Restrocast

Hosted by Restrocast

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Episodes

Latest episode

Nov 2026

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EN-US

About the show

It’s never been easier to start a restaurant, but it’s never been harder to scale. Each episode of Restrocast explores the inspiring stories behind restaurateurs and executives who have achieved remarkable growth in their fields. Follow the journey of some of the world’s greatest restaurant operators and how they took their business from x to 10x.Restrocast is hosted by the Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, Ashish Tulsian, who brings his unique perspective as a technologist, restauranteur, investor and entrepreneur. Much more than just an interview show, this is a genre-defining series on how to think boldly and differently about the world.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

November 12, 20261 hr 6 min

Rethinking Restaurant IT: Todd Kaufman on Technology as a Business Driver

In this episode of Restrocast, host Ashish Tulsian, Co-Founder and CEO of Restroworks, engages with Todd Kaufman, the CIO of SSP America, in a candid discussion that traces Todd’s remarkable journey through more than two decades of restaurant technology. From studying political science and working on Capitol Hill to waiting tables, programming a restaurant’s cash register, and installing POS systems at Micros during the Y2K era, Todd’s narrative shows how the restaurant industry so often finds its leaders by chance rather than by choice. Todd walks through his career, from technology roles at an IHOP franchisee and IHOP corporate to 18 years at SSP America, and explains why understanding both the technology and the realities of restaurant operations has been key to his success. His insights into growing the company’s IT team from three people to more than 40, alongside its rise from $175 million to $1.2 billion in sales across 450+ restaurants in roughly 60 airports, are both enlightening and practical. Todd also discusses how IT evolved from a support function into a strategic one, from rolling out a QR ordering solution that works hand in hand with servers to his grounded take on AI, data, and the build-versus-buy debate. Todd also opens up about the leadership lessons he has learned along the way, from not getting defensive to believing that “failure is an option,” and why technology only succeeds when it makes operators’ jobs easier. This episode is a must-listen for anyone in tech, whether worried or excited about AI, and for anyone seeking inspiration on how to rise into a leadership position that is defined not by their past or academic degree, but by the value they bring to the business. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian - LinkedIn Todd Kaufman- LinkedIn Support the show

October 30, 20261 hr 16 min

Sharing the Love, One Taco at a Time: Eric Knott on Scaling TikiTaco the Right Way

In this episode of Restrocast, host Ashish Tulsian sits down with Eric Knott, CEO of TikiTaco, for a lively conversation about growing a restaurant brand without losing its soul. Eric’s restaurant story started early, helping out at his grandfather’s social club in Buffalo, New York as a kid. From there, he rose through the ranks at Outback Steakhouse to become a managing partner in his early twenties, then spent 14 years helping build PDQ from its very first restaurant into a multi-state brand, eventually serving as its COO. Eric shares how he joined TikiTaco in 2024, when it had three stores and just two pieces of technology, and has since helped grow it to seven Kansas City locations powered by 22 carefully chosen tools. He talks candidly about the lessons of growing too fast, why TikiTaco is building density in one city before looking beyond it, and how weekly pop-ups at hospitals and corporate offices turned into a revenue stream of their own. He also explains why kiosks often lift check averages, why he caps tech contracts at 36 months, and why every new tool has to prove its value in a pilot first. From moving away from top-down leadership to believing that the best ideas come from the people doing the work every day, Eric’s approach is refreshingly human. This episode is a must-listen for restaurant operators planning their next stage of growth, and for anyone who believes restaurants are still a people business that happens to serve food, now with a lot more technology behind it. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian - LinkedIn Eric Knott- LinkedIn Support the show

