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Dressed in an impeccable white chikan kurta and adjusting his intricately embroidered dopalli topi, Mohammad Usman is personally frying kebabs and serving these to a select band of guests at the newly opened first franchise sit-in restaurant in the upmarket trans Gomti area of Lucknow. With this one move, Usman, an expert in preparing "melt-in-the-mouth" tunday kebabs, has moved from a 105-year-old family venture carried out from two eating joints — one in the bylanes of Akbari Gate since 1905, and the other in Nazirabad (Aminabad) since 1996 — to an international corporate brand in the global market, competing with the likes of McDonald’s and Pizza Hut.
Registered as Tunday Kebabi Private Limited with Mohammad Usman as its chairman, the company is determined to tickle the taste buds of gourmets across the globe with this heritage cuisine of a combination of subtly flavoured fine mince kebabs and special parathas to go with these. Usman’s grandfather, Haji Murad Ali, popularly known as tunda (with a broken arm), who opened the first shop in the Akbari Gate area of Chowk in 1905, had perhaps never imagined that his physical disability would one day become an international brand. "Food is also culture. When we, specially the younger lot, are acquiring a taste for pizzas and burgers, then why should we not take our cuisine — a part of our culture — elsewhere", was the thought that made Mohammad Usman join hands with two NRI friends who set up US Eating Point, which was given the first the franchise on a profit- sharing basis. The company not only has its own logo but is soon to have its own website. The second franchise is to come up in Bangalore, and then there are plans to dot the globe with outlets at Dubai, Sharjah, Singapore and other places. There would be sit-in dining centres, express outlets and takeaway points. "We have to maintain quality just as the other global brands. This is the major challenge before us", says Usman. For this he plans to keep the ingredients standardised. "There are around 100 masalas that go in the kebab, including digestive herbs. This masalas have been a closely guarded family secret since the time of my grandfather. Till today, my mother personally grinds the masalas at home," adds Usman. Laughing off the suggestion on whether the secrets of the ingredients that go into the magical kebabs would be shared, Usman says: "Do the Coke and Pepsi people share their secret formulas"? As part of establishing Tunday Kebab as a corporate brand, the plan is to set up an institute in Lucknow to train cooks and waiters who would take the typical Awadhi tehzeeb in food and hospitality to the world outside. Now that Usman’s entrepreneurial instincts are at work, he even promises to experiment with some new varieties of kebabs. Till then kebab lovers have to keep their fingers crossed.
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