February 12, 2025 • 49 mins
Saffron Nola is the vision of husband and wife, Arvinder Vilkhu and Pardeep Vilkhu, blending Indian and New Orleans heritages and flavors into dishes that have attained high praise. Arvinder grew up in India to a family of engineers but chose a career in hospitality and moved to New Orleans in 1984.The Vilkhus cooked for friends, eventually establishing Saffron Nola Catering. They opened Saffron Nola restaurant in 2017. Their son, Ashwin Vilkhu, serves as Co-Executive Chef. www.saffronnola.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or
products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability
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directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W
(00:21):
FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
love traveling the world and our own backyard to bring
you the amazing people who were front and center and
behind the scenes in wine, food, spirits and hospitality. We
(01:02):
love supporting everyone around the world, and of course, we
really enjoy spotlighting at least one show a month the
wonderful talented people in our current hometown of New Orleans,
which we are doing today. One of the things that
we love about New Orleans, it really is a global
melting pot marrying different cuisines. Everybody knows the reputation New
(01:24):
Orleans has for its Creole Cajun heritage, but there are
so many global flavors here thanks to the many people
who have moved here and settled and brought their cultures
with us. And an example is our guest today, Our
vender Bildku is the founder of Saffron Nola, which is
a restaurant that is getting many recognitions, including another twenty
(01:48):
twenty five James Spirit Award. Nod His is a family
story of coming over from India to settle in New Orleans,
working hard, creating a vision and a concept, and eventually
opening what has become a destination restaurant located on wonderfully
beautiful Magazine Street in the Garden District. Saffron Nola is
(02:11):
beloved by many who go there, including locals and tourists.
The story is just the typical wonderful restaurant story we
love of a family with a vision, and our vendor
is going to share it with us today on the
Connected table.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Welcome, thank you, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, we are so happy because we know it's a
busy week just for our listeners. We're recording this during
Super Bowl Week when every restaurant is very super busy,
and we're glad for that our vendor. You were born
and raised in India and started your hospitality career there
at a very early age. Give us a sense of
(02:51):
your backstory. And India is a large country, so give
us a sense of where you were born and raised.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I was born in a family of engineers. My father,
my great grandfather, his father, they all come from engineering background.
And my siblings, my two brothers and my brother in
laws are all engineers. I'm the youngest of the family,
(03:23):
the baby, and I probably was about four or five
years old, and I decided that engineering is not my
cup of tea and was hanging around with my grandmother's
both paternal and maternal and mom mom in the kitchen,
(03:43):
watching observing documenting. I did not know that my future
was right looking at me, right there in the kitchen
with my elders. And my dad often used to talk
to and said, what happened here? Why don't we having
(04:03):
an engineer in the making? And he's going in the
other direction, and he also joking, needs to call me.
You are the black sheep of the family, and uh,
I wish he was alive today to see what the
black sheep has achieved in life, and I little did
I know that one day I'll be cooking for a living.
And the journey it has taken me all the way
(04:28):
to the New Orleans. Of all the places, I chose
New Orleans to be my home. I had choice between
New York and New England, and New Orleans was just
a home run for me culturally, temperamentally, the ball hospitality
of people and uh and the and the seasoning of
(04:48):
the food was perfect. I came to New Orleans through
my company. I worked for many years charge group of
hotels in India. I was always in full and beverage management.
I was trained to be front of the house management
and also trained to be a culinarian. And our management
(05:12):
courses back home were also lost and so extensive that
whatever areas we chose to join, we were ready for them.
And I chose management because the growth was very important
to me and my career wise. It was very promising
for me to develop myself in that area. But deep down,
(05:37):
back of my head, I was a passionate cop and
that's where I ended up. After many years of management,
many years of country club management, many years of making
people happy in the front of the house. I decided
that I will be the best fit to share my
(05:58):
passion and my talent with my community I live in.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
You know, it's an interesting story, Melanie, because I've been
in I've been in hospitality myself, and I see a
lot of people go from the back of the house
to the front of the house. But I don't see
a lot of people go from the front of the
house to the back of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I know, because you know, when you are working in
the front of the house, of course, you are exposed
to the workings on the back of the house as well. Yeah,
and you see people you come across, the chefs, you
come across and their temperaments and there and their philosophies
and their attitudes. And for me, it was a very
(06:39):
important way to go and join that area of the
hospitality organization where I was so focused on nurturing my staff.
I was so focused on developing them, and I was
so focused on making a happy environment in the kitchen.
(07:02):
We really thrive on that even till date. You can
walk into our restaurant. We have a huge window looking
into the restaurant. And we wanted to be a part
of the restaurant. We didn't want to be closed in
through swing doors where nobody could see who the staff
were in the kitchen. We want the extension of the
(07:25):
kitchen into the restaurant. And really that has been a
great term motivation for all our staff that we recognize
them as very important team members of the organization and
every day they are appreciated, right down to the dishwasher.
It is very important that we nurture them honor them
(07:45):
because they are very important part of the operation and
the success behind all of this.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You know, what you're saying is really hits a lot
of notes. I remember sitting in a panel discussion in
New York and Daniel Blue was and it was for
Emils and Wilson that they asked you, to the panelist,
what was what called you to work in a restaurant?
What was the calling? And you know, some people may
say I want to cook, but Daniel said, I want
(08:12):
to serve people and make them happy. And that really
is what you know you do when you're working front
of the house, back at the whole concept, You're there
to make people feel comfortable and happy. That's this core
word of restaurant restaurore So It was great that you
started in management because you really had a lot of
(08:33):
interaction with customers. It also gave you a strong business foundation,
which we know many people who work only in the
kitchen don't necessarily have, right.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I agree, you could be a very talented chef and
very good at what you do. And if you don't
have the sense of how you are going to achieve
the bottom line at the end of the year through
your talent, through your passion, then you're not doing justice
(09:06):
to your talent and you need to really educate yourself
in that aspect of the running of the restaurants as well,
you know, and it is very important because your longitivity,
your stability, and your recognition the community also depends on
how your personality fits in that section of the business. Also.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, well, it took you a while to open Saffron
Noola because you've started in catering in Papa, which many
people do, many noted New Orleans restaurants did.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And you started with your wife. Before we get into
how the road to opening Safron Nola, let's talk to
this about your wife, who is your partner. It is
a family run business and she has a wonderful background
as well.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So I came to New Orleans in nineteen eighty four
during World's Fairs sablishment and I was joined the Innercontinent
Hotel and my wife, who also got a job in
a state run facility. She is a psychologist, and we
(10:15):
both established our bases here. At that time, we realized
that there was nobody really exploiting our community, showing off
our background, our culture, our cooking, and so it never
(10:37):
dawned on us. We were going to our jobs every
day and coming home and on weekends we would have
socials with our friends and we would cook at home.
And it came to a point where the friends children
would tell their mothers and parents and we go into
our Windor's house because mom, you know our cook, he
knows how to cook. And everybody gravitated to our home
(10:59):
on Friday nights and they would spend Friday evenings, on
Saturday mornings and Sunday sometimes because the food was the
best in Willco household. And the kids growing up, they
were watching us host these events cooking, and that's where
it all started. And then one day a friend of
(11:23):
ours ours who had moved in from New York and
he was newly married and his wife didn't know how
to cook, and he said, can you help please? I
want my wife to learn hard cook. And I said, okay,
why don't we do a little class, and do you
(11:44):
have a circle of friends in your age group who
are newly married. We'll teach them how to prepare themselves
at home with ingredients in direct pantry. And this is
where it started. And it just maushroomed and some of
them one day I want of them ask me, okay, Ivender,
(12:08):
I would like you to cook for my daughter's first birthday.
I said fine, I thought, maybe thirty five forty people.
You can just prepare food from home and then take
it to their house and let them serve, and said
I asked him, how many people are you inviting? I
said about two hundred and fifty thirty three hundred people.
