EP 27: Passion in Practice : Girgaum Kitchen, Tukaram Mundhe, Rural Children Education and More!

Omkar Narvekar spent five years in advertising, walked out as an associate creative supervisor, and took a job as a waiter at the Bombay Canteen for four months — to learn the restaurant business from the floor up before opening his own place. He's 28. He now runs The Girgaum Kitchen in Girgaon, a five-table restaurant in a building that opened as a cold drink house in 1930, when almost nobody in Bombay owned a refrigerator. Most people who want to open a restaurant start with the food. Omkar started with the service — carrying plates, eleven hours on his feet, scraping chewing gum off the underside of tables. Today none of his staff can tell him that isn't how it's done, because he's done it. We get into why a restaurant's cash flow runs negative every day at the start, why you need four to six months of money before you open, why you choose your signature dish before you hire your chef, what a food inspector really looks at, and why if you want your vada pav in sixty seconds you were never his customer. An hour in, it becomes a different episode. Omkar also co-founded Let's Imagine Together, an NGO working with zilla parishad schools in Wada and Vikramgad, Palghar district — not Mumbai. Twenty-plus schools, mostly crowdfunded. Schools with no road to them. Children who eat rats because that is the free protein available. A skateboard donated to a village with nowhere to skate. And why he asked a corporate donor for an inverter instead of a lavish classroom. Links below and in the first comment. He asks for more than money. The Girgaum Kitchen — Girgaon, Mumbai Instagram: @thegirgaumkitchen Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/mumbai/the-gir... Maps: https://share.google/yXVJCqbfnZV9pDXm0 Lets imagine together! https://letsimaginetogether.in/ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:56 He gave up a five-year advertising career to become a waiter 3:30 "We celebrated a million impressions, and there was rarely any impact" 6:15 Telling his wife on a train, and his parents a month after he resigned 7:53 "Did it hurt your ego?" Advertising executive to waiter 10:33 Day one: eleven hours standing, and going to the washroom just to sit 12:11 Holding back the storyteller, and the canteen tour he suggested 14:07 The guests were fine. The colleagues weren't — there's no escalation email in a restaurant 15:47 Why he chose service over the kitchen: "now nobody can tell me that's not how it's done" 19:36 "I'm here to take care of you," not "I'm here to serve you" 20:37 Ninety per cent join this industry to start their own place and never leave 21:54 Cash flow is negative every day at the start, and which vendor gets paid tonight 23:58 A day at the restaurant: 4am at the market to 10:30pm shutters down 25:36 Five tables, one fridge, and why the menu can't be fixed in advance 28:26 How Girgaum Kitchen happened: a 1930s cold drink house, before anyone had a refrigerator 31:50 Ganpati with his mother on the morning service and his father in the evening 33:17 Decide your signature dish before you open, or the chef owns you 33:49 Sukrunde: a flat modak in a turmeric leaf, and the granny they brought in to teach it 36:00 Hygiene from day one, and why breaking a habit is harder than forming one 38:28 The last time he lost his temper was two days ago 39:40 "They respect you if you use hard language" — the leadership lesson he hates 43:19 When is the right time to leave a salary? "There is no right time" 46:09 Thalipeeth pan-fried, not deep-fried, and a wait people pay extra for 48:23 If you want your vada in one minute, you are not his customer 51:18 How he lost weight at the Bombay Canteen while eating McDonald's 54:11 People are in love with the memory of food, not the food 59:04 What the food inspector actually checks 1:02:13 Let's Imagine Together: the NGO he started in college 1:07:07 Not Mumbai — Wada and Vikramgad, where children eat rats 1:10:25 A skateboard donated to a village with no road to skate on 1:12:25 Maths taught with seeds, and students who built their own furniture 1:16:43 Ashwini, 15, wants to be a doctor. Her mother asks who will pay 1:17:18 Put in an inverter, not a lavish classroom 1:20:43 The one dish to order: the Konkani veg thali MORE ON HOW A BUSINESS REALLY WORKS Syam, starting a manufacturing company at 57:    • EP 22 : FAILURES FOR SUCCESS!   Gaurav, who pays when an event goes wrong:    • EP 4: Unleash Your Hustle & Secure Your Fu...   Bhavna Murjani, building a business at 42:    • EP7:  Lets Florish with Design Dame Bhavna...   The Pineapple Podcast — two idiots who love listening to people who aren't. #GirgaumKitchen #Girgaon #MumbaiFood #MaharashtrianFood #MumbaiRestaurants #RestaurantBusiness #BombayCanteen #FoodBusinessIndia #Entrepreneurship #CareerChange #KhakiTours #OmkarNarvekar #LetsImagineTogether #ThePineapplePodcast #Mumbai