Kanu Gupta Secretly Surprising Mumbaikars Through Savor

BORN IN London, the 35-year old Kanu Gupta grew up in the Middle East, before attending college and starting his investment banking career in the US. His job with Goldman Sachs took him all over the world, allowing him to explore local cuisines. Two years later he quit his banking job to work with a start-up selling organic food and then did a six-month stint in the kitchen of Lou Lou, a Belgian chef who owned a four-room hotel in Goa. His aspirations of doing an MBA then took him to INSEAD in France. It was while here that he first became acquainted with the then-emerging concept of ‘Secret Supper’, where people were hosting intimate gatherings of a handful of strangers at home, and cooking for them. Inspired by the idea, Kanu Gupta along with Tejal Choksi started the Mumbai's hottest supper club Secret Supper Project in 2012 which held its first gathering in Mumbai – a meal that brought together a combination of 40 unusual strangers from other walks of existence to revel in a stunning menu they know not anything about. Today the Savor Secret Supper has hosted over 100 dinners. BW Hotelier had a chance to interact with Gupta, who told us more about Savor.

Brief us about the idea behind Savor?

Caught up in the mechanical grind, we forget that there’s more to life than the tick of the clock and the accumulation of things. The Secret Supper Project would like to introduce you to Savor and it's three highly curated offerings – Savor Lunch, a lunch subscription service; Savor Secret Supper, our original supper club; and Savor Experiences, an events company. At Savor we believe people matter more than things, timelessness matters more than time, and most of all, experiences matter more than anything.

It’s been a year for Savor now, what is your biggest learning?

Building a culture takes time, we need patience and perseverance. Gourmet is not just defined by a price point, you are as good as your last meal. We have the responsibility for everyone that works with us or dines with us.

Brief us about your revenue model?

We have 3 revenue lines:

* Lunch boxed to individuals and corporates

* Events and catering

* Contracts with hostels, Embassies, Corporates

How do you ensure hygiene and consistency?

Always – this is paramount. We make everything in-house and every member of the team has the same high standard of hygiene, systems and processes. A lot of our team is ex Oberoi and we love their systems and training.

Are you planning to explore outside Mumbai?

We have already done secret supper dinners in New York, Paris, Belgrade and Berlin. Our event company, Savor Experiences is doing dinners all over the country and we are keen to selectively expand without compromising on our quality, execution or value system.