(12:29):
And that was a little shocking to me. I told
him that, Bobby, I don't even have equipment to cook
for thirty und three. I don't have any kitchen to
do any of that. And he says, money is not
a criteria. You get whatever you want to and you
cook in my huge home and a huge, huge kitchen
(12:51):
to make this party happen. So that was the first
event party and I catered to our Indian community. They
had never seen an hospitality at that level, the presentation
of food, the flavors of food, the way the operation
ran feeding those two hundred and fifty people. They were
(13:15):
more than that, but it was. It was a flawless
Both the front of the house and the back of
the house worked so well. In Unison. They were so
impressed and the entire guests or witnessed all that, and
that was the beginning of our cairn to our Indian
(13:35):
community here. He had never seen anything like that before.
So four years down down the road, I was offered
a job to run a private club here in New Orleans,
Spick Quick Club. It was in nineteen eighty seven. The
members of the club were my clients at the hotel
(13:57):
and they knew me very well, very dear to me,
and they asked me to come look at the club
and see what I feel about it and tell us
what can be done to make it work well. And
I went there. I was calculating in my mind and
(14:19):
this place really, really, really really it needs a lot
of uplifting and not only with the food, the service,
but the interior. The building was built in eighteen oh six,
and they were in this building since nineteen fifty as
tenants and they bought the building in nineteen eighty fours.
(14:41):
So now they realized that we have to do something
about it, not only the satisfaction of the members for
food and service, but the ambiance of the club. So
I joined them as a general manager in nineteen eighty seven.
And now the club is a private organization is by
tax court cannot cater anything beyond the club walls to
(15:04):
any of the members private events. So our vendor's company,
which was already working from home, became a private catering
for all these members. So we were cooking not only
Indian for our Indian plant tail, we were cooking non
Indian food for our members of the club and Indian
food for them as well. And then in nineteen ninety eight,
(15:24):
Julane Hospital Department of Psychiatry asked me to do their
Christmas event for the Christmas dinner for the department and
I told them, look, I would love to do it,
but they said you got to have a corporation registered
at State of Louisiana. So Ashvind Inc. Was born in
(15:47):
nineteen ninety eight and that was our first commercial catering
to the local community, and that was the beginning of
our caring company. My wife and I still had our jobs.
We went to work every morning, but on Thursday we'll
go On Wednesday will go shopping in the evening after
(16:07):
work on Thursday and Friday we will start production and
Fridays will go do catering. Or Sundays we do private
events for our clients. We did that for many years
and in twenty ten, a Party retires as a psychologist.
So all these friends and clients now put her against
(16:31):
the wall. I said, you cannot retire. We need to
open a restaurant, and we get a commercial catering kitchen
by then, and she was I don't know how she
was convinced by these guys, and she was convinced that, yeah,
we need a restaurant. So we opened a pop up
restaurant next to our catering kitchen, which was luckily the
(16:52):
space was available for release, so we extended our kitchen
into a restaurant. So we ran that restaurant for six years.
Every Friday night we would run Saffron Nola on the
West Bank and the restaurant was so successful. We were
so busy we were getting reservations four months five months
out in that little place every five Fridays a month.
(17:17):
And now the kids at this time are in colleges.
They're doing their nbas and masters and business education, and
they saw the success for the first thing. Then they
joined industry. We never wanted our children to work with
us because we wanted to work in the field and
get trained by somebody else, not under the wings of
(17:41):
the parents. They needed to learn the hard way, So
that was our mission and it was very important for
us that they learned this business and trade while they
were getting ready to join the hospitality industry. So Ashvind
was a catalyst behind all what we are today. Towards
(18:03):
the end of his NBA, he wrote a thesis about
Saffron Nola's beginning and success path and he laid it
down as a business model. And what we are today
is coming through what he had written in that thes
on those thesis, and we were very proud that he
(18:26):
joined us and he uplifted the whole operation to another
level and encouraged us to invest in a restaurant on
Magazine Street. In twenty seventeen, we opened Saffron Nola and
(18:46):
we are very proud of our children who encouraged us
to do this. We had no idea that we were
going to get into a restaurant business one day.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, it's an amazing story and the procession of how
involved is wonderful. So today you are a president and
co executive chef with Ashwan, and you're a father's son
team and you're working on another concept we know that
will be opening in twenty twenty five. Prinita, your daughter,
(19:15):
she still wears, has another full time job but also
doubles working as director of human resources and finance. But
she's still also working at auctioner.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, she's a working for auctioner and she's the director
in internal audit department together.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, so she's you know, again we're talking about families
that had literally carried two different jobs. Of course, you
said parteep your wife retired and this is like her
second career even though she was again holding two jobs,
and she really is you know, you're a partner and
oversees all operations. So this really saffron Nola really is
(19:53):
a family run affair. And I can Dave and I
can attest that if you go there, you will see family.
They come out and you will see them. Uh, Saffron.
Was there a reason you settled on that name because
you mentioned that the overall holding corporation is Ashwan, which
is your son's name. What is the symbolism to you
to to the words saffron nola?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Uh? The saffron stands out as a very special spice
in our cooking uh gulerery world. We wanted to have
our restaurant to be very special, so we really felt
saffron was the right term for that because saffron is
not only an ingredient, it's also a very special uh
(20:37):
ingredient spice in our culture and the culture worldwide. Everybody
uses saffron in their in their cooking, so we wanted
to use that name as as as as the restaurant's name.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
It's also I believe, one of the world's oldest spices
and most treasured and precious spices.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Houspies, which is used not only in savory cooking, used
in desserts as well, in medicines, use in many applications.
I wanted to add a little bit about my wife,
so my wife also is very fond of cooking from
childhood with her grandmothers and mothers. She was born in
East Africa, Kenyan and very traditional family because we were
(21:27):
living abroad and during the early fifties and sixties, the
families were very traditional. They maintained their originality and their
culture so deeply. So she grew up with a very
home body family which cooked and ate at home. There
were no restaurants in Eldorette to go out an eat.
(21:49):
Everything was done at home. So she has been a
very important aspect of our partnership. And she is the
love of my life and she has nurtured this family
and I'm so proud of her that she's with me.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Well, we're curious, how long have you been married and
how did you two meet.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
We have been married forty two years.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And a lot of Indians who were settled in East Africa.
There was a big exodus from East Africa during Edia
Means trouble. He started in Uganda. A lot of Indians
left to go to Canada, to US, to Europe. And
my wife's parents and grandparents decided to come back to India.
(22:39):
And when they came back to India, before they were
going to come back, they sent the younger ones back
home to study. So my wife had already finished her
high school and she wanted to be a doctor. So
she came to India to do her preman and came home.
It was a cultural shock for her. She did not
(22:59):
like the college and you know, like her crassmates and
all that. Told the father that I don't want to
me in this college. Please move me somewhere else. So
they found another beautiful college for her. But that didn't
order pre med, but it orders some psychology. So that's
the story behind her becoming psychologists then becoming a doctor.
So I met her in India and restless history.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
She had quite a notable career working in developmental disabilities
with the State of Louisiana. So she had pretty had
a very prestigious career. I have to say, I am
so impressed about the culture of hard work and education
that the Indian culture really upholds. And the achievement and
(23:48):
contributions here in the United States are so substantial. It's amazing.
I'm amazed at the hard work that you have described.
Each of your family members have received the highest education,
pursued successful careers, and then continue to move on to
nurture the family business. And it's not easy right now,
(24:09):
it's and particularly in New Orleans, when you've got so
many environmental issues to deal with, enclosures and we all
you all went through COVID. What's it like running a
restaurant here Now that you have the brick and mortar
and success, what do you for the listeners out there
who may not know the challenges and opportunities for what
is considered, we think one of the greatest restaurnt cities
(24:31):
in the United States. What has been your observation and
experience now that you have the brick and mortar.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
When the conditions in New Orleans are normal, that means
no conditions like hurricanes or COVID and catastrophes, everything is fine.
When these things happen, it really puts a big, big
block in the progress of the companies. And and you know,
COVID happened, and then Hurricane Ida right follow right behind it.
(25:06):
It really makes you wonder sometimes get into the right business. Uh.
You know, you go through emotional ups and downs during
those those days, and suddenly you realize this is your
home and you need to respect your home and the
honor of your city you live in. And you get
(25:27):
down and you get up and start walking again. You
get down, and you get up and start walking again.