September 8, 20261 hr 14 min

The Unit Economics of Building a Burger Chain in India | Burgrill

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian speaks with the founder of Burgrill for some of the most honest conversations on creating a franchise model of restaurants in India, how to succeed and how not to, and what the economics of your unit really looks like. This journey starts from the time he was studying eighth standard in Indore when his family opened a bakery business, and covers various aspects of hotel management, a smoothie bar at Select City Walk, a café in Indore, a stint with his father's business of solar panels and bulletproof jackets, and eventually the founding of Burgrill in Sector 8, Chandigarh in August 2016. Here, Shreh is being completely upfront about the franchising model, from the political pressure when the franchisee fails in his business, the experience of seeing 11 stores shut down in a week because of COVID, how they have been successfully copied three times by their former franchisees, and why proprietary seasoning is the moat of the business, and everything else can be outsourced. He is explaining how Burgrill keeps track of all 69 stores using CCTV access, reads every negative comment in the morning, and evaluates their employees monthly for quality control using the incentive structure of trainers. He goes into the unit economics in detail—40% cost of goods sold, 8 to 10% rent, 15% operating costs, 25% aggregator fee—and shows why retaining 40% of the business through dine-in and takeaway is necessary from both a philosophical and a mathematical perspective. He goes into how his positioning around being a guilt-free, grilled neighborhood burger made for everyday consumption, his brown bun, which his customers rebelled against when he once switched to a white bun, and how his passion for product development has helped him introduce the first-ever plant-based burger in India, a chili oil line in 2021, and a hot truffle sauce line in 2023. In the end, he reveals a concept he has not yet built—that of the Indian Chipotle—and means it. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Shreh Madan- LinkedIn Support the show

July 16, 202657 min

74 Years, 14 Countries, Zero Outside Funding: The Kailash Parbat Story

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Amit Mulchandani, third-generation director of Kailash Parbat, for a rare and detailed conversation about what it takes to keep a restaurant brand alive, relevant, and expanding across seven decades and six continents, without a single rupee of outside capital. Amit traces the full arc of the Kailash Parbat story: a 16-year-old Sindhi boy cooking in Karachi in 1940, Partition, a humble restart at Azad Maidan, the first store in Colaba in 1952 that still operates today, and a slow, deliberate expansion that now spans the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, the Netherlands, and an imminent opening in China. He talks about being left to run a restaurant at age 11 while his father and uncle catered in Japan, being pushed into the business full-time at 16, and spending the next 30 years learning every corner of it. The episode covers the operational architecture behind a 14-country presence: premixes made in Mumbai and shipped globally, Indian community partners in every market, company-operated stores with their own trained teams, and the hard lessons of the UK and Switzerland exits, where visa failures and labor laws forced retreats from markets that were performing well. Amit opens up entirely on unit economics, stores doing 1.2 crores a month on rentals of 2.5 lakhs, a portfolio averaging sub-5% rent, food cost at 22 to 24%, manpower at 20% because everything is made from scratch at every store, and dine-in accounting for over 80% of business. He explains why he is against franchising at scale, why Indian food has never produced a McDonald 's-equivalent, and why he believes AI-powered robotic kitchens may be the only real path to 10,000 Indian food stores globally. He also talks about what he eats when nobody is watching, a 40-year-old vada pav stall outside the office, a specific shop in Banaras he is planning a trip around, and a Goan vegetarian restaurant concept he is quietly developing. And about the 150-watch collection built entirely on story and character, never on brand or price. This is a conversation about what restaurants look like when they are built to last. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Amit Mulchandani- LinkedIn Support the show

June 24, 20261 hr 23 min

How Balachandar Raju Built a 54-Year Restaurant Legacy Without Leaving Coimbatore

