FEATURED MEMBER
One-on-One With ... Georgy John NAME
Georgy John PREFERRED NAME/NICKNAME
GJ TITLE/DESIGNATION
Executive Vice President COMPANY NAME
Gastronomica Middle East HOBBIES/INTEREST
Music, Tennis, Reading EDUCATION
Degree in Hotel Management PERSONAL LIFE PHILOSPHY
Lead a simple good life, upholding virtuous values. I believe work is worship but I try my best to balance my family and my hectic professional life
Share your name, designation and a brief background about yourself. I’m Georgy John, Executive Vice President of Gastronomica. I have extensive managerial experience of more than 23 years in hospitality. I’m a graduate from the prestigious Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, having started my career as a Management Trainee with the Carlson Hospitality Group in 1996. I take great pride in being the first employee of Gastronomica, having joined the company at its inception.
You graduated with a degree in Hotel Management, is this your first choice to take up? What made you decide to take this course? My paternal grandmother had inspired me a lot. As a child, I spent a lot of time in her busy kitchen at our family plantation where she used to live. She was a kind soul, with alacrity to serve others, workers and guests alike! She had magic in her hands and used to pull off even last minute meals that tasted perfect (of course using fresh ingredients from the plantation). She was an expert on various cuisines and an exceptional baker. I was fascinated by her skills, confidence and passion to entertain guests. This, of course, was my first hospitality lesson. After school, I was addled with the choices ahead. My heart whispered hospitality while my brain dictated engineering. Eventually, my parents forced me into Bsc Honours at St. Stephens Delhi.
56. RETAIL PEOPLE . MAY-JULY 2019
Fortunately, I got through the National Hotel School exam and ran away to Mumbai overnight. All thanks to my grandma, I followed my heart!
You’ve been with Gastronomica for the past 16 years now and was noted as the first employee. From Operation Manager to Executive Vice President, what’s the biggest challenge you faced and how did you deal with it? As the first employee of Gastronomica, having joined the company as Operations Manager at its inception, I grew over the years to be the Executive Vice President. I have been involved in every stage from day one, be it setting up projects or planning operations for all its restaurants. Other than operations, my main tasks include managing finance, HR, JV relationships, project management, business development, designing kitchens and logistics. Designing kitchens are what I enjoy the most. But, over these years, I’ve realised that the biggest impediment is in recruiting. Good people are hard to find. Gastronomica is a unique operator; creating, owning and operating its restaurants. Hence, we require both creators at the concept development level and executors to function and effectuate the concepts that are created. The most prominent challenge is (since we have a progressive, out of the box approach) to get: