Spreading flavours

Some of London's successful Indian restaurateurs are announcing their foodie plans.

At Roast, restaurateur Iqbal Wahhab's second foodie venture after the highly successful Indian restaurant Cinnamon Club, the smell of success wafts in the air.

Though Wahhab's second venture, in his own words, "has been trashed completely by a majority of food critics", he remains unfazed. "I don't subscribe to food reviews... not when my restaurant is full of customers despite negative comments."

After Cinnamon Club, a £2.5-million venture that he started with "a mix of nearly 30 investment bankers, shareholders and chef Vivek Singh" in 2001, Wahhab wanted to introduce a completely different cuisine with Roast.

With another sleeping partner, Wahhab invested almost £1.5 million in starting this British restaurant located in Borough market, often referred to as a "foodie paradise".

Clearly, Indian restaurateurs are sprinkling their flavours on the London eating-out map, pinning Michelin stars proudly on their restaurants, whipping up successful ventures, posting profits and finally giving shape to their expansion plans.

At Veeraswamy, Ranjit Mathrani while enjoying a sumptuous bite of the raj kachori informs us: "We want our flavours to spread across all spectrums and that is the mantra of our expansion plans."

Mathrani's latest venture has been to renovate Veeraswamy, one of London's oldest restaurants and "serve Indian street food, international style". Says this former investment banker, "Branching out into the food business is my fourth career."

With his £14-million company Masala World comprising six restaurants including Chutney Mary, Amaya, Veeraswamy and three Masala Zones outlets, Mathrani explains, "The investments for our first restaurant Chutney Mary was raised by convincing friends and even shareholders."

For now he will concentrate on the upscale Veeraswamy which saw initial spending of £1.5 million. "Within the framework of Indian cuisine, we will definitely expand Masala Zone outlets through the franchisee route by 2008," he says.

Though Mathrani is tightlipped about finances, it is evident that franchisees should be ready to shell out at least £1 million if not more.

While Amaya, Masala Chutney and Veeraswamy are the high-end foodie vehicles from Masala World, Masala Zone caters to the mid-sized customer segment.

"Having served over 500,000 customers in 2005, we expect to serve more than one million in a couple of years," says Mathrani, adding, "After 10 such Masala Zones, we will develop the brand through other outlets such as pubs and takeaways."

Developing his restaurant's brand is also firmly on the mind of Harsh Joshi, manager of the £2.5-million Benaras, a popular Indian restaurant started by Atul Kochhar.

As he takes us on a quick tour of the restaurant complete with an Oriental ambience, the Indian restaurant, says Joshi, "will be soon dotting itself fiercely on the London map".

Kochhar, says Joshi, "is passionate about cooking and right now he must be sitting at some dhaba on some Indian highway and mastering some more streetside recipes".

While Kochaar was smacking his lips at some roadside dhaba when we met Joshi for this interview, it was clear that Benaras was ready for expansion. "We don't want to experiment with any new cuisine," says Joshi.

That's something that Wahhab doesn't find too convincing. "After Cinnamon Club, I wanted to delve into newer flavours and Roast happened," he says.

Wahhab will soon open an American restaurant at Trafalgar Square followed by a Mexican-style restaurant. He plans to hit the Alaska and Nebraska route for best-quality crabs and beef and is in talks to launch his Mexican restaurant in Canary Wharf.

His first venture Cinnamon Club is now managed by chef Vivek Singh who on his part is not in the expansion mode as he's busy writing food books.

"There's a book on seafood and that is taking up a lot of time," says Singh. "After I'm done with this project, I'll put my mind to expanding our brand of Cinnamon Club restaurants."

Even in the UK, the fine art of the cuisine spread is fast becoming an Indian art.