You don't lose hope. Everything is built on your hope
and your integrity, your dedication and your honesty towards your profession,
and the confidence you have in yourself. Di TETs what
(25:51):
happens in the future. These things happen to everyone wherever
they are. The tragedies do occur, but how you come
up one of them and be strong again is the
true testament to your abilities and your passion behind it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Well said, particularly now when we have sister cities like
Los Angeles going through incredibly challenging times, and I know
New Orleans has been the community here has been very
supportive of the Los Angeles community. Why don't we switch
gears a little bit and talk about the menu. It's
a fine Nola.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
So the objective behind designing the menu when we were
having discussions, of course many years of gearing helped us
develop the menu beautifully. We also wanted to make sure
that we were going to be unique. We didn't want
(26:51):
to compete with anybody else cooking the same thing we're
going to cook. We want to be special about our
background and about our history of cooking in New Orleans
and so when we were conceiving the menu, we had
many discussions about making sure the menu was approachable to
(27:12):
everyone who walked through the door. We wanted to reduce
our culture, our cuisine in a very subtle way. We
wanted to use the local seafood, We wanted to use
the local ingredients through Indian cooking, the style of cooking.
We wanted to marry New Orleans style of cooking. So
(27:34):
we wanted to have the menu very approachable. So everybody
who look at it read the menu. Oh, yeah, I
think I can have that oysters. Oh they have a
curry seafood gumbal, Oh we can try that too, and
you know, and then burn a squash during fall. Wow,
burness squash. Haven't seen burner squash done like that? You know.
(27:54):
All those things came to play where we wanted to
create some sort of a curiosity and a satisfaction to
our food and spices, and that was what our objective was,
and that's how the menu was placed with Indian culture
marrying the New Orleans culture, and that's what reflects reflects
(28:15):
totally on the on the on our menu.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And everything is meant to be shared, which we love,
of course, because there's so many wonderful things, you know,
when we went we I am glad that you have
a lot of wonderful seafood applications. And the tamarin shrimp
was a personal favorite of mine. But I know I'm
a big fan of alsho of chicken barani, which is
a more traditional dish. David, you liked the we were
(28:40):
at a James Beard Foundation event you had the lamb
Chop said they were the best you've ever had, Absolutely delicious.
But you also have because we did take out from
Saffron Noola as well to friend's house and we did
some of the small plates, and I was a big
fan of the ten Dury squash.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, we wanted to have plenty of vegan food on
our menu. We want to have vegetarian food on our menu.
We wanted to have menu which reflected everybody's dietary needs
and there was something for everyone. So squash was one
(29:19):
of the dishes. We thought, we have clay owns in
the in the restaurant and squash is plentiful during fall,
you know, pumpkins and squashes plood the markets. And we
came up with the Withanduri style squash and the caramelizing
of the squash, sugars in there and crusted with our
(29:41):
Indian spices, and the yogurt crusted with the chippy flour
on the squash was phenomenal. And then we make a
little timutuary dressing on top of the squash with some
hung yogurt spread at the bottom of the squash. Completed
the whole picture. And I tell you this is a
(30:01):
very sort of after small plate. In the beginning, people
will bypass the shrimp and crab and go for a
squash during fall and it is a it is very
very successful. We cannot even take it off the menu
way after winter's over. We continue till the spring time
with the squash and then finally when the summer comes
(30:22):
around the corner, we have to take it off.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, well, summer's always a challenge. We've learned to do
in our first year in New Orlds. So what are
some other what we consider signature dishes that really illustrate
that beautiful marriage of Indian culture and flavors with with
traditional Creole Cajun flavors.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So when we are doing our carings, we used to
do a lot of crab cakes, a lot of crab
creigs with the Hollandais creoles, sauce and all for the
non Indian carings and all that. So when we were
playing the menu, I said, we got to do something
with the crab cake encouragement, but not do breadcrumbs and
(31:02):
not do eggs, and let's do something very very totally
gluten free. So we came up with a crab pancake,
which is crap put on the menu. Uh uh. It's
a better made with lentile flour and it is loaded
with the herbs and onions and cilantros, green onions, spices,
and then it is not fermented. It is made fresh
(31:25):
every day. And then on top of that, before we
put all the greens and all, we put crab meat
on it, and then we flip it and cut into
triangles and serve with our tamarin chutney and freshman chutney.
That was that was very innovative and very original, and
we thought that was a great answer to our crab
cake nuance culture to our our menu, which was I
(31:47):
was very proud of. I mean that on the menu. Yeah.
So anyways, that.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Was the dish we did not have Melanie.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Well, we're gonna come back we're going to go back
because because the things we also we also we also
hear and we haven't had this dish yet either, or vendor.
We also hear that you have one of the best
gumbos in the city and it's a curried with Indian
inflections in it. So why don't you tell us a
little bit about your very unique gambo that you're quite
well known for.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
So I'll take you back to nineteen eighty four, my
first time in New Orleans. Intercontinental was about to operate.
They had put me up in the hotel and there
was a French chef, chef Chef Andre beyond Tierra, and
he invited me for lunch downstairs in his kitchen and
(32:37):
he served a bowl of gumbo, but he knew my
background and he laced it up with extra spices and seasoning.
And I took the first bite of the gumbo and
our told Chef Chef, this is the reason I'm going
to stay in New Orleans. That's food is nicely seasoned here,
and I think I've made my decision between New York,
(32:57):
Connecticut and New Orleans. I'm going to stay New Orleans.
That gumbo made them my day at that time, so
my wife and I often used to talk about it.
If we ever, ever, ever ever have a restaurant, one day,
we will have our own curriage seafood gumbo, because we
wanted to make sure that we did not compromise on
(33:19):
the originality of the gumbo, the makings of it. We
wanted to make sure we stayed on point with how
the gumbo's made. But only thing it changed was our
seasoning and spices, and we have American it. We have
ginger in it, we have curry leaves in it, and
we have a blend of multiple seasoning spices like fenobreek,
(33:43):
onion seeds, pennel, and that's what makes the flavor of
our gumbo. And was very happy to see that New
York Times called the whiff of it, and they put
a full page article about our gumbo along with the
other gumbos in New Orleans in the New York Times.
And if you ever come to the restaurant, it's framed
(34:04):
up in the back of the house on the wall.
One of my friends and our clients, who is now
in New York saw that article in the New York
Times immediately called a framing company, got that article printed
and framed in a full sized, state sized article in
a frame lacquered and nailed it to me the next
(34:26):
day and then as well as on the walls showing
the title was that Rebirth of a Gumbo. And I
was so honored, was so honored for me to see
that Ama got such a such an awesome recognition.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's a huge honor because this is a city of gumbos,
and you can have a lot. There's a wide range
of them. You know, our vendors you're talking. We love
the grocery shop and it's hard for regular people like
us now to get affordable food. Where do you source
a lot of your ingred and so you have like
places that regular people like us can go. We don't
(35:04):
know about.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Well. You know, in a commercial world, you have to
buy stuff from a commercial establishment because the reliabilities. Then,
you know a lot of things come to play, and
you like your produce to be delivered to you at
the door. I'm a very loyal person with people I
(35:27):
do business with, and I have been very loyal to
Bubbles Produce for all these years. They've been serving us
for the last forty years here in New Orleans. We
go to a local Farmers Market every now and then
to pick up produce in the City Park. We cannot
(35:49):
buy meats from there and seafood from there to sell
in the restaurant, but we can do produce without any
problems losing on a seafood Exchange is another seafood company
which we have done business with for many years and
they've been very loyal to us. They've been very supportive
of our ups and downs we went through. They were
(36:10):
so kind all these companies to send us UH Seafood
all the way across to New York when we were
cooking at James Warehouse and UH and we were we
were very lucky to have. We're very lucky to have
friends like these in our lives. We are as we
(36:31):
progress in time, we are looking at really developing a
relationship with more companies like D'artanians and jav Foods. They
are doing fantastic job in city. Once we established the
Kingsway restaurant, where we have better warehousing and the production
square footage, we will we are definitely going to feature
(36:55):
our menu items based on what's locally available.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
The King's Way is the rest of concept you're currently
working on with Ashvind scheduled to open in twenty twenty five,
which this is an evergreen podcast, So do you want
to just give our listeners who may hear this the
end of the year and it may be open a
little sketch for you snapshot of it.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
So once again we are going to stick to our
philosophy of sharing what we know best and sharing with
our local community most unique menu items we have to offer.
