Why I Will Never Open a Restaurant of My Own

In the absence of a dedicated ministry, the restaurant industry continues to be plagued by labyrinthine laws that vary from place to place.

- Vir Sanghvi

THE QUESTION I am most often asked is: you seem so interested in food, so why haven’t you opened a restaurant of your own? There are three good answers to this question. The first is that people who write about things don’t necessarily know how to execute them to any great distinction. An art critic, no matter how distinguished, will never be the next Picasso. The foulmouthed Hollywood studio boss, Harry Cohn, used to say, “Critics are like eunuchs. They can tell you how to do it. But they can’t do it themselves.”

The second reason is that I have no real interest in becoming a businessman and have no real flair for entrepreneurship. I’ve always chosen the life of a middle-class, salaried employee.

But there is a third and more powerful reason. over the years, as I have interacted with the restaurant community, I have often wondered: why do these guys do it?

The tragedy of today’s India is that the system is so unfairly stacked against restaurateurs that they are treated as potential criminals by every government department that can make a fast buck out of them. The sad and sordid part of running a restaurant in India is the part that nobody talks about. The bribes to excise officials. The weekly hafta to the local police station. The demands for money from the municipal corporation and its officials. The greed and arbitrariness of the fire department. The laws that change suddenly. And the manner in which any branch of government has the legal right to shut down a restaurant and bankrupt its owner.