I am a Hotel Management & Catering Operations professional with an experience more than 16 years in Food & Beverage Operations, Learning & Development, Staff Training, Client Servicing and Team Management, and Menu Planning. I started my career with Ambassador Sky Chef in-flight kitchen company as Chef Trainee.
1. Please tell us something about your early days & career story.
I was born and brought up in Mumbai in a typical Maharashtrian joint family. My
mother is a housewife and my father was a banker (now retired). Food was always celebrated at home, and the occasion was never needed for it. After completing my HSC (10+2), I did 3 years of Diploma in Hotel Management & Catering Technology from Rizvi College, Mumbai, and passed out in 2006.
Then worked with P&O Cruises for a couple of contracts, cruising in countries like France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Trinidad & Tobago, St Kitts, St Marteen, Barbados, etc. After a stint with Flight Services & Cruise line, I worked in sectors like QSR, Central Kitchen, Restaurant, Corporate Catering, Out Door Catering, Cloud Kitchen, and Cinema Chain.
2. Why did you decide to be in the food industry?
From childhood, I was very interested in food but to be honest, all interest was
only in eating and not in cooking at all and I always had a low interest in studies.
So taking these 2 scenarios into consideration, my father chose the food industry for me when I was in 8th or 9th grade. I was happy as I never wanted to do typical academic education like B.Com, B.Sc, etc.
When I entered hotel management I got more involved in the kitchen as my eating interest gradually started converting into cooking as well. After my industrial training at Hotel Holiday Inn, Juhu I decided to be a Chef professionally as I felt more passionate about culinary art.
3. What are some of the day-to-day challenges that you face & how do you overcome them?
As I am managing pan India operations, I am handling 40 kitchens, and the major
challenge I face is keeping the consistency of taste the same in all locations. Our
menu is about 85% the same in Pan-India so we have set recipes, videos of making all products, standard operating procedures, and nationalized vendors but monitoring remotely that everything is been followed is difficult.
But thanks to technology we do surprise video audits, and surprise staff send random videos of dishes so we can check the recipes are correctly followed. Ask them to send random pictures of dishes etc which makes things a little easy for us.
4. There is a lot of wastage in the food industry, according to you is the solution to that?
Respect Food. I think every individual who works in the kitchen from top to bottom should be self-disciplined and very much serious about food. If each individual does their job seriously and gives the 100% percent right from receiving vegetables, fruits, dry ingredients, etc to cooking and serving it, the food wastage in the industry will come down tremendously.
We will be able to control food wastage if we follow processes rightly like avoiding over-ordering stock, and store food rightly according to the nature of food, maintaining its temperature, and using the FIFO policy (first in first out).
5. How do you leverage software & technologies for food business efficiency?
Technology plays an important role in creating lean and efficient processes. It can
help to reduce or eliminate duplication and delays in the workflow, as well as
help to speed up by automating specific tasks. For eg - an inventory management system can help to run an efficient food business by ensuring the right level of stock.
By using this we get to know which items we have, the quantity we have in stock, and how much they’re worth. We also use software to direct staff on where to store items. Implementing this process improves efficiency and reduces errors when it comes time to pick items to fulfill an order.
6. How do you manage your supply chain/ discovery of suppliers?
Our company has created a network of suppliers that move the product for us
from them to us. To manage the supply chain efficiently the ordering of ingredients is done with planning so it reaches us on time. We chose our vendors very carefully. We see if they are FSSAI registered, follow FSSAI policies, and have a good logistic network, we do audits of their plants/stores. For the discovery of new suppliers we use social media like Linked-in to connect with them, we discover new suppliers by attending food exhibitions, from our colleagues/ex-colleagues, etc.
7. Which is your favorite book & why?
Honestly, I am not a big reader. I mostly like to read recipe books. But in my
college time, I read a book - “Idli, Orchid & Me” an autobiography of Vitthal
Kamat, Owner of The Orchid Hotel. This is a very inspiring story of an
entrepreneur who moved from a single, family-style restaurant, to make a five-star hotel THE ORCHID, a five-star ecotel. It inspired me to face any odds to
complete my dream.
Interviewed By - Aarya Gode
){kind=link}
0 Comments