(37:36):
Kingsley is going to feature the stories we have at
home growing up with our children, what we cooked at home,
everything which was non Indian, and it's going to predominate
mostly Asian influenced food, Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese, and everything which
(38:06):
we cooked at home with our experiences with our children.
We made our own sauces, we blended our own spices,
we UH reduced our own soil sauces with the with
the Asian spices. We did everything from scratch. We did
not buy anything bottled and UH and we firmly believed
(38:29):
that that was a way to really impress UH whoever
is going to eat our food. And it all started
at home without our friends, and they were most impressed
with what we do did. Other than Indian food, there
is a picture which our designers picked up from our
picture album where there's a walk cooking going on in
(38:52):
the back of our original house which was on Kingsway East. Uh,
that's where the name comes from or the restaurant we
our first home in the United States was on Kingsway.
And there's a picture of little Ashvine which is he's
about five years old and me doing walk cooking in
our backyard out in the open, and he was I
(39:16):
didn't realize soaking in just like I did with my
grandmothers and mothers from early childhood, that he was documenting
and registering, uh, what was going on in the household,
Milkoo household and then and he is so focused on
bringing that to life at Kingsway. And I'm so proud
(39:36):
that he's going forward with that because nothing more unique
can be than our originality coming out of our kitchen
at home.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
What's the address can it be? Is it going to
be near Safron Noah or another part the street from Handy?
That's Handy because Ash's going to be working. You're gonna
be working to kitchens, so that's very good.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Well, the new location is going to house two kitchens.
It's going to be the kitchen for the restaurant only
and the back of the building will be their main
commissary which will be our production kitchen for making all
the sauces for both the restaurants and catering events and
production event. We do a lot of bottling for poor foods.
(40:20):
We do our pickles and chutneys for them, and we
are at the moment housed in all the whole foods
in Louisiana. We want to expand and go nationwide with
them once we have the square footage to meet that
production demand, so that back of the house will be
mainly used for that.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So you already have a line of chutneys and spices
under the Saffron Nolan name. Yes, yeah, I was thinking
about that as you were speaking. Well, we'll have to
try those. We'd love to cook at home and we
love we love cooking with.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
We have dryer ups for the spices for lamb chops
andalu and we have salad chai intens and we have
we have been focusing on this and Hiak and Iida
just put a damper on the whole province. We had
on the main commissary on the Westland. We had to
(41:14):
shut down because it was donaged very badly. So hopefully
everything will come back to life this year, well.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
We hope, So we hope twenty twenty five is a
great year for the family. And we know that Ashmand
had when we were last year, he was in the
process of he and his wife were having another baby.
So it's a growing family and it's all very exciting.
And you know, restaurant families work all the time. You know,
when there's when we were going for our holidays, you're working.
(41:45):
We know that time off is rare, but when you
do get the rare time off, what do you enjoy
doing in the city.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Well, the rare time off we get nowadays. Well, let
me take you back to how we operate. We decided
when we open Saffron that we need a quality of
life for our staff, not only for the family, and
we decided that we're going to operate five days a week.
(42:16):
Sunday and Monday we will be off and so that
our employees get time with their families and have time
for themselves to recoup, to regenerate, to meditate, whatever they
want to do during those two days. We're not going
to be a typical restaurant working seven days a week,
having crazy amount of hours to work. We want to
(42:43):
defy that, and that is a true reason why we
have a very nurturing environment at Saffron. We really believe
in I tell all my staff, I would like you
to walk in happy every day, and I want to
leave the door happy again when you go home. We
are not going to be an environment where we have
a pressure cooker blowing up every few minutes. Not going
(43:07):
to happen at San Front, even happen at Kingsway. So
we want to be a very productive, but very nurturing
environment for our employees because if you have a happy team,
I think your productivity and your recognition quadruples in the process,
and that is very important to us.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Well, it's good to hear that, because you know restaurants
have many restaurants have taken a beating for the quality
of life. We do want to before we conclude, note
that while we've been talking about the menu, Stephanola has
really one of the most impressive wine lists in the city.
So it's very extensive, which is not always the case,
(43:50):
and a very nice cocktail menu as well. Do you
want to give a shout out to your beverage director.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
I would love to, but I would like to take
you back to the opening up Saffron. Nola Ashwyn came
to work with us on the West Bank and leaving
his company, he worked for Glazers and moy the Ajo Hennessy.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
That's where his experience happened with the with the beverages
and he started experimenting with our spices and developing cocktails
on the West Bank.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
So when we opened Saffron, he was able to gather
a fine group of people and started nurturing them to
the philosophy the company has the cocktails should reflect our
food in the taste, so uh Ashwyn. After opening the
(44:46):
bar program hired Colin Williams and my son in law,
Taylor Adams, who had already joined our company, became our
general manager and he is in charge of our wine program.
Colin Williams is in charge of developing our cocktails. Colin's
(45:08):
second bar person is Paul Barrosa, who's also superb in
fixing the cocktails. Also, Colin and Paul are great people
persons and then experienced people have sitting at the bar,
not only watching them make cocktails and talking to them
about their experience growing up with us at Saffron. How
(45:29):
they develop these cocktails is a storytelling going on at
every table, every bar seat in the restaurant. So I'm
very proud of Colin and Paul and Taylor and Ashman
for initiating what the bar development has ended up to be.
One well recognized cocktails, great wines on the menu paired
(45:53):
with our food is the key to the success behind
any good, well run restaurant, normally the hospitality, not only
the service. All these things have to work in cohesion,
and I'm so proud these next generation is doing a
fantastic job to carry on the restaurant forward for many
years to come.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, we're glad we brought that up because you know
it can be catch as catch can with wineless in
the city, and it is as wine people outstanding, and
we just want to add to our listeners. Well, you
can look in those beautiful windows from the sidewalk of
Magazine Street and see many people dining at tables. There's
a wonderful bar, and I think that's what we're going
to do next is sit at the bar and try
(46:34):
some of these cocktails. And they're very inventive. They look refreshing,
which is what you really want New Orleans with the heat.
Your selection of white wines, which we know is a
big popular selection, is very extensive in the wines and
really great with this style of food, which is very
(46:55):
special because not everybody in the restaurant business takes that care.
They'll just put whatever they are being sold on the
list without thinking about the spices, integrating with the wines
and Sefroi Nolla does a great job with this. We
would highly recommend it as a wine restaurant.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I talked to all the guests about the Indian culture
long before the pharmaceutical companies came into being started making medicines,
and all that Indian spices were the pharmacy of India
right and all the spices were used as a preventative
(47:33):
hare in the diet. So I talk about that to
our guests, talk about that to our staff all the time.
Whatever spices we have, it has such great benefit for
your well being and your body and nurture that enjoy that.
Read about it, and it is it's a very important
(47:54):
thing to know. The best is now realize how important
it is to use that in these fires in your
daily diets. Take one example of Turneric.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Tony Well we I think we've come to the end.
