At the recently held launch of the book,
‘Secret Sauce – Inspiring stories of Great
Indian Restaurants’, written by Priya Bala and Jayanth Narayanan, that was held
at Longuinhos Bar and Restaurant, Margao, co-author Priya Bala disclosed that
while working on her last book,‘Start up Your Restaurant’, she and co-author
Jayanth realised that there were many iconic restaurants in the country and
they had a story to tell as they have survived for decades, whereas currently,
the survival rate of restaurants is only 20 per cent.
Most of the restaurants featured in the
book have been functioning for more than 30 years, with some new ventures like
Dominos and Subway included as these are the new success stories in the
restaurant industry.
There is a wide range of restaurants featured in the book as
they all tell the success story. “This is not a book for those wishing to
select a restaurant to eat out. This is telling the success stories of
restaurants that are delightful places to eat at,” said Priya.
It took two years of research to prepare the book as the
restaurant owners were busy running their establishments and would not find
time to give an interview, disclosed Priya, while revealing that she had to
spend many hours at various restaurants.
Three restaurants from Goa are featured in the book. One is the
iconic Longuinhos Bar and Restaurant that was started in 1950 and till date
continues to be the place for Goans to meet up, especially those who come from
overseas to relive old memories.
“It is indeed amazing how Longuinhos has maintained the same
food standard for all these years,” said Priya, adding that passion for the
trade was the common link in all the 40 restaurants featured in the book. “The
owners have kept things simple, maintained quality and respected honesty,” she
said, when asked to state what was the key to the success stories.
Owner
of Longuinhos, Ilio Coutinho, gave credit to the staff who work tirelessly and
selflessly all these years to maintain the high standards while his brother,
Ivo Coutinho, shared some information about shopping, especially for fish.
