Gauri Devidayal, Founder and CEO, Food Matters Group
Gauri Devidayal is a law graduate from University College London and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales.
Podcast
Overview
Starting a Business is one of the biggest challenges any entrepreneur will face. There are many questions to answer at the very beginning when starting a business, but the most difficult one is the question of what exactly you want to do. Today we have Gauri Devidayal, Founder and CEO, of Food Matters Group to talk about her experience of starting a business.
00:33- About Gauri Devidayal
- Gauri Devidayal is a law graduate from University College London and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales. She pursued her career as a tax consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Mumbai for 8 years.
- With no previous experience in the hospitality industry and have never dreamt of doing anything entrepreneurial, Gauri nevertheless supported her husband Jay in creating The Table, a restaurant in South Mumbai, which has gone on to win many accolades and much recognition in the city as well as internationally, including being rated the #4 restaurant in the country by a leading travel publication.
02:43- About Food Matters Group
- We started with one restaurant called the Table which is in Mumbai in 2011.
- We found our calling and we both love what we do, and it just led from one restaurant to another.
- We actually didn’t take the conventional route of expansion.
- After we opened our first restaurant, we actually opened a culinary event space about three years later called Magazine Street Kitchen.
06:34- What is needed to build and sustain a good restaurant?
- This business is one that has about a 90% failure rate and the first year is the most challenging, but it goes beyond the first year.
- It’s one of the most highly capitalized businesses.
- People will rarely give you a second chance, so if you don’t win them over on that first opportunity you get to serve them you’ve probably lost them for a very long time.
09:46- How much are Indians willing to experiment with their food?
- Biryani is the top-selling dish.
- We were expected to either fall into the Indian, Chinese, or Italian category.
- We are in Bombay, where we cater to an audience that’s well-traveled.
- Our menu is what’s called globally-inspired, which means that it’s essentially cuisine agnostic.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Gauri Devidayal- LinkedIn
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Profile
After 8 years in London, Gauri returned to Mumbai, where she was born and brought up. In early 2008, she met her husband, Jay Yousuf, and was persuaded to leave the tax profession and to join him on his restaurant adventure.
With no previous experience of the hospitality industry and having never dreamt of doing anything entrepreneurial, Gauri nevertheless supported Jay in creating The Table, a restaurant in South Mumbai, which has gone on to win many accolades and much recognition in the city as well as internationally, including being rated the #4 restaurant in the country by a leading travel publication.
