If there are two people who understand how India eats, they are Ranveer Brar and Sagar Daryani. While the former is a celebrity chef whose recipes have dazzled viewers in every Indian home, the latter has made momos a rage across the country with his brand, WOW! Momo. The Luxe Lifestyle Forum 2024 brought the duo together at Taj Bengal on September 4, for an interactive session on the ins and outs of the food industry. My Kolkata brings you excerpts.
Sagar started out by sharing that Domino’s was his inspiration behind scaling to over 600 outlets in more than 50 cities. “I thought that if they could convert a roti-eating country into a pizza-eating one, and sell pizzas for Rs 300, why can’t I charge Rs 100 for momos?” he said, urging budding food entrepreneurs to dream big.
‘As a food brand, don’t define yourself as small. Think big. When you think big, you change the game,’ said Ranveer
Ranveer also drew from his own past, advising people who wanted to enter the food industry to do it for passion. “I decided to be a chef in 1992, not because it was amazing like medicine, engineering or the civil services. This is an industry driven by passion and belief, and you either go all in, or you don’t,” he said. Stressing the rates of spoilage and pilferage, he classified the F&B industry as a very high-risk space, with high chances of failure. “I have closed more restaurants than I have opened. But if you believe that you’re doing the right thing, you will succeed. Despite all the risks, you have to wake up each morning with the desire to do it all again.”
‘Companies will never grow unless founders transfer their passion to their team. Today, 2,000 of our total employees have been with us for over three years,’ Sagar beamed
Sagar also urged food entrepreneurs to keep reinventing as they scale, given India’s massively diverse demographic. According to Sagar, every city in India is like a country, and catering to multiple cities is only possible with constant learning. “When we started, our fresh momos would spoil in four hours. Today, they last for three days without preservatives, only with the help of technology.”
For Sagar, the first step with a food business is to identify the cuisine gap in the market. With the ‘WOW’ brand, he began with a desire to restructure the unorganised ‘desi street food’ market. The goal was to always give customers what they wanted. “Today it’s not difficult to understand the cuisine gap because of Zomato and Swiggy. Even now, whenever we open a new store in a new city, we speak at length to food delivery partners to understand the locality, what is the age group, the income level, and what kind of food is in demand. If you give what the customer wants, it will sell,” he said.
‘Ranveer was the showstopper for The Luxe Lifestyle Forum with his unique flair, and made it a true celebration of our hidden talent and rich potential. We look forward to making the event even better in the coming years,’ said Nidhi Burman, senior assistant director, ICC
Ranveer pointed out the other side of this, where people often get so obsessed with their product or dish that they start a business, without understanding whether there is a demand. “The product is only 20% of the game, while the rest is finding the product-market fit. You can have the best ingredients, presentation, or even taste, but if the customer doesn’t want it, it won’t turn into a business,” he explained, emphasising on how the customer is king, and things need to be tweaked around their needs.
Ranveer also urged entrepreneurs to focus on creating value, rather than making money. “The food business is value-driven. We don’t sell atta, dal or rice by the kilo. We create value with stories, connection, passion and emotion. Don’t just prepare a dish, tell a story.” Ranveer himself is known for telling the story behind popular Indian dishes on Instagram with reels that don’t just add flavour, but emotion. He added, “Cooking, for me, is an expression, much like painting or writing poetry.”
Sagar stated that his greatest achievement was the relationships he’d built, while taking the company’s strength to 6,000 employees. “Job creation is the biggest impact for me. I want to take this number to 60,000 someday,” he beamed. Ranveer concluded the session by saying, “ Even with nature, a seed is sown and it grows into a tree, to provide shade to others. The only joy of growing is to grow with others, and to give back.”