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Balachandar Raju, second-generation owner of Hari Bhavanam, for a rare and deeply honest conversation about what it looks like to build a restaurant business not for numbers, but for trust, and to keep it that way across five decades. Bala traces the full arc of the Hari Bhavanam story: a 16-year-old boy from outside Coimbatore who took a job as a room boy in a lodging mansion in the 1960s, whose wife lit a stove one evening to feed stranded government employees, and who never switched it off. He walks through his own journey as the MBA son who fought his father for the right to implement billing machines, menu cards, and uniforms, and who then secretly borrowed four lakhs against a Maruti 800 to open his first independent restaurant at the age of 22. The episode covers the sourcing philosophy that defines Hari Bhavanam today: rice and maida bought directly from mills by the truckload, seafood sourced from Rameswaram and Kochi by their own vehicles, 35 to 40 goats butchered in-house daily, and a hypermarket now being built to bring every input under one roof they control entirely. Bala explains why this isn't about cost, it's about the family who brought their 28-day-old child for their first non-vegetarian meal, and what that trust demands of you. He is candid about why he has chosen to stay within Coimbatore across 10 restaurants, why he is entirely against franchising, why he has never taken private equity, and what he believes happens to a brand— and to a family —when growth outpaces the founder's line of sight. He also talks about preparing his children, currently studying food science in the US, to eventually take over a business that is only now being formally systematized after more than five decades of running on instinct, relationships, and a standard his father set and never allowed anyone to lower. And he talks about singing, 3,500 songs recorded and posted at exactly 6 AM every morning to 500 people, from anywhere in the world, without a single day missed. This is a conversation about what restaurants can be when they are built for something other than scale. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Balachandar Raju- LinkedIn Support the show

June 11, 20261 hr 23 min

How Sultan Chatila Went From Supper Club to Dubai's Most Talked-About Burger Chain

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Sultan Chatila, co-founder of Eleven Green Burgers, for an honest and wide-ranging conversation about one of Dubai's most unlikely and compelling restaurant origin stories. Sultan traces a journey that begins in a Saudi Arabian household where both parents cooked with extraordinary skill, runs through a chemical engineering degree at Tufts that was always a compromise, and winds through twelve years of corporate life at GE, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Honeywell, all while cooking quietly, obsessively, for anyone who would sit at his table. He talks about how a supper club started by a late-night Instagram post from his wife grew into one of Dubai's most beloved dining experiences, running four nights a week while he remained a senior executive. He breaks down how a burger competition he entered for fun turned into a third-place finish at the World Food Championship in Dallas, and why that was the moment he finally had permission to leave. The episode covers what it costs to build Eleven Green on a foundation of freshly ground, sell-out-daily beef with no freezer on the premises. Sultan is candid about the betrayal of a trusted kitchen employee who left to copy his concept, and what that episode taught him about culture over credentials. He talks about the invisible stress of a calm-looking entrepreneur, the discipline behind SOPs that keep four locations consistent, the fries problem he still hasn't fully solved, and why Five Guys' fourteen years in one state is the most underrated business lesson in the burger world. At its heart, this is a conversation about what happens when a person stops performing a career and starts living one. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Sultan Chatila- LinkedIn Support the show

June 5, 20261 hr 36 min

How Chirag Chhajer Built India's Largest Burmese Restaurant Chain by Breaking Every Rule

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Chirag Chhajer, co-founder of Burma Burma, for a wide-ranging and remarkably transparent conversation on what it actually takes to build a scalable, profitable restaurant brand in India - and why most of the rules people follow are the reason most restaurants fail. Chirag traces his journey from a Marwari textile family in Bombay, three formative years cooking in a shared apartment in Australia, and a decade in his father's business, to co-founding Burma Burma in 2014 with zero restaurant experience and a concept that every industry veteran told him was a mistake: a vegetarian, no-alcohol, single-cuisine casual dining restaurant serving food most Indians had never heard of. He breaks down the business decisions that defined Burma Burma's growth, opening in six different cities before mastering any one of them, maintaining an 18% food cost without a central kitchen, paying every vendor within 45 days as a negotiating strategy, and building a 32-person cost control team that he considers one of the company's core competitive advantages. He also walks through four rounds of fundraising in detail: the 2018 failure, the ghosting by a major PE fund, the cold DM to a finance creator with 10,000 followers that eventually led to 98 crores raised, and the moment investor demand flipped from reluctance to competition for allocation. The episode covers the real math behind delivery economics and why Chirag believes any commission above 15% is a slow bleed, his framework for defensibility and why most restaurants that close deserved to, the R&D lab that costs 4 lakh rupees a month and generates zero revenue by design, and what it means to run a brand where the P&L is the only performance metric that counts. Chirag also reflects on what has changed in him as a founder, from writing a 25-lakh cheque with his heart in his throat in 2014, to signing 15-crore cheques monthly without feeling a thing in 2026, and what he believes it will take to finally put a genuinely Indian restaurant brand on the stock exchange. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Chirag Chhajer- LinkedIn Support the show

