Suchhanda Chatterjee with husband Anjan at Mainland China, Gurusaday Road Picture: Pabitra Das

A t2 chat with suchhanda chatterjee, the lady behind the look of anjan chatterjee’s restaurants

Around 20 years ago, she had designed the interiors of a 21-cover restaurant called Only Fish in Mumbai, on a meagre budget of Rs 25,000. More than two decades later, Suchhanda Chatterjee is two short of a century, having just finished designing her 98th restaurant. Today, the wife of restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee is the woman behind the look and feel of every brand from the Speciality Restaurants stable.

“Today my biggest challenge is to design around 10 restaurants in a month… we are expanding at such speed. While some of the brands like Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta have a trademark look, the newer ones like Global Grill are difficult,” says the mother of two.

Over to the lady in front of Anjan Chatterjee!

How did you get into interior design?

I don’t have professional training in interior design, I just did a three-month course. Initially when we opened our bigger restaurants we had hired renowned experts to design them, I’ve learnt more from observing their work. My first restaurant was Only Fish in Mumbai, which was also Speciality’s first restaurant… it was a very small place, 21 covers only and Anjan had given me Rs 25,000 to do it up. I did that successfully and from then on I grew. My growth was always in square feet terms! First it was a 200-300sq ft space, then gradually it grew and I got to do a 3,000sq ft restaurant after 10 years.

How do you approach the design of a restaurant?

See, we have developed many brands — Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, Sigree, Haka… and now Mezzuna and Global Grill. It takes about six to eight months of research to start a brand. Mainland China was already an established brand when I started designing… it was done by somebody else… but I have changed the look a lot. If you look at the South City Mall outlet that I have designed and the Gurusaday Road one that was done by somebody else, you understand the difference.

What aspects do you have to keep in mind while deciding the look of a brand?

The first aspect is definitely the cuisine, if it has a particular cuisine then it’s easier. Like Mainland China is trademark Chinese, Oh! Calcutta is signature Calcutta… but brands like Global Grill are very difficult because the cuisine is global.

Then the consistency of look is important. For a person who travels to a different city and visits any of our brands, he must feel that it is his favourite restaurant he is visiting… the same food, service and the same look… he has to be comfortable. But having said that, the locality factor is also important. Some things don’t work in some regions. Like Chennai does not accept minimalism, Ludhiana and Lucknow are loud, so you need to put more gold in the look there….

There are a lot of other technical aspects that we have learnt by making mistakes over all these years. Like now I realise how each inch is important, real estate is so expensive. Now we are taking less space and doing more covers. While previously it was 20sq ft per cover, now it is 17sq ft per cover.

Then the most important aspect now is maintenance cost; we were spending almost Rs 30 lakh a year in maintaining Mainland China alone, which has 80 outlets. Now with so many brands that’s not feasible. So we are going towards maintenance-free designs. I’m moving towards minimalist decor… stone walls, extensive use of steel, hardwood tables… elements that require no maintenance.

Speciality is expanding so rapidly, how do you keep pace with it?

The group is growing so fast, all over the country and even internationally, every three months we have three to four new restaurants opening. My biggest challenge is to keep designing around 10 restaurants in a month!

Does your husband have any design inputs or do you have a free hand?

He has a lot of say. I have to make a thorough presentation to him… very elaborate… I mean a much more elaborate presentation than any other designer would have done! Like when I did up Global Grill in Bombay with 200 chandeliers, he took one look and wanted me to remove all of them… he hated it. But then I said let us see the guest response and now it’s such a hit.

Do you have the same amount of say in the menu selection process?

Not at all, except maybe for Bengali cuisine. In Oh! Calcutta I have lots of inputs because I cook Bengali food well, but apart from that I’m not involved anywhere else.

How would you rank the importance of decor, food and service in the success of a restaurant?

Food, service, decor.

So decor is the least important?

Absolutely. I’ve been to many restaurants in the interiors of China, they are so simple with excellent food and so successful. Even in Italy. The most successful restaurants are the simplest ones.

What are your other passions?

I have written a book on the 100 ways to make a restaurant; it’s a 100-pager and on every page there is a decor tip. I also like to paint… it’s my hobby and I used to paint and gift them to my friends, but now I’ve started putting them up in Oh! Calcutta.

4 faves

Fave restaurant designed by you: Mainland China in Goa. It’s a small space, with a big bar and buffet area and in the middle of the restaurant there are small private dining areas

Fave Speciality brand, look-wise: Oh! Calcutta

Fave Speciality brand, food-wise: Oh! Calcutta

Fave meal in Oh! Calcutta: Mochar Ghonto, Muger Dal, Aloo Bhaja and bhaat