Rushad Ginwala is a name synonymous with ‘restauranting’! His love affair with food, restaurants and hospitality started in ’76 at the Bombay Catering College. His resume is peppered with so much experience, so many restaurants, it makes you wonder how he’s fitted it all in to the last 40+ years! One of his earliest ventures Fun n’ Food, started as a single cuisine restaurant, soon expanded to offer a wide range of tastes and cuisines and as Rushad himself says, “unknowingly, I had set up what is known as a ‘food court’ today”!
Rushad has always been his own man and after working for a string of hotels and restaurants, he walked away to open his own (and first) restaurant, Mirch Masala in 1992. As the ‘Upper Crust’ magazine described it at the time, it was a “dum pukht-meets-Punjabi-meets Gujarati mix” but with Rushad’s knowledge of his clientele and the Ahmedabadi palate, it was a runaway success and today there are 10 Mirch Masalas!
An inveterate traveler – his other passion is deep-sea diving! – on a trip to the US he was inspired by the great American Diner and came back to start ‘Tomato’s bringing everything from pizzas, burgers and a fantastic range of Mexican food to Ahmedabad. With his passion for getting things right and an eye for detail, he even imported special pizza ovens to get the pizzas just right! The single ‘diner’ now has 2 more outlets and a cake shop as well! Rushad never does things in singles!
So, you think Rushad would sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labour but no, in 2017 he launched another, yes another restaurant called ‘Dhoom Dham’ serving regional Indian food and bringing the tastes of the states to his loyal clientele.
As this is being written, Rushad is in the process of reinventing some of his restaurants but I can’t say more than that! But The Foodie Network is immensely proud to have him on the team and look k forward to sharing his knowledge and experience with all of you!
Rushad Ginwala, Founder & CEO, Ahura Restaurants Pvt Ltd is a name synonymous with ‘restauranting’ in India. Rushad’s love affair with food, restaurants and hospitality started in ’76 at the Bombay Catering College. His resume is peppered with so much experience, so many restaurants, it makes you wonder how he fitted it all in to the last 40+ years!
Rushad is based in Ahmedabad where he opened his first restaurant, Mirch Masala in ’92. Today it has grown to 10 outlets, but his passion for the food business is undimmed. Tomato’s, his American Diner concept restaurant, has 3 outlets and the Tomato’s Cakeshop! But has he stopped? Not a chance! Dhoom Dham opened in 2017 and he still manages the catering at the Ellisbridge Gymkhana, operates an outdoor catering division that caters to weddings, private parties etc.
No resting on any laurels here for sure!
