Catch the 'war of barbecue chefs' at Barbecue Nation

Straight out of hotel management school recruited directly into Sayaji Hotels, Prosenjit Roy Choudhry climbed his way to the top to become the CEO of Barbeque Nation. Prosenjit Roy Choudhry began Barbeque Nation in 2006. His experience in the hospitality industry and F&B management helped him introduce the idea of ‘cook it yourself’ outlets across India. Prosenjit Roy Choudhry is the CEO of Barbeque Nation at 34. He intends to open 200 Barbeque Nation 5 years from now.

Prosenjit’s Barbeque Nation experiment has been a best seller from the start. It turned profitable from the first outlet itself. With a turnover of Rs 72 crore from the current 12 outlets, he hopes to touch a Rs 100 crore plus by the year-end as outlets get added on.

Prosenjit Roy Choudhry of Barbeque Nation in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan said that he plans to increase the number of outlets in India, He said that barbeque is a cuisine, which is practiced in different format across the world so he plans to have chefs from different regions of globe coming in and showing their expertise. It is like going to be a war of barbeque chefs.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Prosenjit Roy Choudhry:

Q: On offer is a variety of cuisines dawn from Mediterranean, American, Oriental and Asian origin. Test marketed in Mumbai, Barbeque Nation became an instant success. But what makes it work?          

A: We have an USP of having a live grill right on to the table which is basically the fun part of the cooking which has been transported from the kitchen, wherein one has an opportunity as a guest to finish the skewers on to ones own test. That spells freshness, and as barbeque is a healthy cuisine, we try to bring in health and taste together.

Q: Though you have come up with the right mix of ingredients to make this experience an enjoyable one. With the choice to pick your own marinates and condiments, your food tastes just the way you like it. Your expansion plans are red hot with 12 outlets already operational, and you plan to have another 22 by the end of the year including some in tier two cities like Mysore and Coimbatore. But rolling out at this scale requires serious quality control?

A: We have a full training department. We don’t take people as and when they come. We take them, we train them and then we put them on to the orbit. So we have a full R&D team - those who are working on getting in more number of items, variety of items so to say. We have a training setup, which is essentially food and beverage related. So we have a Bar Consultant who is working on the bars, on to the beverages. Then there are expert chefs - those who are expert in their own cuisine and the guys are getting trained in a place. We have a training and learning center of Barbeque Nation.

This is just the beginning. We have just got through the first part of barbequing. We intend to take it up further. Barbeque is a cuisine, which is practiced in different format across the world. So we are going to have chefs from different regions of globe coming in and showing their expertise. It is like going to be a war of barbeque chefs.