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Recipe for Success: Only Parathas’ director currently ‘living a dream’
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Friday, 16 May, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Harcha Bhaskar, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d  Twelve years ago, Anil Singh Arora (alias Pappi Singh) embarked upon a journey, and today, he is the director of three brands of restaurants - Only Parathas, Amritsari Tadka and Z’non Lounge Bar.
“The current phase of my business is as good as living a dream. However, dreams don't come true by magic. It takes sweat, determination and hard work,” said the bachelor’s degree holder in arts, who worked in a private finance company.
Arora said by no means was venturing into the hospitality sector a easy task. He added, “During my stint in the finance sector, there was a constant urge to foray into the hospitality sector, and it was nurtured in each passing day.”
To become an entrepreneur was always his ambition, but he never thought he would enter the restaurant industry. “The credit for that would go to my wife, who provoked me to start a restaurant,” he said.
Commenting on what inspired him to get into the food business, Arora stated, “Cooking is my passion. I was inspired to cook by my mother. From the age of 15, I used to follow my mother’s recipes and add a slight touch of my style to it. This is the way I manage to design all the recipes in all my restaurants.”
“My mother always used to smell salt before cooking. I always used to wonder why. One day she said, ‘This is a tradition. If you smell salt before cooking, you will never go wrong.’ I follow the same tradition till date,” he recalled.
To serve authentic North Indian fare to the customers, Arora said the spices are sourced from Delhi.
“It was challenging for me to open something very different from Mumbai’s taste, but at the same time I was confident about the varieties of parathas I was offering. A bigger challenge than competition was to find the perfect location to open a restaurant - it had to be a locality where I could get good footfalls,” he stated.
“The second challenge to create an identity for the restaurant, as it was a new taste to Mumbai,” Arora added.
“Another challenge for me was to create buzz about the restaurant to create more visibility,” he said.
“I also grappled with the issue of pricing. If the items were priced too high, people wouldn’t turn up, so I had to plan my menu very wisely,” Arora added.
“One of the biggest challenges was to find the right people to work at my eatery. If I went wrong with this, it would automatically affect my restaurant’s identity,” he said.
Arora started the first outlet of Only Parathas at Lokhandwala in 2001, and followed it up with the Linking Road at Khar.
He recollected that day as the happiest moment in life. Today, he has 14-15 employees working per outlet.
“It is my confidence, my belief in God, and of course, my passion for cooking, that has kept me going all these years,” Arora said.
“Family support is a must to stay firm in the business, and as far as starting a new business is concerned, one needs to tell them his/her aims and goals. An entrepreneur has to make them believe in his/her passion. It is only due to my family’s support and love that I am successful,” he added.
When quizzed about his dreams, Arora said, “I am living my dream of running a restaurant. My future plans are, of course, to upgrade my three brands. I plan to give master franchisees to restaurateurs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Middle-East.”
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