We just got to notice that we have to conclude
turmeric is one of our favorite spices along with cinnamon,
so we just want to bring that up. We've been
speaking with our vendor, Viklu, who is a founder, owner,
(48:29):
chef partner with his whole family, but his son Ashwand
as the executive chef of Saffron Nola and Kingsway, which
is opening in twenty twenty five. You know, we want
to thank you for taking time out of your incredibly
busy schedule to meet with us. We want everyone to
check out the website Saffronanola dot com and you can
see everything we've been talking menu wineless cocktails there and
(48:54):
give it a shot when you come to New Orleans
or if you live here, give it a shot and
visit it and come often. And they do take as well,
which we highly recommend. So thank you for joining us
on the Connected.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Table to seeing you next time when you're there with us.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Absolutely you've been listening to The Connected Table Live with
Melanie Young and David Ransom. We hope your mouths are
watering because we want you to go out and explore
and expand your palate and have an adventure every time
you dine out, because we want you to always stay
insatiably curious. Thank you,
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or
products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability
explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or
it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be
directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W
(00:21):
FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
love traveling the world and our own backyard to bring
you the amazing people who were front and center and
behind the scenes in wine, food, spirits and hospitality. We
(01:02):
love supporting everyone around the world, and of course, we
really enjoy spotlighting at least one show a month the
wonderful talented people in our current hometown of New Orleans,
which we are doing today. One of the things that
we love about New Orleans, it really is a global
melting pot marrying different cuisines. Everybody knows the reputation New
(01:24):
Orleans has for its Creole Cajun heritage, but there are
so many global flavors here thanks to the many people
who have moved here and settled and brought their cultures
with us. And an example is our guest today, Our
vender Bildku is the founder of Saffron Nola, which is
a restaurant that is getting many recognitions, including another twenty
(01:48):
twenty five James Spirit Award. Nod His is a family
story of coming over from India to settle in New Orleans,
working hard, creating a vision and a concept, and eventually
opening what has become a destination restaurant located on wonderfully
beautiful Magazine Street in the Garden District. Saffron Nola is
(02:11):
beloved by many who go there, including locals and tourists.
The story is just the typical wonderful restaurant story we
love of a family with a vision, and our vendor
is going to share it with us today on the
Connected table.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Welcome, thank you, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, we are so happy because we know it's a
busy week just for our listeners. We're recording this during
Super Bowl Week when every restaurant is very super busy,
and we're glad for that our vendor. You were born
and raised in India and started your hospitality career there
at a very early age. Give us a sense of
(02:51):
your backstory. And India is a large country, so give
us a sense of where you were born and raised.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I was born in a family of engineers. My father,
my great grandfather, his father, they all come from engineering background.
And my siblings, my two brothers and my brother in
laws are all engineers. I'm the youngest of the family,
(03:23):
the baby, and I probably was about four or five
years old, and I decided that engineering is not my
cup of tea and was hanging around with my grandmother's
both paternal and maternal and mom mom in the kitchen,
(03:43):
watching observing documenting. I did not know that my future
was right looking at me, right there in the kitchen
with my elders. And my dad often used to talk
to and said, what happened here? Why don't we having
(04:03):
an engineer in the making? And he's going in the
other direction, and he also joking, needs to call me.
You are the black sheep of the family, and uh,
I wish he was alive today to see what the
black sheep has achieved in life, and I little did
I know that one day I'll be cooking for a living.
And the journey it has taken me all the way
(04:28):
to the New Orleans. Of all the places, I chose
New Orleans to be my home. I had choice between
New York and New England, and New Orleans was just
a home run for me culturally, temperamentally, the ball hospitality
of people and uh and the and the seasoning of
(04:48):
the food was perfect. I came to New Orleans through
my company. I worked for many years charge group of
hotels in India. I was always in full and beverage management.
I was trained to be front of the house management
and also trained to be a culinarian. And our management
(05:12):
courses back home were also lost and so extensive that
whatever areas we chose to join, we were ready for them.
And I chose management because the growth was very important
to me and my career wise. It was very promising
for me to develop myself in that area. But deep down,
(05:37):
back of my head, I was a passionate cop and
that's where I ended up. After many years of management,
many years of country club management, many years of making
people happy in the front of the house. I decided
that I will be the best fit to share my
(05:58):
passion and my talent with my community I live in.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
You know, it's an interesting story, Melanie, because I've been
in I've been in hospitality myself, and I see a
lot of people go from the back of the house
to the front of the house. But I don't see
a lot of people go from the front of the
house to the back of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I know, because you know, when you are working in
the front of the house, of course, you are exposed
to the workings on the back of the house as well. Yeah,
and you see people you come across, the chefs, you
come across and their temperaments and there and their philosophies
and their attitudes. And for me, it was a very
(06:39):
important way to go and join that area of the
hospitality organization where I was so focused on nurturing my staff.
I was so focused on developing them, and I was
so focused on making a happy environment in the kitchen.
(07:02):
We really thrive on that even till date. You can
walk into our restaurant. We have a huge window looking
into the restaurant. And we wanted to be a part
of the restaurant. We didn't want to be closed in
through swing doors where nobody could see who the staff
were in the kitchen. We want the extension of the
(07:25):
kitchen into the restaurant. And really that has been a
great term motivation for all our staff that we recognize
them as very important team members of the organization and
every day they are appreciated, right down to the dishwasher.
It is very important that we nurture them honor them
(07:45):
because they are very important part of the operation and
the success behind all of this.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You know, what you're saying is really hits a lot
of notes. I remember sitting in a panel discussion in
New York and Daniel Blue was and it was for
Emils and Wilson that they asked you, to the panelist,
what was what called you to work in a restaurant?
What was the calling? And you know, some people may
say I want to cook, but Daniel said, I want
(08:12):
to serve people and make them happy. And that really
is what you know you do when you're working front
of the house, back at the whole concept, You're there
to make people feel comfortable and happy. That's this core
word of restaurant restaurore So It was great that you
started in management because you really had a lot of
(08:33):
interaction with customers. It also gave you a strong business foundation,
which we know many people who work only in the
kitchen don't necessarily have, right.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I agree, you could be a very talented chef and
very good at what you do. And if you don't
have the sense of how you are going to achieve
the bottom line at the end of the year through
your talent, through your passion, then you're not doing justice
(09:06):
to your talent and you need to really educate yourself
in that aspect of the running of the restaurants as well,
you know, and it is very important because your longitivity,
your stability, and your recognition the community also depends on
how your personality fits in that section of the business. Also.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, well, it took you a while to open Saffron
Noola because you've started in catering in Papa, which many
people do, many noted New Orleans restaurants did.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And you started with your wife. Before we get into
how the road to opening Safron Nola, let's talk to
this about your wife, who is your partner. It is
a family run business and she has a wonderful background
as well.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So I came to New Orleans in nineteen eighty four
during World's Fairs sablishment and I was joined the Innercontinent
Hotel and my wife, who also got a job in
a state run facility. She is a psychologist, and we
(10:15):
both established our bases here. At that time, we realized
that there was nobody really exploiting our community, showing off
our background, our culture, our cooking, and so it never
(10:37):
dawned on us. We were going to our jobs every
day and coming home and on weekends we would have
socials with our friends and we would cook at home.
And it came to a point where the friends children
would tell their mothers and parents and we go into
our Windor's house because mom, you know our cook, he
knows how to cook. And everybody gravitated to our home
(10:59):
on Friday nights and they would spend Friday evenings, on
Saturday mornings and Sunday sometimes because the food was the
best in Willco household. And the kids growing up, they
were watching us host these events cooking, and that's where
it all started. And then one day a friend of
(11:23):
ours ours who had moved in from New York and
he was newly married and his wife didn't know how
to cook, and he said, can you help please? I
want my wife to learn hard cook. And I said, okay,
why don't we do a little class, and do you
(11:44):
have a circle of friends in your age group who
are newly married. We'll teach them how to prepare themselves
at home with ingredients in direct pantry. And this is
where it started. And it just maushroomed and some of
them one day I want of them ask me, okay, Ivender,
(12:08):
I would like you to cook for my daughter's first birthday.
I said fine, I thought, maybe thirty five forty people.
You can just prepare food from home and then take
it to their house and let them serve, and said
I asked him, how many people are you inviting? I
said about two hundred and fifty thirty three hundred people.
(12:29):
And that was a little shocking to me. I told
him that, Bobby, I don't even have equipment to cook
for thirty und three. I don't have any kitchen to
do any of that. And he says, money is not
a criteria. You get whatever you want to and you
cook in my huge home and a huge, huge kitchen
(12:51):
to make this party happen. So that was the first
event party and I catered to our Indian community. They
had never seen an hospitality at that level, the presentation
of food, the flavors of food, the way the operation
ran feeding those two hundred and fifty people. They were
(13:15):
more than that, but it was. It was a flawless
Both the front of the house and the back of
the house worked so well. In Unison. They were so
impressed and the entire guests or witnessed all that, and
that was the beginning of our cairn to our Indian
(13:35):
community here. He had never seen anything like that before.
