Saloni Bhatia – Mumbai
Chef Jugesh Arora is known for his passion for the culinary profession, whether it’s working behind the stove or the desk. His five-year-old company Chef Arora provides end to end culinary solutions to hotels. Chef Arora, who started his journey with a mithai house in Mumbai, has over 25 years of experience in the culinary profession. Talking to Food & Hospitality World about his company, he said, “Our company is an end-to-end service provider. We provide everything one would need in their kitchens. Starting from food safety management systems, recruiting chefs and food and beverage staff, training of the staff, sourcing equipments, menu creation, standardisation of recipes and guidance to set up kitchens.”
About his love and commitment for the culinary profession, he shared, “After so many years of experience, I thought I should give something back to the industry and that’s when I started off with my company in Chennai in 2011. We give complete customised culinary solutions to hotels. It is easy for the big branded hotels to built these services since they have different departments. But there are smaller chains who don’t have corporate chefs or F&B directors so it becomes difficult for them to standardise their processes. This is where my company comes into the picture.”
Arora added, “I fortunately got two big breaks with Park Hyatt and Westin, Chennai. As a chef I understand the work flow, so it is easy for me to execute the process. Normal consultants just put the system in place which might be difficult for the operations team to follow. Then they keep changing from one thing to the other.”
He also mentioned, “I am compiling a book on ‘Star Chefs of India’ that would talk about chefs in the industry and their state of origin. There would be a small feature on the famous dishes from the home state and the chef’s favourite dishes. I wish to open a culinary school that would have chefs from across the industry coming and giving lectures but it requires a lot of investment.”