Life of a chef is interesting and tough. There are very few graduates who start as a trainee and end up being the corporate chef of one of the country’s most reputed hotels. One man who started very early as a chef trainee and ended having a list of achievements which if penned down could transform into a fine book is Chef Richard Graham.
A veteran, cooking food passionately for the past three decades, he was in the Capital at the launch of Cygnett Hotels in India. Richard has prepared food for various Heads of States and top leaders like Nakasone, Benito Craxi, Bush senior, Yasser Arafat , and the list goes on. Richard has been the chief consultant for the Government of India during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi and also served as the CEO to the last Maharaja of Mysore.
Talking about his latest assignment with Cygnett Hotels, Richard said: “I am as passionate as my first assignment. When I was approached to join Cygnett hotels as their head, culinary operations it came as a surprise. But I am sure that the concept which Sarbendra Sarkar MD and CEO of Cygnett group has come up with is wonderful and will be a success.”
Sarbendra Sarkar added that: “We are here to turn around hotels which are running at losses and for that we need the guidance of stalwarts like Richard Graham.” Though Richard is retired and started his own consultancy firm in Bangalore by the name of RG Associates he is still excited about his new innings at an age when most of the people think about their post-retirement plans.
When asked about what kept him going, he calmly replied: “There are very few people who get a chance to make a living out of their passion and I am one of the blessed ones and I love what I do. Seeing the first smile on people’s face when they taste your food is worth every effort made at the back of the kitchen.” Kudos to Cygnett for giving an opportunity to people who deserve to be at the top, who became popular at a time when there were no master chef shows or social media promoting chefs and calculating their popularity by the likes they get in a day.
