Ignatius John - Workspace Kitchen Design

Designing Workplace Food Spaces 

Ignatius John, Batch of 1984

I am almost at the cusp of four decades of experience in the hospitality industry. Thirty-nine years to be precise. 

That way, 1984, when I graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology at Madras, looks pretty far. Oh yes, I do have to brag a bit here - I did walk out of the institute in 1984, with honours - a gold medallist for the year.

The initial foray into hotel management was as a Junior Executive Trainee with The Ashok Group of Hotels, a unit of India Tourism Development Corporation. Stayed on for over seven years and held many positions in prestigious properties at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi, Hotel Ashok, Bangalore and Hotel Ashok, Kovalam. During this tenure, at various points of time, I held various positions including the role of a Restaurant manager, Banquet manager and Flight Catering operations manager. That did mean a 360-degree exposure to the Food and Beverage business. 

In 1991, I joined Guestline Hospitality Management and Development Services Limited, as the Food and Beverage Manager. Was responsible for the setting up of the department in their first property at Attibelle, Bangalore. Later, I was involved with the opening of their second property at Tirupati and also was managing the property as Executive Manager. Then, was also involved in setting up of systems at their third property in Hyderabad.

I moved on and joined Sterling Holiday Resorts in 1994 as Resort Manager. Was responsible for the ongoing project development as well as opening up the resort in a phased manner for operations. This resort at Ooty today is the largest resort in South India, spread on seven acres of land with a bed capacity of 600 (165 apartments / cottages and 40 standard rooms). While at Ooty, I became the founder member and office bearer of Nilgiris Hotel and Restaurant Association.

In 1995, when I left a corporate role, my dreams were to be a ‘Hotel Consultant’ which typically means consulting clients who were setting up new Hotel / Resort Projects. I did manage to work on a few projects, but the turn of events in 1996, set the course for what I have finally ended up doing - kitchen designs for corporates.

In 1996, Bangalore was in the early stages of becoming the Silicon Valley of India. I was lucky to have been approached by an architect to see if we could design the kitchens and cafeterias for WIPRO and Infosys. This was with another Madcat, Deepak P. And that’s how the journey as a kitchen design consultant began. 

Since March 1996, was involved in the various consulting activities of C&C Associates, a hospitality development and management consultancy firm, as a Senior Associate. I moved to an independent consultant role in 2004.  In 2011, i set up a Hospitality Consulting firm, the Peacock Group with Venu Rao.  

Today, Peacock Group which I am partnering with Venu Rao today is recognised as one of the leading firms in the field of Workplace Food Spaces Design. With the experience that we have gained over the years, we have now started to look at mentoring upcoming consultants in this particular segment.

Over the years, I have specialized in Project Feasibility Studies, Project Consulting, Facility Planning, Management & Operations assistance, Recruitment, Training & Development. F&B facility planning for institutions and corporate campuses has been the main area of focus in the last few years. Some recent and existing clients like Google, Amazon, SAP Labs, Intel, Microsoft, Linkedin, Wipro, Oracle, CISCO, NetApp, JPMC, Barclays, HDFC, HSBC, Nvidia, Adobe, Intuit, Walmart, Flipkart, KPMG, Siemens, TCS, Bosch, Wells Fargo among others. 

One thing that the IHM course teaches you is that there are no boundaries when it comes to experimenting and exploring. The only blocks that exist are in your mind. Today’s world of hospitality industry offers a plethora of options which one can pick and choose depending on what one wants to do in life. 

Before becoming a F&B consultant, it is essential to acquire requisite experience and a few grey hairs. Once you have that, it is advisable to be mentored by someone who has been there and done that. 

The question that often comes up is why does one need to hire a kitchen design consultant?

In today’s corporate world employee retention is the number one challenge every employer comes up with, especially in IT / ITES / BFSI segments. Workplace food spaces and facilities are considered among the top 3 factors that influence employee satisfaction level, besides the monetary compensation. This has led to more and more focus on Food Service facilities within workspaces.

What does a kitchen design consultant do? 

The first one is understanding the client requirement and translating the same to a ‘Brief’. Next step would be to optimise space planning in coordination with the Architects and Interior Designers. Then get into functional work-flow and equipment. Planning for the entire work cycle from raw material receiving to waste management. The consultant must keep in mind - Safety, Hygiene & Sanitation requirements at all levels.

A consultant’s role also includes tight control over budgets and operating costs. The design needs to achieve client’s own sustainability goals. The job also involves assisting the client in identifying the right partner to execute the job.

There are numerous challenges and also opportunities that come with being a kitchen design consultant. For one, there are no curated courses or programs to teach this subject. One has to be learn ‘on the job’ and by working with someone who has been in the business.

A person looking to enter this line of business has to choose his / her area of expertise like we at Peacock Group had decided to be focused on workplace food spaces. There are others like Hotels, Resorts, Retail F&B, Healthcare. Like many other sectors that moved back to normalcy in the post pandemic world, the workplace food service has become an incentive to get people back to office.