Recognizing the best restaurant with delectable food and a delightful ambience.
Restaurant Awards 2024 is the top honour bestowed upon the greatest in the industry who have tirelessly dedicated their lives walking an extra mile to raise the bar of the Food & Beverage Sector. The awards will go to various regions of the country physically,to honor and applaud the great work done by foodpreneurs and chefs around the country.
This is a precious opportunity to excel your food & beverage business and hear the elevating tunes of applause by the whole fraternity. These awards will put spotlight on exemplary contributions made by profound professionals and passionate restaurant brands. This recognition will enhance your business credibility and would help in restructuring your brand image. Submissions are now open for Restaurant Awards 2024, browse through the appropriate category and region and nominate yourself today.
Read more »Restaurant Awards premium focus is to create recognition for various industry experts.
01The conference brings new perspective on Scaling up your Restaurant Business.
02Influential restaurateurs , thought leaders, innovative suppliers and industry titans join the show. They’re all here.
03Hear intriguing insights on the latest insights on Food Industry and visionary experts. Sit back and learn as Restaurateurs.
04Recognizing the best restaurant with delectable food and a delightful ambience.
This Category recognises Night Clubs/Bars that demonstrates the best ambience,food & liquor.
This category recognises the best bakeries which offers outstanding value, excellent food and appropriate service.
This category recognises a Restaurant/Bar/Bakery that has the best interiors
This category recognises caterers/unique concepts/customer experiences and cloud kitchens.
This category recognises restaurateurs/chefs/sommeliers who have demonstrated outstanding qualities.
Managing Director, Café Niloufer
Shashank Anumula an MBA graduate who joined his father Mr. A Babu Rao in 2011in his journey succeeding in making Cafe Niloufer an integral part of modern Hyderabad. His single vision was evolving the brand with times, and expanding the brand name with top most priority to quality and consistency.
His vision was to scale up the business, however he first focused on standardizing processes before expanding. After 5 years of thorough research on baking cookies, breads, and cakes, with unwavering focus on product consistency, he opened the first Cafe Niloufer outlet at Lakdikapul. This outlet presented to the city a unique tea cafe experience by serving perfect hand-crafted blends in an air-conditioning setting. A first for Hyderabad. Since then he explored the concept of a premium tea cafe and today opened up 5 Cafe Niloufer Outlets in the city, serving upto 1L customers every single day.
During the pandemic, he initiated the company into the FMCG segment with the launch of 3 Cafe Niloufer Tea Powder Blends. The strength of the company today is that it is a place for everyone, ensuring every single person who comes to have chai also has a variety of options that can go along with it.
Founder & Director of On2Cook India
On2Cook is the brainchild of Sanandan Sudhir (Sandy) the Founder & Director of On2Cook India. Winner of Several Industrial Design, Engineering & Management Awards and with more than 2 decades of Design Excellence and Leadership experience, Sanandan Sudhir (Sandy) is an Engineer and an alumni of the prestigious National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. He is a true thought leader with a passion to create end to end products focused on IP strategy. An Inventor at heart, he has 32 Global Patents (Granted) & more than 60 Applied For. Sandy is currently focused on bringing this product to the market and oversees the Product Design, Development & Manufacturing including the future Product & IP Strategy.
MD, Ohri’s Group of Hotels & Restaurants
There is an air of informal ease and relaxed composure about Amar Ohri. The scion of Ohri’s Group, carries the mantle of (unarguably) Hyderabad’s largest and most popular restaurant chain, rather lightly.
The 46-year-old attributes the calmness to his recent tryst with spirituality, during the Covid-induced global lockdowns. Born in Berhampur, Odisha, on account of his father Ravi Ohri’s business projects there as a building contractor, Amar moved with his family to Hyderabad in 1980 as a six year old.
