FOODIE SPECIAL .......The globe-trotting Indian restaurant

The globe-trotting Indian restaurant





Panipuri in Manhattan and makai pattice in Muscat?
With the appetite for Indian food growing, many homegrown restaurant chains are headed abroad

At the open-air counter on Colaba Causeway , a swagger of magicians does its thing. One fellow dunks pot-bellied puris into chilled pani.

Another conjures up fluffy delights from a vat of sizzling oil. A third mutters over a pan of glistening gajar halva. All this while patrons bellow orders for gulab jamun, sevpuri, ragda pattice and lassi. And throngs of Mumbaikars stride past the hungry clamour, gaudy mithais and puddles of spilt chutney .

Kailash Parbat is, quite literally, Mumbai in a kadhai. Chatpata, noisy and not all that fussed about niceties like super-hygiene. In fact, it is so inextricably linked with Mumbai that it feels odd to spot a branch in even Surat or Bangalore. Which is why it's necessary to fasten our seatbelts in order to make the next leap of imagination. For, believe it or not, this quintessentially Mumbai eatery is now sloshing its spicy pani and thunking its buttery bhaji in distant Wembley and Manhattan. “We have a global presence,“ says the frenetically busy Laxman Mulchandani of Kailash Parbat, before hanging up mid sentence. “We have branches in Dubai, Singapore, London and New York.“

Kailash Parbat is not alone. Over the last decade, an unexpectedly large number of Indian restaurant chains have ventured overseas. So when you sit at Rajdhani and order a Gujarati thali, piled high with makai pattice, jawari rotla and basundi, chances are high that someone is sitting across the Arabian Sea in Muscat and eating an almost identical meal. Or when you go to a Kobe restaurant in Patiala and happily order a Chicken Sizzler--that ultimate Indo-Japanese collaboration--somebody could be tuck ing into the same dish at the Kobe restaurant in New Zealand.

Admittedly, none of these Indian chains are exactly McDonalds. But more and more restaurateurs are realizing that it might make sense to open their next branch in Abu Dhabi rather than Andheri. “Many food chains are looking at overseas markets as potential promising business opportunities in the food and beverage sector,“ says Rohit Aggarwal, director of Lite Bite Foods, which has set up Punjab Grill in Singapore and Zambar in Abu Dhabi and is in the process of planning a chain of eateries in the US called American Tandoor. Even before the arrival of these new-age entrepreneurs with their business plans and jargon, however, a number of traditional, nofrills eateries did venture abroad. Their strategy was simple, as was their décor. They dished out the flavours of childhood to a nostalgic diaspora and mopped up profits in the process.

So Saravanaa Bhavan -the most success ful globetrotter of the Indian pack --whips up its dosas, idlis and South Indian meals in 12 countries, including Germany, Australia and Kenya. While Anjappar, a chain of rather basic eateries that serve fabulous Chettinad fare, has branches in places like the US, Canada and Malaysia.

“We are in the business of taste,“ adds Shubham Tiwari, business manager of Bikanervala, which serves Indian sweets and North Indian food in Dubai and New Zealand.“There is no point going to a place where people don't have a taste for our food because it takes too long to educate and explain. We choose areas where there are lots of Indians who want our products, and the foreigners can slowly start learning about our food on the side.“

At the other end of the spectrum are foodwalas inspired by all those Cheesecake Factories and TGIFs out there. They believe that if the Brazillian Giraffas or Japanese Ippudocan crack the formula and become truly international, then so can Indian chains.

Ironically, it was neither market research nor business instinct that gave birth to the first Khazana in Dubai in 1998. It was the urging of friends. “I succumbed to the pressure and the restaurant was a huge success,“ recalls Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who today oper ates restaurants in eight countries including Jordan, Gabon and Canada. “There has been a surge of Indian food chains successfully entering the international arena. It is not an overnight phenomenon. However now with the increase in globalization and people's awareness and openness, the success rate is higher, provided the demands are met.“

Little wonder that so many Indian chains are getting itchy feet. Specialty Restaurants -which runs brands like Oh Calcutta and Mainland China -has announced that it will be establishing a dozen restaurants across the US, Canada and Africa while Lite Bite will soon be unveiling the first outlet of American Tandoor in Washington.

Aggarwal says his organization is ready and willing to tackle the perils of operating in uncharted territory . “There are cultural differences, high operating expenses, challenges in hiring of manpower, sourcing the right ingredients, different tax structures.“

Also, menus, recipes and décor have to be tweaked. Formulae have to be established.Local laws have to be followed. Nevertheless, Chef Kapoor maintains that homegrown restaurant chains have much more to offer than all those generic Balti restaurants and Indian takeaways that supply the world with its curry fix.

Shabnam Minwalla

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