Role Player 2024
Kumresh Naidu
~ Director - Sales & Marketing ~Popular Hospitality
Started career in the year 1991 as a Trainee Chef and graduated to a Senior Sous Chef in Golden Dragon at Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. After working for few years in Taj, a challenging and exciting opportunity knocked my door of managing the Sales and distribution for Radha Krishna Food Division. My communication skills helped me to network with numerous Chefs and industry experts during those years and boosted my confidence of exploring avenues related to the food domain. The approach to clients and understanding their requirements helped me climb the ladder in the Radhakrishna Events Division of handling their premium ‘Mansa’ events company, who had given the birth to Destination weddings and parties in the year 2000. The knowledge of curating events, customizing and managing them at some far-off destinations guided me to meticulous planning in my career.
This led to a dream of being an entrepreneur and with some good friends and industry experts, ventured into a centralized kitchen supplying to Corporates and BPO’s with an average of 7000 meals a day under the banner of Food Concepts & Bake Bites. Successfully ran this business for 11 years and became a pioneer in Corporate Catering with premium clients such as JP Morgan, Asian Paints, Essar group, Reliance, etc. Proud to achieve the Back-end Food Partners for Coffee Chains like Barista, Costa Coffee & many more in Maharashtra. Last few years I have been consulting and was on the panel of companies like Coconut Grove Pvt Ltd, Afoozo Pvt. Ltd and my last stint was at Nesco Exhibition Centre as their General Manger Operations, managing their F&B Operations and growing business to higher scales by setting many brands and starting their Specialty Banqueting segment.
With the continuous growth in the ever-demanding Food & Hospitality Industry, decided to venture into a Consultancy company Connoisseur Hospitality – a one stop solution for providing services to Restaurants, QSR, Cloud Kitchens, etc. Also executed a vertical to empower Regional Home Chefs and Cuisine Chefs and provide them with a platform to execute their regional cuisine with lost recipes in Hotels, Restaurants, Corporates in the form of Food festivals and Pop Ups. Also keeping in with the latest requirement and the need of every Chef whether working for a restaurant or a hotel or a cloud kitchen, have been able to develop a distribution channel of many out of the box food solutions, like Frozen food and RTE - ready to eat food solutions, Mock Meats, Dehydrated Foods, Gluten free etc. Post Covid now am holding the key position at Popular Hospitality as Director- Sales & Marketing.
A key member of several Chefs Conclave and food organizations increased my personal database of associating with various food professionals across the Globe and connect with them to understand the latest Food trends and how to work on sustainability models on an ongoing basis.
Recently awarded with two distinguished awards from the chef’s community, viz. Most Admired Chef & Most Influential Food Industry Professionals.
This led to a dream of being an entrepreneur and with some good friends and industry experts, ventured into a centralized kitchen supplying to Corporates and BPO’s with an average of 7000 meals a day under the banner of Food Concepts & Bake Bites. Successfully ran this business for 11 years and became a pioneer in Corporate Catering with premium clients such as JP Morgan, Asian Paints, Essar group, Reliance, etc. Proud to achieve the Back-end Food Partners for Coffee Chains like Barista, Costa Coffee & many more in Maharashtra. Last few years I have been consulting and was on the panel of companies like Coconut Grove Pvt Ltd, Afoozo Pvt. Ltd and my last stint was at Nesco Exhibition Centre as their General Manger Operations, managing their F&B Operations and growing business to higher scales by setting many brands and starting their Specialty Banqueting segment.
With the continuous growth in the ever-demanding Food & Hospitality Industry, decided to venture into a Consultancy company Connoisseur Hospitality – a one stop solution for providing services to Restaurants, QSR, Cloud Kitchens, etc. Also executed a vertical to empower Regional Home Chefs and Cuisine Chefs and provide them with a platform to execute their regional cuisine with lost recipes in Hotels, Restaurants, Corporates in the form of Food festivals and Pop Ups. Also keeping in with the latest requirement and the need of every Chef whether working for a restaurant or a hotel or a cloud kitchen, have been able to develop a distribution channel of many out of the box food solutions, like Frozen food and RTE - ready to eat food solutions, Mock Meats, Dehydrated Foods, Gluten free etc. Post Covid now am holding the key position at Popular Hospitality as Director- Sales & Marketing.
A key member of several Chefs Conclave and food organizations increased my personal database of associating with various food professionals across the Globe and connect with them to understand the latest Food trends and how to work on sustainability models on an ongoing basis.
Recently awarded with two distinguished awards from the chef’s community, viz. Most Admired Chef & Most Influential Food Industry Professionals.