He attributes the genesis of the Ohris food brand to the erstwhile Havmor (now Eatmor) restaurant, which his maternal grandfather opened in Basheerbagh in 1976, and which runs to full houses till date. Known for its bestseller chole bhature even today, Eatmor’s heirloom recipe by Amar’s maternal grandmother, captured Hyderabadi palates with its home-made robustness, right from the word go. In fact, the signature dish continues to be made today with the very same secret chole masala, which is prepared only at the Ohri home, “My wife Sonal now makes it.”
On completing his education, (BBA from Ecole Lemania in Lausanne, followed by a MBA at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA) Amar returned to Hyderabad in 1998, raring to go.
Today, OhrI has 18 brands, and 32 outlets with three more being added soon.
Entrepreneur, Simply South
Chef Chalapathi Rao is an entrepreneur. His entrepreneurial venture is named “Simply South by Chef Chalapathi Rao”. The restaurant has redefined the popular South Indian cuisines and has preserved its rich cultural and culinary heritage. The venture, as well as Chef Chalapati Rao has won numerous accolades from highly esteemed organizations. A highly self-motivated and resourceful Chef, Chef Chalapathi Rao is constantly reinventing his age-old recipes to provide evolved culinary experience to the restaurant's patrons. He is presently in the quest for expanding his venture to global destinations. In addition, Chef Challu - as he is fondly known - by the hospitality and culinary industries - is a high-class content writer. He has authored several concept notes, stories and articles on cuisine for diverse print media. Chef Challu's professional career has spanned over 25 years. Earlier in his career, Chef Challu was the highly acclaimed and successful brand custodian as well as Master Chef of the Dakshin brand - while employed with ITC Hotels. In between his ITC Hotels career of almost two decades and his entrepreneurial journey, Chef Challu was the Corporate Chef with a major hotel group based at Hyderabad
Founder, Naomi Patisserie & Bakehouse & MasterChef- Telgu Judge
Hyderabad-based chocolatier-pastry chef-turned restaurateur Nikitha Umesh, is Founder at Naomi Patisserie & Bakehouse. She is also Judge on MASTERCHEF-Telugu season-2 streaming exclusively on Sonyliv.
Known for her unique bakery recipes, she is trained and worked with several international chefs like
Martin diez, Philippe Conticini, Antonio Bachour, Amaury Guichon, Frank Hasnoot, Karim Bourgit amongst others.
She has also spear headed team of chefs from ideating to execution of new product line for brand Fabelle, pan India. She also worked as Pastry professional & master chocolatier for over 7 years of experience in ITC Hotels.
Nikitha has also represented India at Bocuse d’or in Singapore 2016 and was part of the team that created worlds most expensive chocolate, recorded in Guinness world book of records.
She was also awarded Culinary rising star of the year by IHC london.
Founder, Forge Breu Hous & Co-founder, Long Boat Brewing Company
Executive Chef, Sheraton Hyderabad
CEO & MD, Paradise Biryani
Director, Creamstone Ice Cream Concepts and Scoop Ice Cream India
CEO- Food Delivery, Zomato
Rakesh Ranjan is CEO - Food Delivery Business at Zomato. He joined Zomato as the Global Sales and Operations Head for the food delivery business in 2017 before being promoted to several key roles; including CEO for its Hyperpure business. Before joining Zomato, Rakesh worked with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as the project leader and worked across multiple sectors with a focus on business turnaround, growth, portfolio strategy, and large-scale organization-wide transformation. He has also been associated with two portfolio firms of Blackstone as the business manager where he was responsible for growth (horizontal across the value chain) and new markets. Rakesh has also worked as a Principal Consultant with the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in its strategy vertical. A post graduate from Indian School of Business in Finance and Marketing, Rakesh has been a receiver of scholarship of merit. He has his bachelor’s degree in electronics from Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology.
