| |
The
wokhorse is Back
The
celebrated China Garden reopens in Mumbai. And owner Nelson Wang can't
stop the rush.
By
Anupama Chopra
Please
don't make me look like a joker," Nelson Wang is saying to a photographer
from a newspaper who's trying to convince Wang to don a Chinese robe.
"As it is," Wang implores, "my eyes are small and nose
flat. Besides I'm only a cook." If only there were more cooks like
him.
Wang, cook
and proprietor, is busy putting the finishing touches on the new China
Garden in Mumbai and waiters are rushing around on last minute instructions.
And without a single advertisement, the restaurant is booked solid for
the next 10 days. From August 1, tout le Mumbai have started scrambling
for seats at the city's most celebrated Chinese restaurant. Says superstar
Amitabh Bachchan: "It's quite simply the best Chinese restaurant
I've ever eaten in. I'm very happy he's back."
Nine months
ago, China Garden closed down after an 11-year battle with the Bombay
Municipal Corporation. Wang, whose restaurant had expanded beyond his
wildest imagination, had converted storage space into a service area.
Naturally, the authorities cried foul. But in its 15 years of existence,
China Garden became synonymous with delectable cuisine, winning 22 awards.
But clients came for more than just food -- eating at the restaurant meant
that you had arrived. High society divas, business barons, politicians
and film stars made a beeline for the restaurant and unless your last
name was Wadia, Godrej or Bachchan, waiting time for reservations was
a week.
Now Wang
is hoping to recapture the old magic. The location is different but the
experience is the same. Wang has retained 75 per cent of his old menu,
including some popular Korean and Thai dishes, but also added new ones
like roast chicken and pork barbecue. "It's authentic Chinese with
a twist," he says.
There is
little reason to believe it won't succeed. Points out food writer Rashmi
Uday Singh: "Wang is extremely gifted ... he is bursting with original
ideas." Absolutely. When the restaurant was closed, Wang used the
time to build a central kitchen to create his mother sauce. His two sons,
both trained abroad in hotel technology, will be joining him shortly and
there are plans to set-up five more China Gardens next year. Wang was
also smart enough to retain his trained staff -- they were paid full salary
for nine months with no work. Regulars also got flowers on their anniversaries
and birthdays even when the restaurant was no longer operational.
The restaurateur,
who will be 50 in September, is also a quintessentially Bambaiya streets-to-skyscraper
story. In July 1974, he landed at the Victoria Terminus with only Rs 27
in his pocket. "I was a very good cook," he says, "so I
took a chance." His first job at a restaurant paid him Rs 1,200 a
month. Today, he has 350 people working for him. Of course, in the months
that China Garden has been gone, other hotspots like Indigo and Frangipani
have hit the headlines. But Wang isn't complaining about the competition.
"The competition is good," he says, "so you have to be
better. Besides mine is the only restaurant which is owned by the cook
himself." So if his staff doesn't show up, Wang will simply take
off his expensive suit and get behind the wok himself. After all, that
is what he does
best.
Next
|
|
Can
Bangaru Laxman do for the BJP what Lieberman has done for Al Gore, questions
S. Prasannarajan in
India
should learn the kung-fu of business or get hammered by China after it
joins the WTO, says Sudeep Chakravarti in
"It
is a frustration that India and Pakistan have not grown up enough to pull
their heads out of the sand." Read an exclusive interview with 
