BON APPETITE: The good food guide

TRAIL BLAZER

that his driving force is providing Five-Star food at non Five-Star prices. And the rest as they say, is history.

I always wanted to create an institution of my own, something where I could add value, which is when I decided to try my hand at advertising. This resulted in a two-year stint with the Anand Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta before moving onto Bombay to do a course at Jamnalal Bajaj. After spending some time at O&M and then Lintas, I decided to set up my own agency, which is how Situations Advertising and Marketing Services was born in 1985. Over the years we have handled brands like Ujala, Cello and Fair and Handsome and are poised to touch the Rs 120-crore mark this year.

Food was always a passion and after studying at the Calcutta Catering College I worked for a year with the Taj group in Bombay. All my value systems I attribute to the time I spent there. I was lucky enough to have met JRD Tata and even today, that group is my sole role model.

I regularly used to cook for friends, which is where the idea of a restaurant originated. At that time, there were only multi-cuisine eateries in the country, with fine dine being restricted to the 5-stars. I wanted to make fine dining affordable and more accessible to more people. That is how Only Fish, my first restaurant came into being. A few years down the line, that was converted into Oh Calcutta! This restaurant has always been positioned as a nostalgia restaurant, and even in Calcutta, we have a chef from one of the oldest restaurants working on the continental selection there.

Now I want to put Bengali food on the global map "� the world needs to know that there is more to Indian cuisine than chicken tikka! We will be opening the first Oh Calcutta in London later this month which we hope to follow up with one in the US.

Our biggest success has been Mainland China, an authentic Chinese restaurant. Right from the start, we have been importing fresh ingredients from China, way before that became the norm. Today, with 12 outlets across the country, this is the only national brand in the fine dining space which we will soon take international.

Along the way, I realised that quick service restaurants were getting increasingly popular with people since time was always at a premium. That is how Haka, the quick serve Chinese restaurant came up. But I'm not keen on foodcourts at multiplexes as I feel its not easy to maintain the quality standard that we want through such a model.

As the name of the company suggests, we are going to continue with our focus on specific cuisines and not get into the multi cuisine mode. Be it Mostly Kababs, Sweet Bengal, Just Biryani or Sigree, all our restaurants have a clear focus.

It is important to realise that food is a very serious business "� not something that you can take lightly. When you are operating a chain of speciality restaurants, it becomes important not only to maintain quality standards, but also consistency across all the outlets and the 2 lakh customers that we serve across our restaurants every month.

We will expand at our own pace. Topline growth has never been a priority and I won't look at bringing in short term value through perhaps private placement if it means having to compromise on my quality standards. At the end of it, your customer will be your best brand ambassador or brand killer. I still maintain that you are as good or bad as the last customer to have walked out of your restaurant.