HOW I QUIT GOOGLE TO SELL SAMOSAS: Adventures With the Bohri Kitchen by Munaf Kapadia

Author:Munaf Kapadia [Kapadia, Munaf]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, General
ISBN: 9789354222580
Google: nVccEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B08WG3TMT9
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-04-09T18:30:00+00:00

Founder of Impresario, a ₹350 crore-hospitality chain³⁵ behind some of the most exciting F&B concepts in India such as SOCIAL and Smoke House Deli, Riyaaz was someone I had always looked up to. After launching TBK, I had grand plans to place our Smoked Mutton Kheema Samosas at SOCIAL outlets across the city.

In April 2016, after a lot of chasing, I had finally managed to track him down.

‘Hi, is this Riyaaz?’ I said, a little surprised that he answered on my first try.

‘Yes, how can I help you?’ he said.

‘This is Munaf Kapadia. I’m the Chief Eating Officer of The Bohri Kitchen. I was wondering if it would interest you to introduce TBK samosas on your menu at SOCIAL?’

We were barely doing ₹30 lakh in annual sales at that time. That’s 0.1 per cent of Impresario’s numbers.

‘Oh nice! I’ve heard about you! Can you come over to Khar SOCIAL right now?’

I took a train from Churchgate to Khar and ninety minutes later, I had met Riyaaz. He asked me to get back to him with rates for the samosas that ensured SOCIAL maintained their margins.

That night itself I sent him the rates and waited anxiously for a reply that never came. I sent him a couple of WhatsApp messages but never heard back. I convinced myself that I had lost my shot at collaborating with one of the largest F&B tycoons in the country.

Then I did something impulsive.

I called up an acquaintance who worked for him and asked if he had any idea where Riyaaz might be at that very moment. He had heard, on the grapevine, that Riyaaz was at the Todi Mills SOCIAL.

There was no guarantee that Riyaaz would be there and even if he was, there was no reason why he would meet me. Still, I got there in sixty minutes.

I entered the Todi Mills compound gate and saw him standing right there! I told the driver to stop, but he just kept going. God bless the crazy traffic at the gate, it gave me the few minutes I needed to roll down the window, wave frantically at Riyaaz and ask whether he was headed out. He indicated that I should wait for him at SOCIAL.

‘Hey, where’s Riyaaz sitting?’ I asked the manager at the outlet. I parked myself next to his table and after he was done with his pre-planned meetings, he finally sat down beside me.

‘So, what’s up, Munaf?’ he said.

After haggling a bit, we agreed to take the collaboration aka TBK Samosas@SOCIAL ahead.

For the first time in my life, I had to deal with the logistics of dispatching thousands of samosas at a time. I also learnt (the hard way) that damaged goods can eat into your carefully calculated margins and why cold chain logistics are important. On the positive side, the product was a hit!³⁶

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