Sanjana Suresh, born into a family who hailed from Udupi, Mangalore District, Karanataka, with a business background of restaurateurs starting from her Grandfather. It is no surprise that the passion for this industry was imbibed by her from the time of her birth. To be more precise when children would go to play after school, she spent time with her father to be in restaurant that was founded in 1985. She used to accompany her father who placed a seat adjacent to him and that triggered her interest in this field and the journey has been incredibly rewarding. She affirms that her education on the nuances of the business, hands on experience, training etc, was undoubtedly given by her father Mr Suresh Padamanabhan, the founder of Sangeetha Veg. She is now the Partner of the Sangeetha Caterers and Consultants LLP along with other designated partners namely Mr Rajagopal, Mr Suresh, and partner Mr Anirudh Rajagopal, which boasts about having 35 outlets in Chennai and 23 outlets abroad which spreads over Europe, UAE, Malaysia, Hongkong, and USA.
Given her education in Hotel Management from IHM, Chennai along with work experience as well as her passion and professional approach, Sanjana is on a constant pursuit of knowledge, change and innovation in the restaurant industry. She has the credit of doing a plant based culinary chef’s certification from the most astute and oldest institution in the Catering field – Le Cordon Bleu, London, UK and added feather to her cap is that she is currently pursuing the Masters Programme from the Indian School Of Business in Family Business, since for Sanjana, learning is a continuing endeavour, “There is always more to learn, no matter how many years we’ve been in the business and that’s exactly what my team and I do.” A strong and value-oriented foundation, exemplary mentorship from her father, as well as her unquenchable thirst for learning and the support of a great team form a solid ground on which Sanjana treads confidently, leading Sangeetha Veg Restaurant into the future with hope and optimism.
Sanjana Suresh speaks about the importance of staying relevant by adapting to changes in the dynamic restaurant industry. “While we constantly upgrade our operations and systems, our food will always remain timeless as we hold on to our roots with our classic recipes. This synchronicity and balance are responsible for building our brand,” she says.
Sanjana acknowledges that the advanced equipment available today has created a huge revolution in the kitchens of restaurants, churning out a large number of dishes in a matter of minutes without much human intervention. Technology has helped Sangeetha Veg Restaurant stay connected with their customers, track the time of delivery of their orders and improve their overall efficiency. Sanjana works closely with their POS developers to enhance customer experiences.
The social media has helped them establish direct contact with their patrons and new developments are shared with their customers online. Sanjana opines that despite changing food tastes and customer profiles, there is always a demand for classic foods along with the new and variety fare Sangeetha Veg Restaurant offers. Sanjana expresses happiness about their experience of seeing three generations of families coming together to dine in their restaurants and they are able to offer something tasty and healthy for everyone to eat.
Sanjana travels around the world to check out various cuisines and tries to recreate them in their kitchens with a cultural twist. Their experiment and research have enabled them to introduce different healthy and exotic foods. “At our Adyar outlet we have a wide range of healthy meals like Ragi and Cholam dosa, evening specials like Ela adai and Kadubu with Menaskai (Mangalore style pineapple or mango curry) or Paladya (Mor Kuzhambu) which is a specialty in Karnataka and Kerala. Some of our other unique regional specials that are a hit include Shemige (Mangalore style Iddiyappam) with Mavina hannu Rasayana (mango and coconut Pradhaman) or Bale hanu Rasayana (Banana and coconut pradhaman), depending on the availability of fruits of the season. We also have a special Thai menu here and a vast array of vegetarian starters,” says Sanjana.
Recently Sangeetha Veg Restaurant celebrated their 25th edition of Onam Sadhya with 30 different dishes, which was a huge hit. “My team and I develop new recipes and menus. Just this year our CEO Latha Vijayakumar and I took our team to Trivandrum, Calicut and Delhi, where we got to see and taste local delicacies,” says Sanjana.
