Rajdhani corporate maharaj Jodha Ram.
Have you heard about the corporate maharajs? They are five people, all from the same village, who have risen up the ranks in the Rajdhani chain of thali restaurants to each?take charge of a region of the country. Their responsibilities include making sure that each thali served on any day in any Rajdhani restaurant is uniform. Each katori of dal, for instance, should have exactly the same colour and consistency and most importantly, the same flavour, even if this dal is made in 37 different kitchens across India.
Rajdhani?s corporate maharajs are just one example of the many people who we as customers may never see, but who have a vital influence on both a restaurant?s profits and our dining experience. I?m not talking about the managers, waiters, or busboys, who we interact with. Instead, these are the guys who make sure that the fish is fresh, the licences are still valid, and the annual maintenance contracts for the oven are paid up.?Sometimes the curtain is pulled back a little. Aji Nair, the vice president of food and beverage at Mirah Hospitality, which owns the Rajdhani chain, says that he would like customers to walk through the kitchen after their meal and meet everyone from the unit maharajs to the roti station?s assembly line workers. But that?s the exception rather than the rule.
Because they require a unique skill set that can make or break the restaurant, each of these positions is difficult to fill. Take for instance, the purchase manager. ?Everyone jumps on him,? says Nachiket Shetye, owner and chef of?36 Oak & Barley. ?He has to hear it from suppliers for cheques, [and from] the kitchen for ingredients?if any piece of equipment is not working, everyone asks him why.? The purchase manager needs to be at the restaurant by 7am to receive the goods from the supplier and sign off on the quality and the quantity. It?s his responsibility to ensure that every ingredient and piece of equipment in the restaurant is of a certain standard. At the job interview, Shetye names five ingredients and asks candidates where they would source them from. Honesty is important, because as in any business, the purchase department gets offered the most kickbacks.
Most restaurants in Mumbai hire someone to deal with people who give permissions, licences and No Objection Certificates. ?We call them operations people, but they?re really disaster management people,? says Ketan Kadam, chairman and managing director of Impresa Hospitality Management, which owns Two One Two Bar and Grill and Maroosh. ?They are there to handle situations. They?ll go to government offices, sit there and boost egos. These places don?t run like corporate affairs. The position needs somebody who has lots of patience, communication skills and the ability to speak Marathi.?
It?s also a well paying position, because the business runs on ?commission without receipts?, and if the operations chap is a good negotiator, restaurants allow him to keep the difference after he gets a reduced rate. ?It?s better to pay it off than delay the restaurant?s business,? says Kadam. The areas they tackle include everything from extortion RTIs (made by people who file RTIs against an establishment and then ask for money to withdraw) to interacting with political parties that find the restaurant?s signage doesn?t have its name spelled out in Marathi.
Another contributor whose work is not as complicated, but is just as crucial is the supplier. For Dharmesh Karmokar, partner and director at Nom Nom, Silver Beach Cafe and Zitar, his fish supplier, who he has used for the past seven years, is a ?rock star?. ?He has clout at the docks and he knows how to get the best stuff,? says Karmokar. ?He gets it from fishermen who keep the fish alive in tubs on their boats instead of packing them in ice, so they?re really fresh even if the boat takes three days to reach the docks. A good supplier has good relationships. The fishermen he knows won?t sell to other suppliers, even if they offer a better price.?
These are just a few examples of the dozens of backstage players in the restaurant business. Some positions are created by the restaurant (corporate maharajs), some are common to many (purchase managers), but they each have a role in every meal we eat out, and in keeping the establishment in business. Without them, things would fall apart pretty fast.
Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi is a Mumbai-based food journalist, a contributing editor atVogue?magazine, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and the restaurant reviewer for the Hindustan Times newspaper in Mumbai.
Tags: 36 Oak and Barley, Aji Nair, Dharmesh Karmokar, Ketan Kadam, Nachiket Shetye, Nom Nom, Rajdhani, Restaurants, The Tastemaker, Two One Two Bar and GrillSource: http://mumbaiboss.com/2012/11/09/the-restaurant-industrys-invisible-men/
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