SHIRIN Batliwala is the classic example of the Taj Group�s policy not to hire managers, but to create them. She has been with the Taj for 36 years, having joined in 1971 as a trainee, the first girl to step into the hallowed Food & Beverages operations area. Till then, girls were employed only in the Housekeeping section. Or the Front Office. Girls were never considered for the operations area. That�s when Shirin stepped in with her Dadar Catering College background, determined not to accept a Housekeeping job if the Taj offered it to her; fortunately, they didn�t, the Taj in its wisdom offered her F&B instead. Shirin accepted, and now, 36 years later, �Miss Batliwala� (as she is known) is the distinguished Vice-President for Food & Beverages of all Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces in India. There are other �firsts� to her illustrious career with this big and prestigious hotel group: Shirin was also the first lady F&B Manager of a five-star in the country, and subsequently, the first lady General Manager of a large hotel in India. Her knowledge of the industry is impressive, her understanding of cuisines and wines is a byword in the Taj, but yet, when I met her at the Chambers for this interview, Shirin drank only a glass of hot water!

She is a product of Bombay, a Parsi girl who studied at the J. B. Petit School in Fort and then joined Wilson College at Chowpatty. �But I found Arts too boring, and when a family friend who taught at the catering college suggested I come there, I grabbed the opportunity because it was a new field,� says Shirin. �Once I got in, I enjoyed it.� Her internships during the course were done in the Taj kitchen under that culinary genius Miguel Arcanjo Mascarenhas (Masci) and at the Ambassador under its old Greek owner, Jack Voyantizs.

Shirin passed out of the catering college and answered an advertisement by the Taj calling for staff. That�s when she told her mother, �If they offer me Housekeeping, I won�t join!� But Masci at the Taj, and the F&B Manager Daruwala, were familiar with Shrin. As a student she had been called in often to wait on tables at important banquets for the King of Afghanistan, the Shah of Iran, and other visiting heads of state and royalty. She passed the interview and the Taj offered her a job in F&B operations. She joined and was put into the Banquets section. �It was an extremely busy area,� Shirin recalls. But shortly after, the Taj opened Chambers in 1975, and Shirin stepped in as its manager. Promotions were rapid for this shy and genteel lady of the F&B. She rose to be Assistant F&B Manager in charge of Chambers and looking after the other Taj restaurants, Golden Dragon, Tanjore, Harbour Bar, Rendezvous, Apollo Bar, Sea Lounge and the nightclub Blow-up that soon became the hip and happening 1900s. �The Taj customer then was an older lot of people, there were food and wine connoisseurs like Arvind Mafatlal, Chimanbhai Khilachand, Dara Dubash, and they formed a Thursday Club which met at the Chambers and celebrated food and wine,� recalls Shirin. The food at the Taj then was traditional French, nouvelle cuisine was yet to come in, though the hotel was sending its chefs to France to train. And there was North Indian food and Chinese with a Szechwan base, because all the Golden Dragon�s chefs were from Hong Kong. �There�s been a sea-change, because then things like exotic ingredients were not freely available, wines were hardly there, licences were difficult to get,� she says.

But the Taj grew and Shirin Batliwala grew with it. Her travels for the hotel took her to Singapore, Hongkong, Malaysia, the Philippines, and all over the West, where she constantly upgraded herself. She used to also read a lot and meet visiting chefs to understand what the hotel industry and F&B was like outside the Taj and India. �Then the Internet came and things became easier,� says Shirin simply.

Her growth took her to the Hotel Taj President as the F&B Manager in charge of the old Trattoria and Gulzar restaurants, and the hugely popular Library Bar. That was in 1980. In 1982, she was back at the main Taj, this time as F&B Manager here. And from Bombay she went to Calcutta, as the General Manager of the Taj Bengal, a post she held for eight years. She came back to Bombay as the Hotel President�s General Manager with additional charge of Taj properties in Aurangabad, Indore and Nashik. �Those days we had regional structures with a Vice-President for South, West and North. Now we have divisions, like Luxury, Leisure, Business and International,� she says. �It has been a great experience being a Taj person. The culture here is difficult to replicate. The opportunities for growth, the openness of the group, the family feeling, the strong values of the Taj and also the Tatas that are imbibed by the people � this is something else.�

She is now looking at F&B on a corporate level for Taj to upgrade and standardise the product, coordinating with business development projects for future hotels, renovating old restaurants, interacting with corporate chefs on new ideas and cuisines, and working on rolling out a fabulous wine list for the hotel group. I ask the Taj�s F&B High Priestess which are her favourite restaurants. �They are all Taj restaurants,� she says, �Golden Dragon because I like Chinese; Sea Lounge because there�s an eternal serenity here; the Goan restaurants because of Chef Urbano Rego�s food; and, the Malabar at Cochin for the view of the harbour. But I like simple food, more natural, and without heavy masalas and rich sauces.� What about wine, is Shirin Batliwala a great wine drinker? She laughs, �I wouldn�t say great, though I taste a lot of wines, and I am more a social drinker. My favourite drink, though, is chilled soda!� At night, that is; during the day, she drinks only hot water!

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�It has been a great experience being a Taj person. The culture here is difficult to replicate. The opportunities for growth, the openness of the group, the family feeling, the strong values of the Taj and also the Tatas that are imbibed by the people � this is something else.