Experience at a Hotel or Restaurant Counts
Foodaholics is your own baby, but is it necessary for a baking specialist to take some kind of training?
Anyone who is young has to get the experience of working in a restaurant or hotel. You should first learn to master the art of baking and once you are out of school then learn about other things like the cost of putting things together, decide on the kind of boxes/packaging you want for your products, the presentation. If you want to start out on your own, you have to work out a viable business model. Find out if you can make money out of what you are doing.
You trained at the Culinary Institute of America. What did that experience teach you?
My deans and teachers at the institute were brilliant. The truth is that if you are working hard, then your teachers also pay attention to you. They saw me studying, and multitasking, teaching maths to students, thanks to my SRCC background, helping out some chefs with their research. It was a very enriching experience there - I had to interact with all - from the dish-washer, to the dean, the person laying out the table for a party, to the host of the party.
There were all kinds of people I met when I travelled all across the US. Also, being a vegetarian, I was allowed to eat whatever vegetarian stuff the kitchens in the institute produced. In fact I came to be known as the broccoli girl there. I remember initially putting on a lot of weight because of the amount of cheese I ate. Luckily, as I had lived alone in India (my parents were in Singapore), I was not averse to trying out different kinds of foods and adapted to the culture well. I learnt a lot - in the product management class I came to know about the existence of 40 different types of tomatoes, about four types of Brussels sprouts, about breads from all parts of the world. School taught me to think of food from a scientific viewpoint.
And setting up Foodaholics, your own business? Was that easy?
The fact that I am from a business family helped. I also had work experiene at the Four Seasons - first in the US then Singapore. Then, I did consultancy for friends and decided to start my own venture.
Author: Ayesha Banerjee (HT Horizons)
Date: 7th October, 2010
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