Entrepreneur, Simply South
Chef Chalapathi Rao is an entrepreneur. His entrepreneurial venture is named “Simply South by Chef Chalapathi Rao”. The restaurant has redefined the popular South Indian cuisines and has preserved its rich cultural and culinary heritage. The venture, as well as Chef Chalapati Rao has won numerous accolades from highly esteemed organizations. A highly self-motivated and resourceful Chef, Chef Chalapathi Rao is constantly reinventing his age-old recipes to provide evolved culinary experience to the restaurant's patrons. He is presently in the quest for expanding his venture to global destinations. In addition, Chef Challu - as he is fondly known - by the hospitality and culinary industries - is a high-class content writer. He has authored several concept notes, stories and articles on cuisine for diverse print media. Chef Challu's professional career has spanned over 25 years. Earlier in his career, Chef Challu was the highly acclaimed and successful brand custodian as well as Master Chef of the Dakshin brand - while employed with ITC Hotels. In between his ITC Hotels career of almost two decades and his entrepreneurial journey, Chef Challu was the Corporate Chef with a major hotel group based at Hyderabad
Editor-in-Chief, Franchise Media
Entrepreneur India & Asia-Pacific
Ritu Marya is the Editor- in- Chief for Entrepreneur India-Asia-Pacific and Franchise India Media, a group company of Franchise India Holdings Limited. She is the Group Editor and leads the editorial desk which comprises business magazines including Entrepreneur, The Franchising World and Retailer together with the Digital media arm of Entrepreneur.com, Franchiseindia.com, wellnessindia.com, indianretailer.com and restaurantindia.in. In her tryst with Business Journalism over the last 16 years, Ritu is regarded as an authority on Startups, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Consumer Businesses, Retail, Luxury to Education, Restaurant, Funding and more. In her role as the Group Editor she meets and interacts with Leading Indian and Global Entrepreneurs and thought-leaders while tracking Startup and Entrepreneurial and consumer business landscape in India and Asia-Pacific.
MD, Nandhana Group
Global Entrepreneur And Managing Partner, Ironhill India
Teja Chekuri is a global entrepreneur who has set up unique restaurant chains across the world. He is currently the Managing Partner at Ironhill India and holds several board level positions in different companies. He co-founded the Godavari Group of Restaurants in the US and under this group he launched Madras Dosa Co (Boston ) , 1947 -Truly Indian (Boston) , Vaanga (Boston) and an Indian Gastrobar “Don’t Tell Aunty” in Boston along with establishing the flagship brand Godavari in 21 locations (Delaware, Toronto, Tampa , Jersey City, Minneapolis, Orange Country, Atlanta, Columbus, Woburn, Philadelphia, Naperville, Houston, Schaumburg, Kansas, Charlotte, Cincinnati , Edison, Hartford, Herndon, Morrisville and Rhode Island). After having established a robust empire on international.
shores, he turned his attention to India. He pioneered the concept of craftbeer in India with the launch of Prost in 2012. While it is still charting its own success story, Teja wanted to look at experimenting more with local favours and create unique mixes with Indian spices that can be added to the brews to bring about an interesting experience for beer connoisseurs. That’s how Ironhill India came about. Since its launch, the brand has established multiple footprints at a rapid pace under his leadership and is still on an expansion mode. This is today the largest and fastest growing chain in India. He continues to add more restaurants with unique flavours to his list with a South Indian specialty restaurant - United Telugu Kitchens ( Vijayawada & Hyderabad ) along with “ishtaa” – a pure vegetarian fine dining restaurant in Hyderabad (2022) that is wowing foodies with its unique menu. Launching a retail brand is on the cards in the near future.
VP, Telangana Chefs Association
The legendary James Beard once said, “being a chef isn’t just the ability to make a fantastic bacon fried chicken, it is about being a leader and a symbol of culinary pride.” It is the moto that multi award winning Chef Amey Marathe has lived by. In his elusive career spanning over two decades’ Chef Marathe has been involved in every facet of bringing together and running successful F&B establishments pan India, and has been associated with some of the top brands across the country like Sun-n-Sand Hotels, St Laurn Hotels, Hard Rock International, Inn Venue Hospitality and Ohri’s. However, the one thing that this seasoned consultant and F&B specialist is known for is his current project on deriving a sustainable cure to food wastage. As the CEO and founder of JSAMEY BIOTECH, he is India’s first Chefpreneur to advocate the virtues of eco-waste disposal. In fact, his future plan includes bringing down wastage in the F&B segment by 45% with a Pan-India presence. A voracious traveller and archiver of traditional cuisine and a regarded teacher, Chef Marathe has been an influential presence when it comes to promoting hospitality as a career among the youth. A mentor to many a chef, he is the vice president of the Telangana Chefs Association, which was curated, structured and implemented by him. And is also a known consultant who has helped shaped many a dining spaces across India. He specialises in reviving ailing restaurants and organizations.
