USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Lifestyle
    Home / Lifestyle / People

    For global gourmets

    By Rebecca Lo | China Daily | Updated: 2011-04-25 18:23

    For global gourmets

    Sekhri celebrated the launch of a cookbook by offering guests a delicious platter of foccacia. To his customers, however, he serves a choice of international dining options from 12 different cuisines. Dining Concepts / for China Daily

    For global gourmets

    Sandeep Sekhri exploits opportunities in Hong Kong by offering an international platter of food and beverage choices. Rebecca Lo finds out what motivates him.

    Sandeep Sekhri is very good at shaking hands. He puts this talent to practice on a Thursday night in Lan Kwai Fong, at a cookbook launch held at his Florentine steakhouse Bistecca.

    Along with director of culinary operations Christopher Mark and cookbook co-author Andrew Sun, the warm and personable Delhi native welcomes parade of customers eager to show their support while feasting on herb and fruit focaccia, Tuscan cured meats and pan-fried shiitake mushrooms.

    A week later in his office on Hollywood Road, Sekhri is preparing for the opening of Al Molo, a 160-seat restaurant featuring the talents of New York City-based celebrity chef Michael White. At the same time, he is packing to accompany his 18-year-old son abroad after the youth was accepted into several Ivy League colleges.

    It was his children's tuition fees that originally propelled the entrepreneur to establish his first venture, Bombay Dreams, in 2002.

    Arriving in Hong Kong at the age of 24 after training at Delhi's Institute of Hotel Management and with a few years of restaurant experience under his belt, he was hired as the Harilela Group's manager for Viceroy, an established Indian restaurant in Wanchai. The year was 1990.

    He opened seven more restaurants for the group and became a partner in 1995 before splitting to start Bombay Dreams. Six months later, SARS hit Hong Kong and the bottom fell out of the city's food and beverage industry.

    "I had no real vision, really!" insists Sekhri, referring to the two dozen or so restaurants and related businesses that he currently runs. "Bombay Dreams was for survival. I had to keep paying my kids' school fees. Then, the opportunities kept coming. I took a lot of risks. Nine times out of 10, my gamble paid off."

    With the cheap rents in Hong Kong's Soho district available during SARS, Sekhri was able to pick up some good spaces at rock-bottom prices. Soho Spice was the first of seven restaurants he opened between 2003 and 2007 - Sekhri was one of the pioneers of the area's hot dining and wining scene, as he transformed former local da pai dang or street stalls into fine dining establishments.

    In 2007, with the opening of The Venetian Macao, Sekhri ventured into the former Portuguese enclave. He soon found that it was like the Wild West cowboy town in comparison to Hong Kong.

    "There was literally no rule of law or licensing procedures," he recalls. "Food and entertainment were not on most people's priority list, and Macao was beginning to take up too much of my time."

    So he sold one of his two outlets and regrouped in Hong Kong with a couple of restaurants in Elements, the high-end shopping mall above Kowloon station.

    In the last 18 months, he has opened 10 restaurants, with one of the latest being Argentine steakhouse Tango in the space that Bombay Dreams used to occupy.

    "Bombay Dreams needed to be refreshed after almost a decade, so we moved it upstairs within the same building," he notes.

    As Hong Kong's only dining group with 12 expatriate chefs overseeing 12 different cuisines, Sekhri believes that he owes much of his success to Hong Kong itself.

    "There is no other place in the world which offers such a level playing field," he states. "It is the most entrepreneur friendly city in the world. I can get a 6,000-square-foot (558 sq m) restaurant up and running in 70 days where anywhere else it would take seven months. That's incredible. I feel very lucky to be here and to be able to grow a restaurant group so rapidly in just eight years."

    He sees the next round of expansion taking place in southern China, and is carefully studying the market there to see how Dining Concepts can add to the Pearl River Delta culinary scene. But he still has plans for Hong Kong.

    "I can do another 10 restaurants here," he says. "We focus on being consistent. Value for money is important. People come back for the food and experience. If we can keep doing that, and make each experience better than the last, then word of mouth will do the rest."

    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    国产精品毛片无码| 合区精品久久久中文字幕一区| 天堂网www中文在线资源| 精品国产v无码大片在线观看| 中文成人无码精品久久久不卡 | 中文字幕在线一区二区在线| 免费A级毛片av无码| 中文字幕日韩欧美| 无码AV中文一区二区三区| 九九久久精品无码专区| 无码国产午夜福利片在线观看| 中文字幕不卡高清视频在线| 国产中文字幕在线观看| 久久无码人妻精品一区二区三区| 无码精品一区二区三区在线| 老子午夜精品无码| 亚洲欧美成人久久综合中文网 | 久久亚洲AV无码西西人体| 久久水蜜桃亚洲av无码精品麻豆| 亚洲精品无码久久久久sm| 一级片无码中文字幕乱伦 | 亚洲第一中文字幕| 亚洲中文字幕无码永久在线| 亚洲国产91精品无码专区| 国产精品va在线观看无码| 国产精品亚洲а∨无码播放| 无码AV岛国片在线播放| 无码毛片视频一区二区本码| 无码日韩精品一区二区三区免费 | 日韩乱码人妻无码系列中文字幕| 日韩精品无码人妻一区二区三区 | 亚洲AV日韩AV永久无码免下载| 国产成人综合日韩精品无码不卡 | 亚洲av无码成h人动漫无遮挡| 中文字幕一区二区三区日韩精品 | 亚洲日韩欧洲无码av夜夜摸| 中文无码字慕在线观看| 亚洲看片无码在线视频| 中文字幕无码AV波多野吉衣| 无码AV岛国片在线播放| 国产又爽又黄无码无遮挡在线观看|