This is a story of my journey with Kasa Indian so far…
– Mitesh Shah, General Manager
Before Kasa, I have worked in fine dining restaurant almost all my life, and in every possible position in FOH. I had a couple of experiences with casual and fast food. When I started managing Popeye’s, my first fast food experience, it did not go well. I was accustomed to the fine dining mentality, where you pay more attention to each and every detail. Yes, time is critical like in fast food, but the emphasis remains on freshly prepared orders, their taste, and presentation. The rather cold, hard truth about fast food is that it uses frozen, fried food to get meals to customers in minutes.
Kasa Indian Eatery
At Kasa, however, it is as though I have found the “middle road.” No longer riddled with the perfectionist mindset that comes from the fine dining industry. And yet, not burdened by poor quality food either. Kasa’s “homestyle” approach means you are high-quality ingredients… without the pressure!
When I first started here, I took time to sit down with Anamika, the owner, and Wendy, Director of Administration, to understand the history of Kasa. And the struggle and achievements they’ve made in 10 years of the establishment. The first thing that I loved is that this is a small company owned by women, and having top women management. I think this is one of the success stories to be shared. And the beauty of it is that because of the same love thrives at Kasa. Although the company is very small it provides benefits to each and every employee. The management always makes sure that everyone is utilizing the benefits to the fullest and enjoying working at Kasa.
Home-style Cooking
That leads me back to my first original point about Kasa very much being and having a “home-style” approach. Kasa is a family for everyone who works here, and also the concept of the food is homemade food that is cooked fresh in small batches every day. For the fun fact, most Kasa’s recipe originated from Pinky Aunty’s, Anamika’s Aunty. Her home cooking is enriched by its simplicity and texture of vibrant flavor and color.
That being said, as with any homemade food comes its own “touch.” As a part of my training at Kasa, cooking was one. This helped me to understand the fundamental difference and importance of Kasa’s recipes. Let me put it this way, if I think about Indian food or Indian restaurant the first thing that would come to my mind is “spicy”. Because I crave spice. So it might be the expectation of most of our customers. Even when I cook at home, I used lots of oil and spices then we do here at Kasa, not anymore though.
Before my training at Kasa, my mentality of Indian food was that spice and oil made food tastier. And it often contradicted with my dad’s philosophy of food that it should be light, balanced and healthy. And now I get to understand that philosophy of Indian food. I was surprised how much less oil, spices, and cream we use in our recipe, and still manage to maintain the flavor and texture of the food. If you cooking every day at home wouldn’t you do the same?
Kasa Redwood City
Opening the new location in Redwood City was a game changer for me. It provided me with an opportunity to blend the concept of table service to fast casual and train each and every employee to be successful in life. We are barely opened for three to four months now, and we have a long way to go. Our team is new, and we are still learning from our own shortcomings. We have struggled with our new team, but have successfully managed to set our foot for a stronger foundation in terms of food and service now.
After three months of our existence in Redwood City, I feel that now is the time for me to share my experience with everyone. And I am so proud to boast about my nice team working here who is like a family to me.
I hope this would help our guests to understand where we come from, and where we stand. On good notes, sometimes I take time to go through the reviews posted by our guests so we can find every possible opportunity to improve. (I am sorry but some comments really bother me sometimes!). We have a family recipe that never changes and has been the same for ten years now, and I personally believe it really doesn’t matter who cooks it, but it is important that there is consistency maintained. Isn’t diversity beautiful when everything and everyone comes together in one place?
