From Chef to General Manager at My Fortune Bengaluru, (member ITC Hotel Group), Kuldeep Dhawan is au fait with the hospitality industry with over 23 years of experience. My Fortune offers 6,650 square feet area dedicated to F&B, covering Indian, Chinese, and Continental cuisines. Dhawan talks about his journey in the F&B industry and gives insights on the technical and operational aspects of running a swanky hotel
Tell us about the initial years of your career.
I was sent on a scholarship program to France by the Food Production Management and Culinary Skills institute in Mumbai. In France, I got the opportunity to train at 10 different restaurants in a period of 3 months. Later, I was a management trainee for one and half years during which I learnt how to manage the kitchen and learnt different recipes. I subsequently became a Continental Chef at the ITC group of hotels.
What challenges did you face during your career?
There is a challenge everyday; it is part of life. From a Continental Chef I moved onto becoming a F&B manager, and then Operations Manager at Manipal, where the Institute of Hotel Management attached to the hotel was also headed by me. The hotel had 70 rooms, and a huge garden where catering events were held for 4,000 to 5,000 people at a time.
I was also teaching the students how to manage a restaurant, create theme festivals, develop menus, prepare dishes, handle customer service, as well as marketing and advertising. It was a challenge as customers would actually come to eat at the institute, and the food service was managed entirely by students.
When I later moved to Ajman in Dubai, I worked for a speciality restaurant called Bukhara for seven months. At Bukhara, the ambience was very rustic; the stools and tables were carved out of trees, and the menu had not changed since its inception.
I came back to India to work as Operations Auditor for hotels. This involved a different set of challenges; I had to meticulously go through the quality of service at the hotel being audited and check compliance of the standards. I audited hotels in Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai.
What areas within a hotel do you look into as GM?
In a bar, I would check how long it takes to serve a drink to a customer. (If it takes more than 5 minutes, then it is too long)p; I would check the sugar, tea, coffee sachets per order. In terms of service, I would evaluate the check- in/out at the front office, house keeping standards, etc. In the kitchen, I would check the plating, stocks like vegetables and their storage, cooking equipment and its cleanliness and maintainance, the HACCP standard in the kitchen zone, etc. At our in-house lab at ITC Gardenia, we undertake checking of food samples. The kitchen at My Fortune is organised into respective sections for Continental, Chinese, and Traditional cuisines. We try to sourced products within 10 kms from the hotel so that supplies are delivered fresh daily. Meat and bakery products are first processed at ITC Gardenia, and then delivered to My Fortune.
What trends have you witnessed in consumer behaviour?
Nowadays, people do not have time. Neither do they have a long attention span, and their patience is very limited. Earlier, people came to restaurants to relax, now they stop for a while and are more busy on their cell phones. I hardly find customers spending time at the dining table. As far as restaurants are concerned nowadays, a lot of them do spend a lot on changing the appearance of the interiors but often neglect on the quality of food.
Tell us about the dining spaces at My Fortune.
There are 4 dining areas: My Cafe (1800 sqft, 16 covers), My Space (900 sqft, 27 covers), My Indian Oven (750 sqft, 46 covers), and the Banquet area (3200 sqft). My Cafe offers Chinese and Continental food priced around Rs1,000 for two. It has a private dining area that doubles up as a business meeting area. My Indian Oven serves traditional food with a light twist, for instance, masala chai is served with Dal Chini chocolate halwa. The menu has been designed by our team of 10 chefs. A live kitchen showcases food being prepared in the tandoor ovens. A meal for two at costs Rs1000 – 2000.
My Fortune has been designed keeping in mind Leed Platinum rating with environment friendly lamps throughout the hotel, lots of natural light in the dining areas, controlled lighting based on Building Management System, recycled water, bioplant for vermi-compost, and imported table mats that can be simply wiped clean. These are some steps that we have taken. The ambiance is also green and fresh with the garden theme flowing through the exteriors into all the dining areas.
What technology has been implemented?
We have SAP for tracking daily inventory, wireless billing, and menus on iPad placed in rooms and on tables. However, for the last two we had to go back to our old system of ordering as customer handling was not conducive. Using SAP, we order and replenish all the stock at all the ITC hotels. All orders come through my cell phone, so everything goes through my clearance. We have 40 hotels under the My Fortune banner and 15 in the ITC group of hotels
