visitors an unconventional dining experience. The long, vibrant bar overlooking the private dining room is a perfect spot to unwind and enjoy delicious cocktails paired with scrumptious bar bites.

“We bring you a stunning space offering an unconventional dining experience alongside a great menu of food and drink, and entertainment. Clubbed with brilliant soundtracks and live DJs covering a span of genres from dance and commercial to house and retro music, Destination 72 will stage exceptional gigs for a transformative mood every night of the week,” pointed Vikrant Guptaa, Director, Foodsense Hospitality.

Another talking point is the long, vibrant bar overlooking the mezzanine private dining room, a perfect spot to unwind and enjoy fabulous cocktails paired with scrumptious bar bites. The delicious bar menu curated by famed Mixologist and Bar Consultant, Naveen Kotyankar comprises of innovative and timelessly classic cocktails mixed with independently sourced liquor and a wide selection of refreshing mocktails. A real highlight of the menu is the Prohibition Era Theme based cocktails like Negroni, Bourbon Sour, Ward Eight, Bees Knees and French Martini.

Showcasing a twist on all-day dining, Destination 72 is the perfect destination for a post-work drink, a fun spot to catch up with friends and a great place to let your hair down after a busy week.

Building The Legacy

It is an ancient restaurant started by my father in 1945 and we are following the legacy. Our main focus is to satiate Gujarati palates by serving them one of the most authentic foods out there. This restaurant is basically for the people who visit Mumbai from different regions of the world, be it businessmen, service person, travellers amongst others. We want the world to know the speciality of regional cuisines, we want them to taste the lip smacking flavour and that is why we try our best to give our customers an unforgettable experience. Our main purpose is to give customers that ‘maa ke khana ka swaad’ feeling and have that homely experience. In food service sector, it is necessary to have that passion for food because it is the passion only which drives the business.

USP

This restaurant is running since 1945 which speaks volume in itself that our archaism is our USP. Also, we serve a huge variety of Gujarati food maintaining the hygiene at the same time. Our food sticks to the root and we haven’t modified it so that we could provide the ancient taste.

Cashing in on Quality

We are reasonably priced keeping in mind the customers’ as Indians are price conscious. If one is serving quality then people are ready to pay eventually.

We are very strict with our quality standards. We have limited suppliers who are standardised providing fresh raw materials and our team check that personally. We use superior quality grains and are not ready to neglect quality, no matter what. Our motive is to give good food and money is secondary. The food made with love is the best service anyone can give.

Keeping the Health Factor

Today, everyone has become health conscious so we always keep the food less oily and more health oriented making it simple without spoiling the taste.

Going back to Roots

Actually regional cuisine is there since forever and I’m nobody to bring it back. Of course, market segment changes and people follow the trend like anything but at the end of the day; they can never forget the food which is served at their home. This is what we are doing. Trends will come and go but regional cuisine will always stay. It is a staple from which people can never get bored of.

Future Plans

Future is phenomenal. We are just focusing on doing good food and it is our firm belief that anyone who has a purpose of serving good food with best service is in the market to stay. We are planning to open one more outlet around the suburbs. On the other hand, we don’t want to spoil the fun by opening a bunch of outlets in a rush.

Marketing it Right

Social media is the best tool to market brand these days and rest of the work is done by word of mouth if you are serving great food.

Started out of the need to serve Bengali cuisine in a five star environment, Savourites Hospitality has grown to six restaurants and a vast catering business in all these years. The idea came when three friends Sushanta Sengupta, S Ramani and Aninda Palit working at The Park Hotel Kolkata realised that there was no proper restaurant to serve Bengali cuisine in Kolkata when an outsider looks for an option. After a thorough research into cook books spanning different eras, including Thakurbarir khabar or books by Pragya Devi Sundari, Savourites came up with its hallmark restaurant, 6 Ballygunge Place, at a bungalow in Ballygunge. The old world charm in architecture and minimalist décor of the 100 year old property was retained, and coupled with exquisite food, this 84 seater restaurant soon became preferred destination for connoisseurs in the city.

How it all began?

It was during our stint with The Park hotel that we decided to do something of our own and that’s how 6 Ballygunge Place was born. Most of the five star hotels that caters to tourist asked for local cuisines in Kolkata but the city didn’t have a good place which could really showcase the regional cuisine. There used to be an occasional festival in hotels during Puja or Poila baisakh but the cuisine was never represented. That’s how we came up with restaurant because I was the chef where I used to serve oriental food and I always used to find that guests asks for Bengali food as oriental food was available throughout India. The business was started in 1998 and our restaurant 6 Ballygunge place was started of in 2002. Initially, we were an office lunch provider company and still we do corporate lunches. Our main business focus lies in catering including both outdoor and corporate catering and restaurants.

Why 6 Ballygunge Place?