May 15, 20261 hr 34 min

Luma Makhlouf: Building a Multi-Brand F&B Business, Dubai | Restroworks

In this episode of Restrocast, Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, sits down with Luma Makhlouf, co-creator of HL Food, for an honest and wide-ranging conversation on what it really takes to build lasting multi-brand food businesses in one of the world's most competitive restaurant markets. Luma shares how a Palestinian-American upbringing in Chicago, years in Dubai's tech startup scene, and a deep personal obsession with food eventually led her to launch a food truck, open her first restaurant six months before COVID hit, and grow a multi-brand portfolio without ever paying for an influencer or running a traditional ad campaign. She breaks down her theory of business karma: the idea that delivering exceptional work consistently, regardless of the size of the client or booking, compounds into a reputation that no marketing budget can replicate. The episode also covers her views on bootstrapping versus outside investment, why founders should stay involved in the details even at scale, and the hard reality of what it costs to start an F&B business in Dubai today. Luma reflects on opening her first restaurant while on hospital bed rest, adapting through COVID, the power of knowing your P&L inside out, and why the only noise worth listening to is the one at the bottom of your financial statement. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishtulsian/ Luma Makhlouf- https://www.linkedin.com/in/luma-makhlouf/ Support the show

April 28, 20261 hr 5 min

How Katerina Borodich Built DrinkIt by Treating the App as the Business

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Katerina Borodich, CEO of DrinkIt MENA, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to build a technology-first F&B brand in one of the world's most competitive markets - from zero presence, zero legal entity, and two suitcases. Katerina shares her unlikely path from electrical engineering and academic publishing in Russia to running marketing for Dodo Pizza in Europe, launching a new pizza concept in the UK during the pandemic, and ultimately being tapped to bring DrinkIt to the UAE. She breaks down what makes DrinkIt different — 97% of orders placed through the app, smart takeaway displays, and a model designed to eliminate friction without removing the human element — and why she still believes the revolution in coffee is just beginning. The episode goes deep on her approach to consumer research: living with Airbnb hosts to understand British culture, standing in competitors' queues to collect insights, and asking 100 customers directly what they want on the menu. It also covers the real challenges of entering Dubai — getting first locations, building trust with developers, and using public sales transparency as a franchise tool. Katerina also reflects on building her own community from scratch in a new country, the mental demands of scaling from small to mid-size business, and why she now believes mental stability and the right people matter more than any hard skill. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Katerina Borodich- LinkedIn Support the show

April 3, 20261 hr 24 min

The Making of HostMind: Mona Al Sayah’s Story of Scale and Discipline

In this episode, Mona Al Sayah, CEO and co-founder of HostMind, shares her journey from working in her family’s restaurant at the age of 12 to building a scalable cloud kitchen business in Dubai. She reflects on how early exposure to the F&B industry shaped her resilience, work ethic, and understanding of customer experience. Mona dives into the realities of the cloud kitchen space, highlighting the gap between how easy it is to launch a brand and how difficult it is to build one that lasts. She emphasizes the importance of structure, systems, and long-term vision, especially in a crowded and competitive market. She also talks about HostMind’s multi-brand strategy, the philosophy behind “clean food,” and the role of packaging, marketing, and customer retention in driving growth. From navigating aggregator platforms to building repeat customers, Mona shares practical, hard-earned lessons. Find us online: Ashish Tulsian- LinkedIn Mona Al Sayah- LinkedIn Support the show