When I came to the Taj as a very young trainee in the mid-'60s, the Taj was a veritable world unto itself. There were scores of staff who had been there for twenty, thirty and even forty years. It was a well oiled machine where every staff member knew their job. They kept no records of names, family history, details and preferences of guests, but they knew it all. As walking encyclopedias, they were irreplaceable in their jobs. There was a strong union, ninekinds of food were prepared in the kitchens just for the staff every day, while for guests there was the Taj Ballroom as the single restaurant in the day time, where a grand buffet lunch would be laid. In the evenings, half the ballroom would be curtained off and called the Xanadu, though it was often empty.In the adjoining Green Hotel -- where the new Taj Tower stands today -- was a restaurant called Gulmohr, and this was the second place in Bombay, after the Sher-e-Punjab, to serve tandoori chicken.
Ajit Kerkar had joined the Taj a couple of years earlier as Assistant Manager Catering, and he set up the Rendezvous French restaurant on the ground floor of the old Taj, where the Golden Dragon is today. The professionalisation of the Taj as we know it today began then. The first step was to streamline the staff and get the kitchen under Chef Masci to concentrate more on guest food than staff food. But first, the unions had to be dealt with. Believe it or not, the President of the Taj union was George Fernandes. He was the terror of Bombay at the time, being also President of the BEST (the red bus service of Bombay city), organizing Bombay Bandhs from time to time. Ajit Kerkar decided to take him on and bring the leadership of the staff union back into within the hotel. At a historic, acrimonious union meeting held in the C.J. Hall (now the NGMA) theunion voted out George Fernandes. That was quite a feat, as anyone running a company with over 500 union members can imagine.
Thereafter began a process of redeploying and retraining staff, which went on for a few years. The old wing was renovated-- many rooms did not have attached bathrooms, and air conditioning was by window units. The main kitchen had not been renovated for forty years. The Crystal Room did not exist -- it was a verandah known as the Breakfast Room for residents. In the early ‘70s, Chef Masci ruled the kitchen with an iron hand-- young trainees would be asked to pluck feathers from chickens and peel potatoes for the first few months, and many didn’t. have the nerve to survive that period. That was Masci’s baptism of fire. (Just as years later, Hemant Oberoi’s baptism of fire was to make trainees chop onions for three months). He would decide in which section a person was allocated, and that would be mostly for life. When I joined, the soup cook had been there forever and could easily make 100 kinds of soups. The fish cook Felix had been at the fish range for over 25 years and could debone a pomfret in seconds. There was even a dish in the Rendezvous called Pomfret Debout which served a fried pomfret standing up! Ajit Kerkar’s project to modernize the kitchens involved an ambitious training programme, bringing in catering professionals, rotating chefs between sections. And that is how the Taj’s superb all-rounder chefs were created.
A programme of merit-based professional recruitment began in all departments.
A Taj Management team used to visit all leading catering colleges in the country annually, and select a few from every college. What the Taj looked for is people with the right value systems, who wanted to rise in life through sustained hard work and dedication, as they had seen their parents do. We didn’t look for people who were already very smart or polished.
What were the qualities the Taj wanted in its managers of the future? What they looked for above all was high integrity, the ability to work hard consistently and conscientiously, to respond beyond the call of duty, to be always able to put guests first, and to work under pressure. These were the core values they lookedfor--things like personality, grooming, hospitality techniques, could be worked on later
Ajit Kerkar’s instruction were not only to look for leaders but also followers. And everybody had to be home-grown so that they had imbibed this distinctive Taj culture. . Every single recruit to the Taj, Bombay, including the waiters, was personally interviewed by him . . He always wanted to know the person, his family background, and his motivation. Taking the cue from him, I too traveled the country, interviewing every sales executive myself. One of them was Karambir Kang, General Manager of the Taj Bombay who, after so tragically losing his wife and children, continued to work for 24 hours for the evacuation ofpeople trapped in the Taj. No one who knows Karambir was surprised at his extraordinary courage and dedication. We always knew how very special he was. .
Another factor that helped create the "Taj Spirit" was the example of seniors. In 1982, when a Shiv Sena-controlled strike made 300 of our junior staff down tools, all managers and department heads were drafted in overnight, the Crystal Room was made into a night dormitory for many of them, and managers cleaned all rooms in the hotel, which had 100% occupancy at the time.. It created an indelible impression on our young minds. The General Manager of a Taj Hotel, after a regular day of administrative work, was expected to be in the lobby in the evenings, to receive and welcome guests, whether they were residents or just visiting our restaurants. He was to be like a host receiving his personal guests at his home. Some might say this was an old fashioned notion of hospitality, but that was the Taj way,
For all of us, working at the Taj was not just a job, it was our very life...That same spirit has been transmitted to the new generation of younger professionals, so many of whom unhesitatingly risked their lives to protect and save guests out to safety. That spirit will always live on.
(The author worked at the Taj for over 30 years, and was a board director of the Indian Hotels Company. An edited, slightly shorter version of this piece appears in print.
