V Viswanathan
There is no denying the fact that caterers play a crucial role in our marriages as it’s very important to address the needs of people’s taste buds. My daughter’s marriage was conducted a year ago in Chennai. If at all there was a ‘man of the match’ award in the wedding for the service providers, the caterer would have won it hands down, not only for winning hearts through culinary delight but also driving home a host of management lessons.
Being a popular vegetarian caterer based in Chennai, their calendar is always packed and we had to book them six months in advance. A few weeks before the event, my wife and I met Balaji, son of the proprietor and who now plays a key role in running the establishment, at his office to discuss and finalise the menu. Just the utterance of the word ‘menu’ triggered his passion.
He visualised a plantain leaf in front of him, created the menu items in his mind’s eye and placed them on an imaginary leaf, describing each item with a child’s enthusiasm, starting with sweet payasam on right side bottom corner and moving to the top half with curd-salad, fruit salad, pineapple salad, different vegetables, pickle, chips and so on. When he had served the fictitious rice, sambar and ghee in the centre, we could vicariously feel the taste and smell of the food and felt like asking for a second helping. I was reminded of Steven Covey’s ‘Begin with the end in mind’ principle, which according to the author is placed second in the list of seven habits of highly effective people.
Prior to opening the dining venue to the guests, the team members inspected and wiped meticulously every plantain leaf before placing them on the table. In many weddings, even before people took their seats, most of the dishes would be served on the leaf, exposed and allowed to cool off. But here, only when a guest occupied the table, the serving started. They had evolved a process whereby rice was served piping hot for all batches. Everyone could experience the same quality of food.
The dining hall was adequately staffed with courteous people. Normally in a dining hall, there’d be shouts of, “Chellapa, can you bring rasam to this table; Hey Kicha, Get papad for this uncle.” But there was hardly any argument, blame game and high decibel exchange among the team members as they followed a coding system for the dishes and the information was silently exchanged by show of fingers –say 1 for sambar and 2 for rasam. In communication, silence can sometimes be golden.
Balaji explained the hard work and painstaking research put in by his father Mr Pattappa who has now, at 69, taken the role of a mentor. “My father used to sit in the kitchen during night hours and closely study the preparations at various time intervals. He’d observe exactly at what time the dish changed its properties and became stale. He would work back on the process (reverse engineering) so a dish can be prepared at the right time neither too early nor too late and served always in absolutely good condition.”
When your customers are delighted, can stardom be far away? Success and adulation do not come just like that on a platter, nay plantain leaf. They need to be hard earned.