Entrepreneur, Simply South
Chef Chalapathi Rao is an entrepreneur. His entrepreneurial venture is named “Simply South by Chef Chalapathi Rao”. The restaurant has redefined the popular South Indian cuisines and has preserved its rich cultural and culinary heritage. The venture, as well as Chef Chalapati Rao has won numerous accolades from highly esteemed organizations. A highly self-motivated and resourceful Chef, Chef Chalapathi Rao is constantly reinventing his age-old recipes to provide evolved culinary experience to the restaurant's patrons. He is presently in the quest for expanding his venture to global destinations. In addition, Chef Challu - as he is fondly known - by the hospitality and culinary industries - is a high-class content writer. He has authored several concept notes, stories and articles on cuisine for diverse print media. Chef Challu's professional career has spanned over 25 years. Earlier in his career, Chef Challu was the highly acclaimed and successful brand custodian as well as Master Chef of the Dakshin brand - while employed with ITC Hotels. In between his ITC Hotels career of almost two decades and his entrepreneurial journey, Chef Challu was the Corporate Chef with a major hotel group based at Hyderabad
National Sales Head Hyperpure by Zomato
As Hyperpure by Zomato's Sales Head, Ramit Goyal navigates and transforms food distribution with strategic expertise to make it easier for restaurants to scale their business. Formerly leading the product function, he fuelled innovation. Ramit's distinction lies in crafting visionary solutions, building consensus, and instilling a culture of data-driven decision-making. His multifaceted approach and commitment make him invaluable in shaping Hyperpure's future in food distribution
Previously Ramit led the product function at Hyperpure. He made major transformative contributions to internet products, leading to innovation and growth.
What distinguishes Ramit is his fervor for crafting visionary product solutions to intricate challenges, building consensus among stakeholders, and implementing scalable solutions. His passion extends to cultivating high-performing teams and instilling a culture of data-driven decision-making and experimentation.
Ramit's multifaceted approach and commitment to excellence make him an invaluable leader in shaping the future of food distribution at Hyperpure by Zomato.
Previously Ramit led the product function at Hyperpure. He made major transformative contributions to internet products, fuelling innovation and growth.
What distinguishes Ramit is his fervor for crafting visionary product solutions to intricate challenges, building consensus among stakeholders, and implementing scalable solutions. His passion extends to cultivating high-performing teams and instilling a culture of data-driven decision-making and experimentation.
Ramit's multifaceted approach and commitment to excellence make him an invaluable leader in shaping the future of food distribution at Hyperpure by Zomato.
Associate Director – Sales & Head- F&B, Gupshup
Abhishek Bahl pioneered the concept of online table reservations in India with Bitequest on 2008. He has 15 years of work experience in the FNB domain. An, Ex VP at EazyDiner and head- FNB for Bookmyshow. He started his career with his entrepreneurial venture i.e Bitequest after finishing his Masters in management accounting from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is currently AD sales and head of FNB at Gupshup
Managing Director, Café Niloufer
Shashank Anumula an MBA graduate who joined his father Mr. A Babu Rao in 2011in his journey succeeding in making Cafe Niloufer an integral part of modern Hyderabad. His single vision was evolving the brand with times, and expanding the brand name with top most priority to quality and consistency.
His vision was to scale up the business, however he first focused on standardizing processes before expanding. After 5 years of thorough research on baking cookies, breads, and cakes, with unwavering focus on product consistency, he opened the first Cafe Niloufer outlet at Lakdikapul. This outlet presented to the city a unique tea cafe experience by serving perfect hand-crafted blends in an air-conditioning setting. A first for Hyderabad. Since then he explored the concept of a premium tea cafe and today opened up 5 Cafe Niloufer Outlets in the city, serving upto 1L customers every single day.
