Restrocast

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 roo...

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 w...

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 yea...

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...

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 mar...

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, highlighti...

Khaled Naga, CEO of Al-Thiqa Group Division, joins Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, on Restrocast for a grounded conversation on what it really takes to scale multi-brand restaurant operations in Kuwait and the wider GCC. Khaled shares Al-Thiqa's story of operating 57+ locations across Kuwait, expanding into markets like London and Qatar, and the operational shift from runni...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Hattan Bakor to unpack what it really takes to scale a food brand in Saudi Arabia without losing consistency. Hattan shares how entering the business with “fresh eyes” helped him spot operational gaps quickly and why he insisted on a learning window before making changes.  They discuss the harsh reality behind restaurant economics, how margins look bi...

 In this podcast episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with chef, author, and longevity educator Silvena Rowe for a candid conversation that goes beyond food trends and into the philosophy behind modern dining. Silvena reflects on her global culinary journey, the realities of scaling a values-led restaurant brand like Dose by Silvena, and why ingredient integrity sits at the core of her work today.  ...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Samer Nasrallah, F&B Country Manager for Patchi Café in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to unpack what it really takes to build a career in hospitality from the ground up.  Samer shares how he unexpectedly entered F&B, the chaos of running in-house delivery and catering in Egypt before the era of aggregators, and the habits that helped him rise fast...

Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, welcomes Sudhin Siva, Chief Asset Management Officer at Shamal Holding, to Restrocast to discuss how Shamal manages a diversified multi-brand hospitality portfolio and scales F&B brands like Five Guys (UAE franchise), Sushi Samba, Duck & Waffle, Espresso Lab, and Zero Gravity. Sudhin reflects on his start at Jumeirah in quality management,...

Restrocast host Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, talks with Joseph Chartouni, CEO of Al Sayer Franchising in Kuwait, the enterprise operator behind Caribou Coffee and Five Guys in the market. Joseph shares how resilience shaped him early, growing up between Lebanon and Kuwait during the civil war, and how those experiences influenced his leadership across large-scale restaurant a...

Mubarak Jaffar, Co-Founder and CEO of KLC Virtual Restaurants, stops by Restrocast for a conversation with host Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, about building One Eatery into a scaled, delivery-first multi-brand restaurant operation across the GCC. Mubarak shares why he moved from traditional dine-in and franchise operations to a model designed for pure kitchen efficiency, and w...

On Restrocast, Ashish Tulsian (Co-founder and CEO, Restroworks) is joined by Kamran Khan, a veteran restaurant operator in Saudi Arabia, for a candid conversation on what it really takes to build and scale an enterprise restaurant brand. Kamran breaks down the operator reality: restaurants are a daily problem-solving business where execution, not intent, decides outcomes. He shares lessons on why...

In this episode, Khaled Naga, CEO of Al-Thiqa Group Division, joins Ashish Tulsian for a grounded conversation on what it really takes to scale restaurant brands in Kuwait and the wider GCC. Khaled shares Al-Thiqa’s journey of operating 57+ locations across Kuwait, expanding into markets like London and Qatar, and explains the operational shift from running global franchises to building homegrown...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian speaks with Nasser Al Messabi, CEO of Low Calories, a fast-growing healthy restaurant brand from the UAE. Nasser shares how he went from 18 years in the UAE Police to launching a health-food concept at a time when almost no one was doing it, the failures and land deals that taught him hard lessons, and why he ultimately resigned seven years before a secure governmen...

In this episode of Restrocast, Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, sits down with Mohammad Al Madani, Chairman of the Al Madani Group, to explore his path from his father's tailoring shop in the 1940s to building a 50+ store enterprise restaurant portfolio in the GCC with Charley's Philly Steaks. Growing up watching his father stitch kanduras for Dubai's earliest rule...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with CEO Pauline Ibrahim to explore her remarkable journey from a finance analyst in Lebanon to leading some of the most respected F&B brands in the Middle East. Pauline shares how moving to Dubai ignited her passion for the restaurant industry, why Azadea became her “F&B school,” and how jumping into the startup world with iKcon became her real-li...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Abdulrhman Almobarak, founder and chairman of Maqloba, the Saudi brand reinventing rice for the QSR world. Abdulrhman shares how an engineer working in a top hospital saw a simple gap: rice is the main dish in Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf, yet there was no global rice brand, and even locally, it wasn’t convenient to eat at work. That insight led t...

Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, welcomes Jil Assaf, COO at Shawarmer, to Restrocast to trace a career built on grit and reinvention across multi-location restaurant operations. Jil recalls launching a teenage snack counter in a Beirut billiards hall, the Lebanese hustle shaped by instability, and operating across the Middle East. He describes building the hospitality arm of Qata...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Alexandre Bachir, Managing Director of Bachir Ice Cream Middle East, the man leading the third generation of the iconic Lebanese family brand that has thrived for nearly 90 years.  Alexandre shares how the business, founded in 1936 by his grandfather and great-uncle in a small village in Lebanon, grew from a local shop to an international name loved i...

Restrocast host Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, talks with Filippo Sgattoni, CEO of Alamar Group, the master franchisee for Domino's and Dunkin' across the Middle East. Filippo shares how his years at Autogrill shaped his understanding of multi-location restaurant operations, cultural intelligence, and the art of balancing numbers with intuition. He opens up about adap...

Sherif M. EL Sherif, Managing Director at Olayan Group, stops by Restrocast for a conversation with host Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, about his 30-year career shaping some of the world's most recognized multi-brand restaurant operations, from Wimpy and KFC at Americana to Burger King, Texas Chicken, and Buffalo Wild Wings today. Sherif shares powerful lessons from 25 tra...

In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Amjad Barakat, CEO, Brunch & Cake. He went from being $3 million in debt at age 18 to building one of the region’s most popular café brands. He started by helping out in his family’s luxury fashion business on weekends, eventually saving it by the time he was 24. By 27, he had launched a real estate company and then moved to Dubai to explore new o...

In this episode, Omar Shihab, founder of BOCA Dubai, takes us inside his journey of rethinking what a restaurant can stand for in a city known for rapid growth and high consumption. He shares the early shocks of entering the industry, from franchise struggles to the daily unpredictability of operations, and how those lessons shaped his people-first leadership style. Omar explains why integrity, tr...