So four years down down the road, I was offered
a job to run a private club here in New Orleans,
Spick Quick Club. It was in nineteen eighty seven. The
members of the club were my clients at the hotel
(13:57):
and they knew me very well, very dear to me,
and they asked me to come look at the club
and see what I feel about it and tell us
what can be done to make it work well. And
I went there. I was calculating in my mind and
(14:19):
this place really, really, really really it needs a lot
of uplifting and not only with the food, the service,
but the interior. The building was built in eighteen oh six,
and they were in this building since nineteen fifty as
tenants and they bought the building in nineteen eighty fours.
(14:41):
So now they realized that we have to do something
about it, not only the satisfaction of the members for
food and service, but the ambiance of the club. So
I joined them as a general manager in nineteen eighty seven.
And now the club is a private organization is by
tax court cannot cater anything beyond the club walls to
(15:04):
any of the members private events. So our vendor's company,
which was already working from home, became a private catering
for all these members. So we were cooking not only
Indian for our Indian plant tail, we were cooking non
Indian food for our members of the club and Indian
food for them as well. And then in nineteen ninety eight,
(15:24):
Julane Hospital Department of Psychiatry asked me to do their
Christmas event for the Christmas dinner for the department and
I told them, look, I would love to do it,
but they said you got to have a corporation registered
at State of Louisiana. So Ashvind Inc. Was born in
(15:47):
nineteen ninety eight and that was our first commercial catering
to the local community, and that was the beginning of
our caring company. My wife and I still had our jobs.
We went to work every morning, but on Thursday we'll
go On Wednesday will go shopping in the evening after
(16:07):
work on Thursday and Friday we will start production and
Fridays will go do catering. Or Sundays we do private
events for our clients. We did that for many years
and in twenty ten, a Party retires as a psychologist.
So all these friends and clients now put her against
(16:31):
the wall. I said, you cannot retire. We need to
open a restaurant, and we get a commercial catering kitchen
by then, and she was I don't know how she
was convinced by these guys, and she was convinced that, yeah,
we need a restaurant. So we opened a pop up
restaurant next to our catering kitchen, which was luckily the
(16:52):
space was available for release, so we extended our kitchen
into a restaurant. So we ran that restaurant for six years.
Every Friday night we would run Saffron Nola on the
West Bank and the restaurant was so successful. We were
so busy we were getting reservations four months five months
out in that little place every five Fridays a month.
(17:17):
And now the kids at this time are in colleges.
They're doing their nbas and masters and business education, and
they saw the success for the first thing. Then they
joined industry. We never wanted our children to work with
us because we wanted to work in the field and
get trained by somebody else, not under the wings of
(17:41):
the parents. They needed to learn the hard way, So
that was our mission and it was very important for
us that they learned this business and trade while they
were getting ready to join the hospitality industry. So Ashvind
was a catalyst behind all what we are today. Towards
(18:03):
the end of his NBA, he wrote a thesis about
Saffron Nola's beginning and success path and he laid it
down as a business model. And what we are today
is coming through what he had written in that thes
on those thesis, and we were very proud that he
(18:26):
joined us and he uplifted the whole operation to another
level and encouraged us to invest in a restaurant on
Magazine Street. In twenty seventeen, we opened Saffron Nola and
(18:46):
we are very proud of our children who encouraged us
to do this. We had no idea that we were
going to get into a restaurant business one day.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, it's an amazing story and the procession of how
involved is wonderful. So today you are a president and
co executive chef with Ashwan, and you're a father's son
team and you're working on another concept we know that
will be opening in twenty twenty five. Prinita, your daughter,
(19:15):
she still wears, has another full time job but also
doubles working as director of human resources and finance. But
she's still also working at auctioner.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, she's a working for auctioner and she's the director
in internal audit department together.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, so she's you know, again we're talking about families
that had literally carried two different jobs. Of course, you
said parteep your wife retired and this is like her
second career even though she was again holding two jobs,
and she really is you know, you're a partner and
oversees all operations. So this really saffron Nola really is
(19:53):
a family run affair. And I can Dave and I
can attest that if you go there, you will see family.
They come out and you will see them. Uh, Saffron.
Was there a reason you settled on that name because
you mentioned that the overall holding corporation is Ashwan, which
is your son's name. What is the symbolism to you
to to the words saffron nola?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Uh? The saffron stands out as a very special spice
in our cooking uh gulerery world. We wanted to have
our restaurant to be very special, so we really felt
saffron was the right term for that because saffron is
not only an ingredient, it's also a very special uh
(20:37):
ingredient spice in our culture and the culture worldwide. Everybody
uses saffron in their in their cooking, so we wanted
to use that name as as as as the restaurant's name.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
It's also I believe, one of the world's oldest spices
and most treasured and precious spices.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Houspies, which is used not only in savory cooking, used
in desserts as well, in medicines, use in many applications.
I wanted to add a little bit about my wife,
so my wife also is very fond of cooking from
childhood with her grandmothers and mothers. She was born in
East Africa, Kenyan and very traditional family because we were
(21:27):
living abroad and during the early fifties and sixties, the
families were very traditional. They maintained their originality and their
culture so deeply. So she grew up with a very
home body family which cooked and ate at home. There
were no restaurants in Eldorette to go out an eat.
(21:49):
Everything was done at home. So she has been a
very important aspect of our partnership. And she is the
love of my life and she has nurtured this family
and I'm so proud of her that she's with me.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Well, we're curious, how long have you been married and
how did you two meet.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
We have been married forty two years.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And a lot of Indians who were settled in East Africa.
There was a big exodus from East Africa during Edia
Means trouble. He started in Uganda. A lot of Indians
left to go to Canada, to US, to Europe. And
my wife's parents and grandparents decided to come back to India.
(22:39):
And when they came back to India, before they were
going to come back, they sent the younger ones back
home to study. So my wife had already finished her
high school and she wanted to be a doctor. So
she came to India to do her preman and came home.
It was a cultural shock for her. She did not
(22:59):
like the college and you know, like her crassmates and
all that. Told the father that I don't want to
me in this college. Please move me somewhere else. So
they found another beautiful college for her. But that didn't
order pre med, but it orders some psychology. So that's
the story behind her becoming psychologists then becoming a doctor.
So I met her in India and restless history.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
She had quite a notable career working in developmental disabilities
with the State of Louisiana. So she had pretty had
a very prestigious career. I have to say, I am
so impressed about the culture of hard work and education
that the Indian culture really upholds. And the achievement and
(23:48):
contributions here in the United States are so substantial. It's amazing.
I'm amazed at the hard work that you have described.
Each of your family members have received the highest education,
pursued successful careers, and then continue to move on to
nurture the family business. And it's not easy right now,
(24:09):
it's and particularly in New Orleans, when you've got so
many environmental issues to deal with, enclosures and we all
you all went through COVID. What's it like running a
restaurant here Now that you have the brick and mortar
and success, what do you for the listeners out there
who may not know the challenges and opportunities for what
is considered, we think one of the greatest restaurnt cities
(24:31):
in the United States. What has been your observation and
experience now that you have the brick and mortar.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
When the conditions in New Orleans are normal, that means
no conditions like hurricanes or COVID and catastrophes, everything is fine.
When these things happen, it really puts a big, big
block in the progress of the companies. And and you know,
COVID happened, and then Hurricane Ida right follow right behind it.
(25:06):
It really makes you wonder sometimes get into the right business. Uh.
You know, you go through emotional ups and downs during
those those days, and suddenly you realize this is your
home and you need to respect your home and the
honor of your city you live in. And you get
(25:27):
down and you get up and start walking again. You
get down, and you get up and start walking again.