The restaurant was started in 2002 renting a 100 year old property in Ballygunge and the address of the building was 6 Ballygunge. So, we thought of giving the same name to the restaurant so that people can recall it. The Ballygunge was so unique to whole Calcutta because this address is only there in Calcutta. Somehow, that has clicked for us because we liked the idea on a restaurant naming after the address.

Challenges involved

We were apprehensive at the beginning as Kolkata was not a touristic location apart from little business crowd that the city gets. First two years we used to have a Bengali section and also continental section- the old age concept. After running for two years we came to know that the consumption for Bengali food was much more and hence we removed the continental section. Today, we are leading caterer in terms of Bengali social caterers and corporate caterers in Kolkata.

Expansion plans

We are already running six restaurants- five in Kolkata and one in Guwahati. We also manages the entire food court at Acropolis Mall where we are doing ‘6 Ballygunge Place Gupshup’ serving snacks, tea and quick bites from the region, The Wall Express to sell Chinese food in the food court, a small outlet called ‘Mughalsarai’ selling Kebabs and Lucknowi kind of food, and a veg kitchen which comprises of juices and veg meals. “Bengali foods more or less represent entire of the east,” shares Sengupta who is looking at Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Bhubhaneshwar to open their next outlet.

Catering is big

The catering is the bigger business in terms of the revenue. We almost do 50% of the catering in the market share in our range of Rs 750-950 per plate. We cater to around 6000 people in a day. We are almost like an industry when it comes to catering.

Trading on number

6 Ballygunge Place has a phenomenal footfall. On an average we do 60 lacs in a month. We are 155 covers restaurants plus the banquet which cater to 100-150 people. Similarly, in Salt Lake we have 78 covers restaurants. We are catering company coming to restaurant business.

Marketing it right

We are very serious about marketing, building brand and hence we involve all kind of marketing and advertising platform. The most important thing we have realised in this business is how to fix quality as there is no better marketing than what the food could do.

Tell us about your brand model. How successful it is in India?

Juice Bar is good business model. Our USP at Juice lounge is to make juice in front of the customer unlike other normal juice centers where the juice is prepared behind the table letting customers think all the nasty and bad things. So, the customer is fully aware about what quality of fruits are being put in the juice and what ingredient goes into the juice at juice lounge. The customers have full say in the ingredients’ selection i.e. what they want or what they do not want. The customer knows what he/she is getting in 100 bucks. This helped Juice Lounge to make an identity for its juices and other products.

The last 10 years has been great with lots of franchise stores. Gradually, people know what we are and what we do. Now, it is operating more than 50 stores.

How do you maintain quality and standard at each of your franchise store?

We have got food grades for fruits and vegetables which we approve. For maintaining the same standard and quality, we tell stores what grade of fruits and vegetables to buy. Other than that, we do audit in every two months. One is the physical audit and the other is quality audit for every store. These exercises help us maintain quality and standard at each franchise store.

It is believed only health conscious individuals go to juice centers, what is your comment on the same?

Not only health conscious people, but people of all gender and age visit a juice centre. Reason to visit the juice corner may be different but everyone goes to a juice bar. 

While prices of raw materials keep changing every day, what mechanism have you adopted to keep your prices stable?

The virtual market may go up and down, but we do contracts with vendors for a year. This is a fixed contract, so whatever happens to market the contract remains the same. Once the contract is done, we know what fruit we are getting and at what price for the entire year. Each year we do revise our prices as per the contract. This is how we track on our flavors and pricing at all franchise stores of juice lounge.

How many stores are there under the brand Juice Lounge and what numbers are you aiming at in coming five years?

Today, we have got more than 50 stores in 4-5 countries. In next five years, we will be coming up with more than 60-100 stores across India, as we are opening 12-15 stores every year. With the strong and sound logistics background, we are aiming pan-India expansion.

What format have you adopted for franchising?

We have two formats for franchisees. One is without sitting either in a mall or in high street, where people come and buy their juice whereas in the other model, people can enjoy their juices in the attached sitting area which is the longer format of franchising.

How do you reach to your target audience in terms of marketing?

We have a PR team who does marketing for us. We ourselves do local marketing and promotion. Whenever we do any event or programme, we get it covered. Once we are over 100 stores then we might think of other marketing options as well.

As you operate in national and international segments, what key difference in terms of law and order have you faced?

Firstly, legality of every country is very different. Compared to India, norms in international circuits are a bit tougher. The logistic system is very different in India and other countries. In other international countries, they have norms which have to be fulfilled very strictly.

With brands like real, Tropicana offering packed juice, which is a kind of convenience to users. Do you really think juice bar or lounges is a good business idea?

The packed food item scenario is big; they are in all segments like Chinese and other packed food not specifically in juice as such. But, as everything cannot be packed so we don’t think they are going to affect us in any way. And with our new flavours and tastes coming in every 2-3 months, we are always new and fresh.