The Aasife Biriyani Centre started in the year 2000 with a single shop of selling Biriyani to the people at Butt Road, Guindy has now expanded to other Indian cuisines and 6 outlets with an average walk-ins of 200+ people a day at each the outlets. Right from the beginning, Mr.Aasife, the founder of Aasife Biriyani has always emphasized on taste and ensured that the Biriyani made at his Centre was both delicious and unique. This was achieved and still is, by meticulous selection of ingredients prepared from quality masala products and the Biriyani was prepared using superior quality rice.
1) How did you get your start?
I started my business by selling biriyani from a pushcart outside the GRT hotel in T.Nagar. Prior to that I worked in a catering company, servicing weddings and that’s where I honed my skills. I owe a lot to my mentor Rehmat Khan who taught me the traditional Mughlai style of preparing Biriyani and all other little tricks that turn a recipe from good to memorable.
2) Why did you decide to pursue a career in the restaurant business?
I have always loved cooking and got great joy in feeding people good food. Moreover, I was not very interested in studies and left school early. I always knew that I would start something on my own that would involve food
3) What makes Aasife Biriyani Special?
We spend a lot of time selecting the best quality ingredients and ensuring that everything is fresh - from our meats to our spices. From the time the chicken is slaughtered to the time it reaches the plate of a patron in my restaurant is no more than three hours. Also all our spices are ground freshly every day, which plays a significant role in ensuring that everything that we prepare tastes great. I also strongly believe that if anything needs to be done well it cannot be hurried and I apply the same philosophy in my cooking techniques. We stringently follow traditional techniques of preparing Biriyani and slow cooking most of our food on wooden fires. It is this technique of slow cooking and flavour from the smoke that gives my food its distinctive taste.
4) Where do your ingredients come from?
I am a fanatic about my ingredients and scour the market for my vendors and work closely with them to get the best quality produce.
5) What’s your secret to keeping customers coming in?
I believe that our customers will return again and again and refer us to their friends and family if they leave my restaurant satisfied. Although this is simple enough to understand it’s a challenge to translate into a winning strategy. My team is constantly striving to deliver repetitive quality at great value. We constantly work with our suppliers to ensure quality of ingredients. Every ingredients is measured in the kitchen before being added to the cooking pot to ensure that variability is reduced to a bare minimum and finally of course, my chefs constantly taste items leaving the kitchen, so that patrons can enjoy the meal they have ordered each and every time.Our motto has always been “Smile when you eat and smile when you pay”. We stand for good quality at great value.
6) 1500 kgs of Biriyani served throughout Aasife Biriyani outlets everyday? Tell us about it.
I started my business by selling 3kgs/day and have grown to 1500kgs/day. This is a testament to our quality and consistency. Every ingredient that goes into my Biriyani is measured to ensure that it tastes just as good tomorrow as it does today. We also prepare it in our centralised kitchen to ensure consistency and it gets transported just in time (JIT) to all our outlets. Every Biriyani delivery is consumed within an hour of reaching our outlet from the central kitchen.
7) What sells the best at Aasife? Chicken Or Mutton Biriyani?
Chicken Biriyani is our best seller but I personally prefer Mutton Biriyani.
8) How do you look at your competitors? Have you had a chance to taste Biriyanis from other restaurants?
Absolutely. I always strive to learn from my competition and grow. I believe competition is always good as it keeps us on our toes and pushes us to better ourselves. I constantly observe best practices not only by my immediate competition but other restaurants to ensure that my customers receive the best and are always happy.9) How are you positioning yourself as a brand in a place like Chennai? We cook authentic food prepared using traditional recipes and serve it in a modern relaxed environment for today’s customer. Our mantra is “Smile when you eat and smile when you pay”.
10) Few foodies have been complaining that Aasife Biriyani is not as tasty as it used to be. Would you like to comment on that?
We always take consumer feedback seriously and will definitely look into the views that you have expressed here. There’s an important point that I would like to make, having gone through the screenshots that your team had shared with me. Recently Aasife Biriyani has separated from Aasife & Brothers Biriyani and I think many of the comments were regarding the restaurant in Butt Road which is now run by my brothers. Aasife Biriyani now has 3 restaurants in Alandur, GST Road and Anna Salai and my biriyani is being prepared using the techniques and recipes that I had developed myself and has been the source of my growth. We have also changed our branding and are in the process of launching a marketing campaign to highlight our new identity and at the same time communicate that our recipes are the original ones.
11) Are you looking to expand?
That’s an emphatic YES. I currently own 3 restaurants- 1 in Alandur, 1 on GST road and one next to the Thousand Lights mosque on Anna Salai. I plan to expand to 10 outlets in Chennai with a total of 2,000 covers by the end of this year. I am also looking to expand to other cities in Tamil Nadu and later to the rest of India. If a suitable opportunity arises I would also like explore the possibility of setting my chain in UAE, US and in the UK.
12) What medium will you be advertising yourself on?
We will be using multiple mediums to connect with people. We are in the process of launching our new Digital Media Marketing initiatives along with a new Android and iOS APP. But we also plan to be on traditional media.
13) What next?
Our primary focus now is on expanding our restaurant footprint across Chennai and revamping and improving our centralised kitchen. We are also investing time and resources to improve our information and MIS systems so that we are able to deal with the scale that we are trying to achieve. A big part of our future growth plan is linked to Home Delivery and we are focussing on aggressively growing the Home Delivery business. We have recently created a new call center set up for improved customer service. The new APP should also help the ordering process immensely. On the operations front we are investing in significantly increasing our delivery capability and also on new packaging ideas that are more functional and at the same time helps us create brand connect.
Source : lifeandtrendz.com
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