You don't lose hope. Everything is built on your hope
and your integrity, your dedication and your honesty towards your profession,
and the confidence you have in yourself. Di TETs what
(25:51):
happens in the future. These things happen to everyone wherever
they are. The tragedies do occur, but how you come
up one of them and be strong again is the
true testament to your abilities and your passion behind it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Well said, particularly now when we have sister cities like
Los Angeles going through incredibly challenging times, and I know
New Orleans has been the community here has been very
supportive of the Los Angeles community. Why don't we switch
gears a little bit and talk about the menu. It's
a fine Nola.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
So the objective behind designing the menu when we were
having discussions, of course many years of gearing helped us
develop the menu beautifully. We also wanted to make sure
that we were going to be unique. We didn't want
(26:51):
to compete with anybody else cooking the same thing we're
going to cook. We want to be special about our
background and about our history of cooking in New Orleans
and so when we were conceiving the menu, we had
many discussions about making sure the menu was approachable to
(27:12):
everyone who walked through the door. We wanted to reduce
our culture, our cuisine in a very subtle way. We
wanted to use the local seafood, We wanted to use
the local ingredients through Indian cooking, the style of cooking.
We wanted to marry New Orleans style of cooking. So
(27:34):
we wanted to have the menu very approachable. So everybody
who look at it read the menu. Oh, yeah, I
think I can have that oysters. Oh they have a
curry seafood gumbal, Oh we can try that too, and
you know, and then burn a squash during fall. Wow,
burness squash. Haven't seen burner squash done like that? You know.
(27:54):
All those things came to play where we wanted to
create some sort of a curiosity and a satisfaction to
our food and spices, and that was what our objective was,
and that's how the menu was placed with Indian culture
marrying the New Orleans culture, and that's what reflects reflects
(28:15):
totally on the on the on our menu.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And everything is meant to be shared, which we love,
of course, because there's so many wonderful things, you know,
when we went we I am glad that you have
a lot of wonderful seafood applications. And the tamarin shrimp
was a personal favorite of mine. But I know I'm
a big fan of alsho of chicken barani, which is
a more traditional dish. David, you liked the we were
(28:40):
at a James Beard Foundation event you had the lamb
Chop said they were the best you've ever had, Absolutely delicious.
But you also have because we did take out from
Saffron Noola as well to friend's house and we did
some of the small plates, and I was a big
fan of the ten Dury squash.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, we wanted to have plenty of vegan food on
our menu. We want to have vegetarian food on our menu.
We wanted to have menu which reflected everybody's dietary needs
and there was something for everyone. So squash was one
(29:19):
of the dishes. We thought, we have clay owns in
the in the restaurant and squash is plentiful during fall,
you know, pumpkins and squashes plood the markets. And we
came up with the Withanduri style squash and the caramelizing
of the squash, sugars in there and crusted with our
(29:41):
Indian spices, and the yogurt crusted with the chippy flour
on the squash was phenomenal. And then we make a
little timutuary dressing on top of the squash with some
hung yogurt spread at the bottom of the squash. Completed
the whole picture. And I tell you this is a
(30:01):
very sort of after small plate. In the beginning, people
will bypass the shrimp and crab and go for a
squash during fall and it is a it is very
very successful. We cannot even take it off the menu
way after winter's over. We continue till the spring time
with the squash and then finally when the summer comes
(30:22):
around the corner, we have to take it off.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, well, summer's always a challenge. We've learned to do
in our first year in New Orlds. So what are
some other what we consider signature dishes that really illustrate
that beautiful marriage of Indian culture and flavors with with
traditional Creole Cajun flavors.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So when we are doing our carings, we used to
do a lot of crab cakes, a lot of crab
creigs with the Hollandais creoles, sauce and all for the
non Indian carings and all that. So when we were
playing the menu, I said, we got to do something
with the crab cake encouragement, but not do breadcrumbs and
(31:02):
not do eggs, and let's do something very very totally
gluten free. So we came up with a crab pancake,
which is crap put on the menu. Uh uh. It's
a better made with lentile flour and it is loaded
with the herbs and onions and cilantros, green onions, spices,
and then it is not fermented. It is made fresh
(31:25):
every day. And then on top of that, before we
put all the greens and all, we put crab meat
on it, and then we flip it and cut into
triangles and serve with our tamarin chutney and freshman chutney.
That was that was very innovative and very original, and
we thought that was a great answer to our crab
cake nuance culture to our our menu, which was I
(31:47):
was very proud of. I mean that on the menu. Yeah.
So anyways, that.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Was the dish we did not have Melanie.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Well, we're gonna come back we're going to go back
because because the things we also we also we also
hear and we haven't had this dish yet either, or vendor.
We also hear that you have one of the best
gumbos in the city and it's a curried with Indian
inflections in it. So why don't you tell us a
little bit about your very unique gambo that you're quite
well known for.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
So I'll take you back to nineteen eighty four, my
first time in New Orleans. Intercontinental was about to operate.
They had put me up in the hotel and there
was a French chef, chef Chef Andre beyond Tierra, and
he invited me for lunch downstairs in his kitchen and
(32:37):
he served a bowl of gumbo, but he knew my
background and he laced it up with extra spices and seasoning.
And I took the first bite of the gumbo and
our told Chef Chef, this is the reason I'm going
to stay in New Orleans. That's food is nicely seasoned here,
and I think I've made my decision between New York,
(32:57):
Connecticut and New Orleans. I'm going to stay New Orleans.
That gumbo made them my day at that time, so
my wife and I often used to talk about it.
If we ever, ever, ever ever have a restaurant, one day,
we will have our own curriage seafood gumbo, because we
wanted to make sure that we did not compromise on
(33:19):
the originality of the gumbo, the makings of it. We
wanted to make sure we stayed on point with how
the gumbo's made. But only thing it changed was our
seasoning and spices, and we have American it. We have
ginger in it, we have curry leaves in it, and
we have a blend of multiple seasoning spices like fenobreek,
(33:43):
onion seeds, pennel, and that's what makes the flavor of
our gumbo. And was very happy to see that New
York Times called the whiff of it, and they put
a full page article about our gumbo along with the
other gumbos in New Orleans in the New York Times.
And if you ever come to the restaurant, it's framed
(34:04):
up in the back of the house on the wall.
One of my friends and our clients, who is now
in New York saw that article in the New York
Times immediately called a framing company, got that article printed
and framed in a full sized, state sized article in
a frame lacquered and nailed it to me the next
(34:26):
day and then as well as on the walls showing
the title was that Rebirth of a Gumbo. And I
was so honored, was so honored for me to see
that Ama got such a such an awesome recognition.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's a huge honor because this is a city of gumbos,
and you can have a lot. There's a wide range
of them. You know, our vendors you're talking. We love
the grocery shop and it's hard for regular people like
us now to get affordable food. Where do you source
a lot of your ingred and so you have like
places that regular people like us can go. We don't
(35:04):
know about.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Well. You know, in a commercial world, you have to
buy stuff from a commercial establishment because the reliabilities. Then,
you know a lot of things come to play, and
you like your produce to be delivered to you at
the door. I'm a very loyal person with people I
(35:27):
do business with, and I have been very loyal to
Bubbles Produce for all these years. They've been serving us
for the last forty years here in New Orleans. We
go to a local Farmers Market every now and then
to pick up produce in the City Park. We cannot
(35:49):
buy meats from there and seafood from there to sell
in the restaurant, but we can do produce without any
problems losing on a seafood Exchange is another seafood company
which we have done business with for many years and
they've been very loyal to us. They've been very supportive
of our ups and downs we went through. They were
(36:10):
so kind all these companies to send us UH Seafood
all the way across to New York when we were
cooking at James Warehouse and UH and we were we
were very lucky to have. We're very lucky to have
friends like these in our lives. We are as we
(36:31):
progress in time, we are looking at really developing a
relationship with more companies like D'artanians and jav Foods. They
are doing fantastic job in city. Once we established the
Kingsway restaurant, where we have better warehousing and the production
square footage, we will we are definitely going to feature
(36:55):
our menu items based on what's locally available.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
The King's Way is the rest of concept you're currently
working on with Ashvind scheduled to open in twenty twenty five,
which this is an evergreen podcast, So do you want
to just give our listeners who may hear this the
end of the year and it may be open a
little sketch for you snapshot of it.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
So once again we are going to stick to our
philosophy of sharing what we know best and sharing with
our local community most unique menu items we have to offer.
