| En Route To The Billionaire Club |
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Nelson Wang of China Garden, the Mumbai restaurant that has never had an empty table for the past 11 years, came to Mumbai with just Rs 27 in his pocket in 1974 BS
Research Bureau A few years later, my foster family migrated to Canada. I was given the option to go , but I turned it down. I somehow sensed that I would make it here and ambled off to Bangalore and Hyderabad, working in eateries down the road. The income was barely enough. So I took to entertaining passerbys with gimmicks like limbo dancing and giving tips on the craft of shoemaking. Fortunately, the culinary skills I picked up during my Kolkata days astonished people. They suggested that I shouldn't waste my time there but should go to Mumbai. So with just Rs 27 in my pocket and nothing else, in 1974, I stepped off the train at Victoria Terminus in Mumbai. I had a friend who was working at the now defunct Frederick's restaurant. He got me a job as a chef at Rs. 1,200 a month. It wasn't much, but who's complaining? I was doing what I loved the most, cooking. Hardly a year passed by when the Cricket Club of India requested Frederick's to take charge of its catering. As the restaurant couldn't take up the offer, I stepped in and asked that it be given to me. I saw that as a stepping stone to success. My wish
was granted. I was in charge of a business with no investment of my
own. The club provided me with everything including staff, space and
electricity. I just had to cook and make sure it was good. From Rs 300 per day in 1975, I raised the CCI contract value to Rs 35,000 a day in 1994. I was, how do you say it, rolling in money. I was also able to start a small restaurant called China Town with a friend as a partner. My first break As luck would have it, the popularity of my food was too much for me to handle. The rush meant a long wait for guests, as I didn't have enough table space. One of them was builder Om Prakash Navani, who relished my food but hated the queue. He made an offer to open a restaurant in the office complex he was building at Kemp's Corner. I saw the place, liked it but its Rs 20 lakh price stumped me. That was the basic cost. I would need more to furnish it for operational use. This I couldn't afford no matter how much it meant to me. But Om,
bless his soul, allowed me to pay in installments and even stood as
guarantor for me with the bank. The rest came from a lot of well-wishers
and other good friends sustained as clients over the I made
sure it was the city's best restaurant and the country's finest. Often
I have been asked to charge more which my guests can very well afford,
but I say don't be greedy. If I can charge Rs 10 and make a Over the last few years I have been aiming at establishing a chain of China Gardens all over India. That's why I have involved my two sons in the business. While Edward joined a course at the University of Guelph, Ontario, for managing restaurant chains, Henry learnt the art of fine dining at the prestigious Les Roche, Switzerland. As for me, I went to Vancouver to study the satellite central kitchen concept, a practical course in maintaining quality and consistency at restaurant chains. This has resulted in the development of a 4,000 sq feet satellite kitchen in central Mumbai's Worli to make the "mother sauces" for our chain. In September 2001, I signed a 10-year franchise agreement with Kathmandu's Soaltee Crown Plaza for my China Garden. So China Garden became the first Chinese restaurant from India to lend its name overseas. Next year, I want to have a presence in Pune, Delhi and Bangalore and add another restaurant in Mumbai. These properties will be five-storied buildings that will also house banquet halls and a pub. I also
want to open Chinese fast food outlets across the country from 2004
onwards. I want 10 outlets each in Mumbai and Delhi. My Mumbai establishment
is the single largest for Citibank's credit card transactions - nearly
Rs 1 lakh. That is the story of my life.
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