'You Learn Everyday,' Says Dr Vikram Kamat On His Journey In Hospitality

1. His journey into the hospitality industry?

Ans- When you are born into hospitality, it's less of into and more of your journey of hospitality,so I've had an amazing journey this entire hospitality period-born into a hospitality family, and that to something as prestigious as Kamats. So it's been an amazing journey. You get to learn every day. The most important thing is that you get to work with people. These whole businesses is about people, it's a peoples’ business and that skill becomes very effective. 

2. The importance of hygienic washrooms n food and ambiance in Kamat's?

Ans- The importance of hygienic washrooms is immense, especially on the highways, and in a country like India where the social infrastructure and common amenities which one might say is not yet fully developed it is a challenge. Men of course can do their business anywhere, but women and children have a serious problem therefore hygienic washrooms are very important, especially for women who are traveling on the highways and typically require a washroom at least in a gap of 2 to 4 hours at the most. Being biologically different than men, it is very important that they get hygienic washrooms on the way to ensure a happy and safe road trip. We at Kamats have always focused on healthy Indian food and clean and hygienic ambience , thereby giving a family that stops by a refreshing break.

3. His vision behind opening ‘Kamats Legacy’ an initiative to introduce Fine into Kamat’s Dining experience.

Ans- My vision behind ‘Kamats Legacy’ is to introduce premium or a fine touch to our dining experience. It is to introduce premium South Indian cuisine. We are already the leaders when it comes to South Indian cuisine but we realized that there was a way to do it in a more eternal style which people prefer; which is wonderful home recipes, wonderful rich food, the food that we tend to eat during different types of poojas, the food that we eat when there are special occasions in a South Indian home or a south Indian family and that's when we realized to name it ‘Kamats Legacy’. The brand Kamats already has its own legacy, therefore ‘Kamats legacy’ would bridge that gap of premium cuisine when it comes to South Indian food and carry our brand’s legacy into a new space. To look at it we are building our own brand’s legacy adding fine touches to it.

4. How did you establish the VITS hotels, what is the story and where have we reached today?

Ans- VITS obviously has come a long way. We saw the need for good premium hotels in tier 2, and tier 3 cities of India and today we are proud that we have more than 30 hotels across various states of India in the 3 and 4-star segment, giving full-service hotels. There is a huge demand for banqueting, F&B and stay in tier 2 and tier 3 cities which VITS has been able to fulfil. We are also expanding aggressively in temple towns like Somnath and Dwarka, thanks to Kamats and VITS combination.

5. His vision behind the opening of 'Khas Academy' is to bridge the skilled manpower gap in the industry

Ans- Obviously the entire nation Is talking about upskilling, skilling India and our F&B industry is less about paper qualifications and more about skills. Like I said earlier your skills to deal with people, your skill as a person is what matters not your degrees. The paper qualification is not as important as what all you can do like riding a bike which once you learn how to do, you can ride a bike anytime, in fact, you can ride a two-wheeler also and so many other things because your sense of balance has improved. Such is the scenario with any kind of skill and thus our full focus is to develop skilled people. That's how Khas academy was born which has a complete earn-and-learn program where while you are learning you are also earning so you learn on the job and that's how we've done it. 

6. How do you deal with the ups and down in the business?

Ans- The ups and downs of business are like the ups and downs of life. I am a student of Vipassana and I've seen that it's all about taking it as it comes. As it is always said that where there will be ups there will be downs in life. You have to just trust the process. There will be good days, there will be bad days. You must not think that I'm a good person so bad should not happen to me. Even with good people bad things happen and to bad things good people happen. So it’s a part and parcel of life and that's the fun of life and how you have to live life.

7. What makes your place different from others?

Ans- I think a lot of things make our place different from others, the most important being our philosophy of doing business. We believe in creating people, we believe in blending traditions with modern systems and processes, and we are a very focused business. Our culture and ethos of constantly developing people, of how we innovatively think of taking traditional things and making them systemized, without losing the essence of the tradition, without losing the health angle and without losing the patience that people have to do a quality job. That is what makes Kamats very unique and we instill this in our people and as I always say, Kamats is always taking ordinary people and making them extraordinary by adding the ‘X’ factor. 

8. The idea and plan took how long to be executed?

Ans- This idea has been something I have been thinking about and trying to work on and execute but it did take a lot of time to get a lot of things together and these things do tend to happen in due time. I would have loved for it to happen much sooner, but as we know that everything happens in its own course of time. Just like a child has to be born in 9 months and we can't just go and speed up the process, so is it with something as important as restaurant brands. Things do have to come together hence we took a lot of time and effort to go and curate these specific recipes to get these healthy dishes like ragi dosa, ragi idli, moong dal dosa, from Bangalore, benne dosa which uses white butter, ghee roast dosa form the authentic southern states. Each of these things took its own time to be instilled in our team here, and train them to understand the importance of each dish because food is a philosophy. It is not just about food which is supposed to be eaten to fulfill one’s hunger, it is something which we are not primarily creating for the nourishment and satisfaction that one should get when they eat a good meal.