A taste for thought

Ever heard of a dish called ‘Bhetki Rongpuri Fry’? Or a ‘Jumbo Ilish Borishali’? Or even ‘Goalondo Steamer Curry’? Maybe, you never had. Few years back, even a hardcore Bengali must have arched his eyebrows and would’ve safely concluded these names have been taken from a recipe of good-old Bangla folk-lore! But gone are those days now. Presently, these mouthwatering hot-names have earned a kind of cult-image among the Bengalis. And credit goes to ‘Bhojohori Manna’!


LIVE FROM THE BACKSTAGE
Over the years, professional cuisine-world is dominated by Chinese, Italian and Continental foods. Back home, mainly the Mughlai, Tandoori, Punjabi and South Indian cuisines rock. What about Bengali cuisine? After all, wasn’t it true that the love for food is in Bengali bloodline? These questions haunted five close friends for long. That famous friend circle consist of Gautam Ghosh (National Awards-winning filmmaker), Rajiv Neogi (former SAIL executive), Siddhartha Chatterjee (Satyajit Ray’s ‘Topse’ and portfolio consultant), Ranjit Dasgupta (businessman), and Siddhartha Bose (former Tata executive).

What did they have in common? Apart from a bonded friendship, the most striking common factor between these five friends is passion for Bengali food. Banking on this passion, in 2003, they dreamt of coming up with a special restaurant that’ll concentrate only on Bengali cuisine. They named it Bhojohori Manna (the magical cook popularised in the 70s by legendary singer Manna Dey’s song Ami Sri Sri Bhojohori Manna) and started with a small 16-seat establishment at Ekdalia, in Kolkata.

Their main emphasis was on the quality of the food, because in restaurant business, the real test is taste. The concept of Bhojohori Manna is inspired by the ideal price-hotel model, and as expected, it was an instant hit. And with time, the size of the queue in front of the restaurant went on increasing. Bhojohori Manna became one of such rare and gifted initiatives where operational expansion wasn’t a result of a pre-defined plan, rather a smiling and humble obligation to overwhelming demand of the customers.

CURTAIN-RAISER
Talking about the secret behind the instant popularity of Bhojohori Manna, founder-partner Rajiv Neogi says, “The concept Bhojohori Manna always focuses on the ‘family feeding’ style. I mean, the way our grandmothers used to cook - every item cooked separately and only once in a day. We emphasize on the freshness of the food so much that till date, we hardly use any preservative in the whole process. It’s like an ‘extension of home dining’, in a bit cleaner, fresher, convenient and stylish way. Our customers have appreciated that effort and that’s why their demand is always north-bound, forcing us to open more outlets in various parts of the city.”

It’s amazing to see a restaurant-chain gaining such popularity with absolutely zero advertising budget! “Frankly speaking,” another founder-partner Siddhartha Bose explains, “we believe that the food should speak for itself. If one can provide the customers with good quality food, it doesn’t need any advertisement to make its presence felt. The spread of word-of-mouth awareness will be always excellent, as is the case with us.”

APPLAUSE
But achieving that quality isn’t easy. It requires pure passion for food and, most importantly, even more passionate manpower. Explaining their take on manpower, Neogi says, “We bank upon the ‘native wisdom’. Our people are semi-skilled and semi-literate. But they all use the ‘native wisdom’ of food-service while working and that’s why our customers enjoy such an excellent ‘family-taste’ in each of our items."

Moreover, Bhojohori Manna follows a multi-pricing model (depending upon any particular outlet’s location and its client-tale) and the model is working wonders for it as it always takes customers’ affordability into consideration. Currently, they’ve seven outlets in Kolkata and one more to be added in the list within few months. Banking on the success in Kolkata, Bhojohori Manna is now expanding itself beyond Bengal. Few months back, they opened an outlet in Bangalore and that’s also earned a great popularity amongst local Bengalis. And they’ll start operating in Mumbai by early 2010.

CRITI-CAL FACTORS
The team Bhojohori isn’t oblivious to the challenges of the market. But what makes them unique is the outlook with which they view those challenges. Neogi says, “When we started operations, there was hardly any branded entity in Bengali cuisine industry. The industry was almost undiscovered. But our success story has inspired others and now, with many other players in action, we can proudly say that there has been a new ‘awakening’ in the Bengali cuisine industry.”

Talking about the commercialisation of Bengali cuisine, Bose explains, “Way back in 60s, Bengalis from the-then East Pakistan went to Brick Lane and started Bengali cuisine industry there. But we, Indian Bengalis hardly did anything about it. It’s good to see the recent developments and we’re proud about the commercial potential that this industry has in store for us.”

There have been several attempts by several so-called big fishes to acquire the brand Bhojohori Manna, but these five friends (and few more friends who joined the journey later on) have stood tall. In Neogi’s words, “People might have money, but hardly anyone will share the passion for food and determination to the service quality that we at Bhojohori Manna have in us. That’s why Bhojohori Manna cannot give in such a small threat as money!” That’s a tasty Bengali food for thought, indeed!