At BrilliantRead, we always strive to bring to our community some of the meaningful and powerful stories. We recently invited Author and Sr Executive Chef Vivek Tamhane for an interview with us which he goldenly accepted. He shared with our team his beautiful journey. Let’s read more!
Excerpts from our Exclusive Interview with him:
Talk us a little about yourself and your journey so far please;
I come from a small family. Since I always had a liking for baking, cooking so I used to cook with my mom. I decided to go to catering college. In 1984-85 this profession was looked upon very down in every eye of people but today it’s a glamorous world. In our time it was not, it was tough, hard, and did not offer good work conditions.
I started my career with ‘Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai’. It gave me a very good exposure. I learnt a lot and became more intrigued and wanted to gain more knowledge. I then went on a cruise, it was a wonderful experience to pre-open the cruise ship in the UK.
Next, I got an opportunity to work in Dublin for one of the top 10 restaurant of Dublin called Vermillion, climbed again to the rank of corporate chef for Cairn Group of Hotel in UK and moved to Canada for a lovely hotel called ‘Chateau Lake Louse’,
Fairmont Group of Hotels came back to India after almost 9 yrs, I took up a position to Director of the company as well as executive chef.
I am very happy that I have achieved most Guinness World Records and My own cookery books have been published with Maharashtra Rajya Parashar, TV cookery shows.
As of today, I have ideated to go into a bigger venture like new hotel projects expansion nationally and internationally. Ready to cook mix especially for Europe and the US .
In future, I would like to be a social enterprise for exclusively for women so they can stand on their own with God gifted culinary skills.
I am always very excited to teach all of them whatever knowledge I have and I must give it to the next generation before I die. This is the journey and story so far.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
First is the responsibility, what’s new that I have created, how can it give better results.
By GOD’s grace, have been able to do that as well, where either I have created it or worked on something related to it.
I am currently in the process of developing something niche on lines like ‘Ready To Mix’ dry form, it will be very easy to cook; ideal product for working people.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
The challenges are the procuring raw material in a particular format and quantity and quality. We need innovative minds and stable process with the right kind of resource.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
Yes, sometimes the product doesn’t come right as we are looking for. Solutions are to avoid certain things which we are not sure about it so there is no chance of failures.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am a very emotional person. Business needs to have emotions and the profession I am in runs on emotions. You need “ LOVE”. Not personal, but business ones like concern for quality client satisfaction, and customer experience.
Money is the priority for running a day to day process but what I believe is – if you put emotions in it, the money will automatically come as an outcome of it.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I have successfully carried out Pre-Openings of Hotels, cruise ship, clubs, and pastry shops. The pressure is tremendous, you just need good planning, executions and most important the team under you. If You take care of the team, the team will take care of your pressure and stress, That’s always has been my mantra to handle pressure and stress. I have been able to carry out successfully.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to entrepreneurs?
Starting a business as an entrepreneur is equal to giving birth to a child. You must understand first what market needs and expect from you. This should come in your tag line. At the same time money management is most primarily important for investments and expenditure; Keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation and rest will automatically set with time. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to us. You will find us a great partner or mentor to you with innovative means.
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BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
