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An Artist of
Exotic Cuisine
AASHA MEHREEN AMIN
When
you enter Saltz for instance, an exclusive seafood restaurant
on Gulshan Avenue (Second Circle) its almost as if you
are on the deck of a ship. Starting from the fish nets
that adorn the walls and miniature boats on the ceiling
to the sand and shell topped tables, to the ship lanterns
and round windows and even the star studded wall, everything
gives that feeling of being at sea. The only thing missing
is the wide expanse of ocean in the front view opened
by the glass doors that take you to the terrace. You
begin to understand the obsession with detail when you
take a closer look and notice things like a captain's
compass or a miniature ship decorating the walls. But
the ambience is just a part of this curious journey.
The best part of this restaurant is the delectable food
that is prepared with care and finesse. The menu at
Saltz is certainly exotic. Take the Chef's Special Soup
which includes salmon imported from Norway and comes
with crunchy prawns, carrots and imported shitake mushrooms
or a main course like Trout Iris -- rainbow trout poached
and smothered in a creamy mustard and mushroom sauce.
Just reading the menu gets your salivary glands going.
Saltz,
admits Iftekhar, has been his biggest challenge because
it exclusively offers seafood which is easily perishable
and the supply of which can be uncertain. Bangladeshis,
moreover, are not too crazy about seafood says Iftekhar;
a large part of Saltz's clientele are expatriates who
have been delighted with the exotic meals served. "But
in time I think more and more Bangladeshis will like
to try out our seafood and like it" says Iftekhar.
Most of the seafood (except the Norwegian Salmon of
course) comes daily straight from Cox's Bazar where
Iftekhar has a regular supplier who catches fish in
his trawler and picks out the best quality seafood for
Saltz. The lobsters come from St. Martin where the supplier
catches them and sends them right away to Dhaka. As
far as success goes Saltz proved to hit the jackpot.
"The first day Saltz was officially opened, there
was a 40 to 60 minute wait and many people had to be
turned away" says restaurant's creator.
Certainly,
having one of the best chefs in town gives the business
an added edge. Iftekhar is quick to mention Michael
D. Rosario, Saltz's 'executive chef' whom he describes
as 'absolutely brilliant' besides having extensive experience
in five star hotels in the Middle East. "He is
very modest but also very creative and always wanting
to start something new which is a plus point for our
company", says Iftekhar.
Rosario
also supervises the kitchen of Spitfire, one of Iftekhar's
latest creations. Just below Saltz, it is completely
different in terms of décor and cuisine. Spitfire
as its name implies is a trendy steakhouse that makes
you think of a Texan ranch house the minute you walk
in. With logs for the ceiling, a life-like statue of
a horse that is jutting its head into the restaurant
with its body outside, the wooden tables, clink of glasses
and a golden light that warms up the atmosphere, you
could be in a steak house anywhere in the world. The
food too is very continental. A big attraction of Spitfire
is a menu of meals made with imported meats (and so
highly priced) such as
T-bone steak which is made with halal American T-bone
meat imported from Dubai, as well as simple lamb chops,
the meat coming all the way from New Zealand. The rest
of the menu is filled with other delicious continental
cuisine such as ox-tail consommé with quail egg
or stuffed pigeon 'ladled with brown sauce served with
roasted potato and vegetables'. Open air barbecues at
Spitfire have given the business an added boost.
If
it is ambience that distinguishes a restaurant, Iftekhar
really does know how to perfect it. His earliest venture
was a little Mexican carry-out called El Toro (meaning
The Bull) in Mirpur road that created quite a sensation
for its authentic Mexican food and décor. Later
when the place was shifted to Gulshan (after catering
for a cyber café in Banani owned by Akku Chowdhury)
and turned into a full-fledged dining restaurant, Iftekhar
let his originality loose. Filled with Mexican artifacts,
sketches and paintings and with Mexican ballads playing
in the background, the experience of eating a piping
hot Chicken Fajita and sipping non-alcoholic Pina Colada
could not be more authentic. Iftekhar spent about fifteen
days travelling around the US, where he previously studied
and worked, collecting knick-knacks for his restaurant.
While
artistic sense and creativity have always been part
of his identity, Iftekhar has acquired the practicality
and business instincts that have made him one of the
most successful entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. A lot of
this business acumen can be traced to his working experience
in the US. While completing an MS in Education from
East Illinois University in the eighties, Iftekhar worked
at numerous Mexican restaurants quickly getting promoted
to managerial positions. Iftekhar started at El Torrito,
a company that owned 250 Mexican restaurants of various
categories. They were cafes, family dining places and
night clubs. Iftekhar was working at a Mexican restaurant
that was bought by El Torrito. Out of the 80 employees
only six were retained, Iftekhar being one of them.