During the pandemic, he initiated the company into the FMCG segment with the launch of 3 Cafe Niloufer Tea Powder Blends. The strength of the company today is that it is a place for everyone, ensuring every single person who comes to have chai also has a variety of options that can go along with it.
Hotel Manager and Associate Vice President, Trident Hyderabad...
Chef Dharmender is founding President of Telangana Chefs Association and is Hotel Manager & Associate VP, Trident Hyderabad.
He has over 23 years of culinary journey with seven different properties of Oberoi Hotels both in India and abroad. With extensive gourmet culinary experience, he was trained among the top Chefs in India and abroad.
At present he is working with The Trident Hyderabad where he has been driving 480 Million Food and beverage revenue, heading 5 of fine dining food and beverage outlets.
Prior to this he was heading the kitchens of The Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh, Egypt; a top end luxury destination, second to none on the shore of Red Sea.
During his tenure in Hyderabad he has put forward a lot of traditional and modern food concepts to give a sense of adventure, true food and awareness to the people. Few of the concepts were: Incredible cuisines of India, which featured dishes from lesser known culinary regions of India like Madhya Pradesh, Kanyakumari, Bihar, Jammu, and Orissa. Another was Lazzet-e-Rampur and Awadh, an amalgamation of ingredients incorporated from Mughlai, Awadh, Kashmiri and Afghani flavours. Classic cheese and Pasta promotions and Progressive Indian cuisine, all these concepts were studied thoroughly to offer an authentic and unique experience to the guests.
COO, Paradise Foodcourt Pvt Limited
Siddharth Arora is the COO at Paradise Foodcourt Pvt Limited. He has 22 years of experience in Food service industry across the country in Domino’s, Chaayos and Paradise Biryani, have been an operator, strategist and a scaleup lead in these organizations.
He enjoys driving growth through aggressive goal setting, democratizing data and empowerment.
AVP Strategy, NuTaste
A business post-graduate from prestigious IIM-Lucknow and 12+ years experienced Sales & Marketing Strategist, highly skilled in building entrepreneurial eco-system by commissioning & mentoring cross-functional teams, raising multiple rounds of funding, advising on robust processes while designing, developing and implementing various marketing campaigns to drive bottom line from scratch.
Proficient in formulating and executing critical marketing strategies to boost revenue generation and profits. Adept at fostering stellar business relationships with government machinery, funders, academia, cross-functional teams, clients, and vendors to engage, inspire and provide compelling value to the stakeholders.
Specialties
Cross-functional Team Leadership | Stakeholder Management | Sales & Marketing | Business Development | Revenue Generation | Product Launch | Business Incubation | Training & Mentoring | Business Expansion | Strategic Planning & Execution | Product Roadmap | Project Management | Monitoring & Reporting | Corporate Relationships | Strategic Relationships | Strategic Alliances | Business Partnerships | Solution Designing | Business Analysis | Business Intelligence | Business Expansion | Portfolio Risk Management | Regulatory Compliance | Operational Excellence | Customer Excellence | Automation
Founder, Pisco Hospitality
30 year old F&B Entrepreneur Twinkle Keswani smoothly pivoted from her career in banking to emerge as a young restaurateur. Formerly, the Executive Vice President of Silver Beach Entertainment & Hospitality, she has conceptualised an array of restaurants across Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Kenya and Dubai and successfully spearheaded some of the most popular brands in the country before venturing out individually. After a six year stint with Silver Beach Hospitality - venturing out as an entrepreneur ultimately led her to Toro Toro in Goa, Pisco By The Beach, Goa - ranked amongst the finest restaurants in the state, Chop in Nairobi, Kenya, Cafe Montagne in the heart of Leh, Ladakh and recently Halo Cocktail Bar & Kitchen in Hyderabad with an upcoming project in Kochi.
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