Yogi Sood sits in front of one of his five Indian restaurants talking strategy with his son. The conversation is not about recipes or vendors or price points. Their recipes already are great, their vendors steady, their prices fair.
Rather, this debate is about the speed at which they should conquer the world. Yogi, a 57- year-old retired engineer and the founder of Gourmet India, wants to do it quickly. Now. Yesterday.
“Fifty franchises in five years,” he says.
Vishnal Sood, 24, raises an eyebrow. He is deferential to his father but the eyebrow is ominous.
Yogi interprets: “My son thinks I’m a bit ambitious,” he says. Then he laughs.
Perhaps, but to be the Ray Kroc of Indian food — as Yogi Sood intends — will take ambition and then some.
Kroc started franchising McDonald’s 51 years ago and changed America’s eating habits. Sood started Gourmet India 11 years ago and wants to change those habits again. But instead of hamburgers and french fries, Sood wants to sell traditional Indian dishes such as chicken tikka masala and saag paneer.
And not to a few thousand people a day — as he does now across Greater Boston — but to hundreds of thousands. From sea to shining sea. And, yes, he wants to do it soon.
“This can be a national chain,” he says, lowering his voice. “Our food is good; our prices are fair. I don’t see why not.”
Diners seeking Indian food anywhere in the area over the last couple of years are likely to have eaten at one of Sood’s shops — his chain is bookended by outlets in Burlington and Rhode Island, and includes a spot in the Prudential Center and another in Coolidge Corner in Brookline.
Still, a national chain? “It’s a big leap,” says Harry Balzer , an expert in the eating habits of Americans. “People’s taste changes very slowly.”
Sood is undaunted. Indian food will be to the ethnic food market what Chinese food became 20 years ago, he says. He looks around the Burlington Mall’s food court, home to his first restaurant and shared by some of the heavy hitters of the franchise restaurant business: Pizzeria Regina, Johnny Rockets, Quizno s. “We’re already among the most popular here,” he says.
If England is any indication, Sood might be right. Aided by a massive wave of immigration from Southeast Asia, chicken tikka masala has become England’s national dish. In many neighborhoods, curry shops have superseded fish and chips.
If Indian food is headed on the same path in the United States, Sood wants to be the man at the head of the parade. Born in Punjab in northern India, he immigrated to the United States as a young man to attend graduate school at Oklahoma State University. Read More
Any thoughts on this from the American readers ?
liz55 on September 6th, 2006 at 4:28 am
I am no american but I have Indian friends. Sometimes they would invite me over for dinner and obviously, Indian food is served. I love the chili taste of most of their foods.