He was given a three month training and assigned as
front-of-the-house manager to Que Pasa, a Mexican cafe
in Buffalo Grove, a suburb of Chicago. Later he was
sent to a family dining restaurant in Detroit, Michigan.
Then came an unexpected challenge. His employers asked
him to go to Southfield Michigan to convert a Mexican
club called Tequilla Willies into a family dining place.
His success in doing so gave his employers enough reason
to make him part of a team to train and develop personnel.
Iftekhar soon mastered the nitty gritties of management
and staff training, experience that proved to be invaluable
in the future.
Once
back in Bangladesh, Iftekhar used these skills to set
up his own restaurant business with help from his partners,
starting with El Toro and professionally train his staff
himself. "I just picked up a few SSC and HSC graduates
and trained them." This he did using training manuals
and tests he himself designed. Now in his new establishments
his staff have to go through an even more rigorous fifteen
day training programme which includes orientation into
the company's philosophy, history, training for each
department and regular quizzes. "They have to get
at least 95 % in the quizzes and 100% in the final exam
to be hired. Trainees are quizzed on vital features
of running a restaurants such as company standards,
personal hygiene, how to set a table, offer a menu and
greet a 'guest' -- the official term used for a customer.
Such high standards have paid off in terms of a professional
staff and smooth running of the establishments making
'guests', both expatriates and Bangladeshi, become regulars.
Iftekhar's management and training skills have become
so well known that he is constantly sought after by
other restaurateurs to set up their own establishments
and train up their staff. Recently Iftekhar has been
selected to be an International Verifier for City and
Guilds.
Starting
in the morning, Iftekhar's work hours usually don't
end till late at night or during closing time. As Managing
Director of Saltz and Spitfire, of which he is a major
shareholder, a lot of time is spent meeting with his
supervisors, managers to troubleshoot and take care
of the marketing side as well. He even designs his own
flyers and menus on the computer. But what really gets
him on a roll is when he is working with his chefs and
other members of the management to create each and every
item on the menu. "We develop a plate and if it
clicks it will end up in the menu; it's a collective
effort", says Iftekhar. He does most of the menu
research himself delving into cooking encyclopaedia
and then adding his own ideas to come up with unique
recipes such as the Blackened fish -- Cajun style. In
the evenings, which are quite busy, Iftekhar becomes
the gracious host and makes sure all his guests feel
at home and enjoy their meal.
Iftekhar
has also ventured into catering with considerable success.
He has catered for innumerable dinners and official
banquets including the AIUB convocation dinner held
recently at Spitfire for 150 people and which was attended
by former Pilipino President Ramos.
His
obsession with work leaves little time for personal
matters. But this once-sworn bachelor found the girl
of his dreams in 1999 at a university alumni function
for English department students. He was meeting Naina
Shehzadi, a lecturer at Vicarunnessa College and with
two daughters from a previous marriage, after 18 years
and it took only three months for them to tie the knot.
Urged
on by the creative Muse, Iftekhar is always itching
to start something new and become a master at it. A
big time music enthusiast, he has set up a music café
called Blue Grass, originally a small place in a private
club in Gulshan, now a 250 seater establishment in Baridhara.
The main aim is to promote different kinds of music
including Bangla folk and English rock. "We will
sponsor some nights and have our own bands and singers
as well as be available for large parties where people
can bring in their own bands", says Iftekhar who
fits quite appropriately with the image of a Music Café
proprietor, clad in jeans and sporting a beard and pony
tail.
But
this seems to be just the beginning of what Iftekhar
would consider his latest venture. Now he plans to spread
his talents overseas. This time it's a purely, authentic
Bangladeshi restaurant in Bangkok. 'Jasmine' (replacing
the old restaurant 'Jesmin' which Ifekhar bought off)
will offer all the things Bangladeshis staying abroad
hanker for -- dal, bhat, bhorta, maach etc.--
in other words good old home food. "It will mainly
cater to Bangladeshis who go to Bangkok for treatment",
says Iftekhar who adds that his restaurant will also
have Mughlai dishes like Kachchi Biryani and chicken
tandoori as well as typically Bangladeshi snacks like
alur chop and samosa. Iftekhar, with
his usual flair for décor, is going to set up
the place with Bangladeshi handicrafts and motifs so
that "as soon as you walk in you will get a feel
of being in Bangladesh". He goes into details:
'I will also have a bookshelf with books by top Bangali
writers and mugs that have Bangla alphabets or little
poems on them. Iftekhar, wants to attract foreign tourists
and Thais as well with his restaurant's delectable Bangladeshi
food and exotic character.
Even as he is about
to launch his second Bangladeshi restaurant near Bangkok
General Hospital, Iftekhar, commonly known as Ashekh,
is dreaming of yet another project. "This time
it might be a Latino Night Club in Thailand…" he
muses. For Iftekhar dreams are just blueprints of reality.
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