(37:36):
Kingsley is going to feature the stories we have at
home growing up with our children, what we cooked at home,
everything which was non Indian, and it's going to predominate
mostly Asian influenced food, Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese, and everything which
(38:06):
we cooked at home with our experiences with our children.
We made our own sauces, we blended our own spices,
we UH reduced our own soil sauces with the with
the Asian spices. We did everything from scratch. We did
not buy anything bottled and UH and we firmly believed
(38:29):
that that was a way to really impress UH whoever
is going to eat our food. And it all started
at home without our friends, and they were most impressed
with what we do did. Other than Indian food, there
is a picture which our designers picked up from our
picture album where there's a walk cooking going on in
(38:52):
the back of our original house which was on Kingsway East. Uh,
that's where the name comes from or the restaurant we
our first home in the United States was on Kingsway.
And there's a picture of little Ashvine which is he's
about five years old and me doing walk cooking in
our backyard out in the open, and he was I
(39:16):
didn't realize soaking in just like I did with my
grandmothers and mothers from early childhood, that he was documenting
and registering, uh, what was going on in the household,
Milkoo household and then and he is so focused on
bringing that to life at Kingsway. And I'm so proud
(39:36):
that he's going forward with that because nothing more unique
can be than our originality coming out of our kitchen
at home.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
What's the address can it be? Is it going to
be near Safron Noah or another part the street from Handy?
That's Handy because Ash's going to be working. You're gonna
be working to kitchens, so that's very good.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Well, the new location is going to house two kitchens.
It's going to be the kitchen for the restaurant only
and the back of the building will be their main
commissary which will be our production kitchen for making all
the sauces for both the restaurants and catering events and
production event. We do a lot of bottling for poor foods.
(40:20):
We do our pickles and chutneys for them, and we
are at the moment housed in all the whole foods
in Louisiana. We want to expand and go nationwide with
them once we have the square footage to meet that
production demand, so that back of the house will be
mainly used for that.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So you already have a line of chutneys and spices
under the Saffron Nolan name. Yes, yeah, I was thinking
about that as you were speaking. Well, we'll have to
try those. We'd love to cook at home and we
love we love cooking with.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
We have dryer ups for the spices for lamb chops
andalu and we have salad chai intens and we have
we have been focusing on this and Hiak and Iida
just put a damper on the whole province. We had
on the main commissary on the Westland. We had to
(41:14):
shut down because it was donaged very badly. So hopefully
everything will come back to life this year, well.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
We hope, So we hope twenty twenty five is a
great year for the family. And we know that Ashmand
had when we were last year, he was in the
process of he and his wife were having another baby.
So it's a growing family and it's all very exciting.
And you know, restaurant families work all the time. You know,
when there's when we were going for our holidays, you're working.
(41:45):
We know that time off is rare, but when you
do get the rare time off, what do you enjoy
doing in the city.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Well, the rare time off we get nowadays. Well, let
me take you back to how we operate. We decided
when we open Saffron that we need a quality of
life for our staff, not only for the family, and
we decided that we're going to operate five days a week.
(42:16):
Sunday and Monday we will be off and so that
our employees get time with their families and have time
for themselves to recoup, to regenerate, to meditate, whatever they
want to do during those two days. We're not going
to be a typical restaurant working seven days a week,
having crazy amount of hours to work. We want to
(42:43):
defy that, and that is a true reason why we
have a very nurturing environment at Saffron. We really believe
in I tell all my staff, I would like you
to walk in happy every day, and I want to
leave the door happy again when you go home. We
are not going to be an environment where we have
a pressure cooker blowing up every few minutes. Not going
(43:07):
to happen at San Front, even happen at Kingsway. So
we want to be a very productive, but very nurturing
environment for our employees because if you have a happy team,
I think your productivity and your recognition quadruples in the process,
and that is very important to us.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Well, it's good to hear that, because you know restaurants
have many restaurants have taken a beating for the quality
of life. We do want to before we conclude, note
that while we've been talking about the menu, Stephanola has
really one of the most impressive wine lists in the city.
So it's very extensive, which is not always the case,
(43:50):
and a very nice cocktail menu as well. Do you
want to give a shout out to your beverage director.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
I would love to, but I would like to take
you back to the opening up Saffron. Nola Ashwyn came
to work with us on the West Bank and leaving
his company, he worked for Glazers and moy the Ajo Hennessy.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
That's where his experience happened with the with the beverages
and he started experimenting with our spices and developing cocktails
on the West Bank.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
So when we opened Saffron, he was able to gather
a fine group of people and started nurturing them to
the philosophy the company has the cocktails should reflect our
food in the taste, so uh Ashwyn. After opening the
(44:46):
bar program hired Colin Williams and my son in law,
Taylor Adams, who had already joined our company, became our
general manager and he is in charge of our wine program.
Colin Williams is in charge of developing our cocktails. Colin's
(45:08):
second bar person is Paul Barrosa, who's also superb in
fixing the cocktails. Also, Colin and Paul are great people
persons and then experienced people have sitting at the bar,
not only watching them make cocktails and talking to them
about their experience growing up with us at Saffron. How
(45:29):
they develop these cocktails is a storytelling going on at
every table, every bar seat in the restaurant. So I'm
very proud of Colin and Paul and Taylor and Ashman
for initiating what the bar development has ended up to be.
One well recognized cocktails, great wines on the menu paired
(45:53):
with our food is the key to the success behind
any good, well run restaurant, normally the hospitality, not only
the service. All these things have to work in cohesion,
and I'm so proud these next generation is doing a
fantastic job to carry on the restaurant forward for many
years to come.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, we're glad we brought that up because you know
it can be catch as catch can with wineless in
the city, and it is as wine people outstanding, and
we just want to add to our listeners. Well, you
can look in those beautiful windows from the sidewalk of
Magazine Street and see many people dining at tables. There's
a wonderful bar, and I think that's what we're going
to do next is sit at the bar and try
(46:34):
some of these cocktails. And they're very inventive. They look refreshing,
which is what you really want New Orleans with the heat.
Your selection of white wines, which we know is a
big popular selection, is very extensive in the wines and
really great with this style of food, which is very
(46:55):
special because not everybody in the restaurant business takes that care.
They'll just put whatever they are being sold on the
list without thinking about the spices, integrating with the wines
and Sefroi Nolla does a great job with this. We
would highly recommend it as a wine restaurant.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I talked to all the guests about the Indian culture
long before the pharmaceutical companies came into being started making medicines,
and all that Indian spices were the pharmacy of India
right and all the spices were used as a preventative
(47:33):
hare in the diet. So I talk about that to
our guests, talk about that to our staff all the time.
Whatever spices we have, it has such great benefit for
your well being and your body and nurture that enjoy that.
Read about it, and it is it's a very important
(47:54):
thing to know. The best is now realize how important
it is to use that in these fires in your
daily diets. Take one example of Turneric.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Tony Well we I think we've come to the end.
We just got to notice that we have to conclude
turmeric is one of our favorite spices along with cinnamon,
so we just want to bring that up. We've been
speaking with our vendor, Viklu, who is a founder, owner,
(48:29):
chef partner with his whole family, but his son Ashwand
as the executive chef of Saffron Nola and Kingsway, which
is opening in twenty twenty five. You know, we want
to thank you for taking time out of your incredibly
busy schedule to meet with us. We want everyone to
check out the website Saffronanola dot com and you can
see everything we've been talking menu wineless cocktails there and
(48:54):
give it a shot when you come to New Orleans
or if you live here, give it a shot and
visit it and come often. And they do take as well,
which we highly recommend. So thank you for joining us
on the Connected.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Table to seeing you next time when you're there with us.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Absolutely you've been listening to The Connected Table Live with
Melanie Young and David Ransom. We hope your mouths are
watering because we want you to go out and explore
and expand your palate and have an adventure every time
you dine out, because we want you to always stay
insatiably curious. Thank you,
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