‘Good values are precious to me’

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: family business happened by accident. His father’s trusted aide, his brother-in-law, had betrayed him. There was no one to assist him in his business. That’s when Kamat and his elder brother stepped in to help their father. The dream of a blissful professional life was set aside forever. Life had indeed come a full circle for the young Kamat.

Once into the restaurant business, something Kamat’s father wished his kids hadn’t got into—the road to success wasn’t easy. Kamat had new ideas, new ways of doing business—some of which did not find favour with his conservative father. “Do business with anyone in the world but never on the basis of bogus newspaper ads,” the older Kamat would exhort his young charge.

But Kamat did manage to introduce some new features nevertheless, like serving beer at Samrat, one of the restaurants he was running alongwith his father. “I had already obtained the permit to serve liquor and father wouldn’t allow it. It took me four years to convince him. Finally, he relented on one condition: that there would be no unruly scenes by beer drinkers in the restaurant,” says Kamat.

This combination, of good food and chilled beer, augmented the customer base at Samrat. Numbers soared by the day. Even a hard-nosed restaurateur like Venkatesh Kamat admitted: “Vithal, you were right.” This was a personal victory for the young Kamat, of finally getting the approval of a man, who was, frankly, difficult to please.

“Our father was tough on us. But today, when I look back, I think it helped us in pushing ourselves. He wanted us to be achievers. And I resolved I would be one,” he says.

Kamat’s innate ability of having a way with people has helped him in no small measure in his drive to the top. As a child, when locked in the balcony of his one-room apartment for a playing a prank, it was his friends, young as they were, who would come to his rescue with whatever food they could. Kamat was able to work his charm on the legendary Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi too—the doyen of the Indian hotel industry—who he met as a gawky youngster in the 1970s.