NELSON WANG, RESTAURATEUR
Emperor Of Chinese Kitchens

While it�s been a nice, long, picturesque journey for Nelson Wang, the winding road has also gone both uphill and downhill. And though the road had turns which were pleasant and not so pleasant, success has been an integral part of his journey. But, the road is nowhere near its end, it goes on and with it, his success graph.

Nelson Wang is an achiever, he works ten times harder than anybody, he never gives up and he dreams big. Nelson gave Bombay its most successful and popular Chinese restaurant, China Garden. Remind him about it and he muses, �Oh, what great days those were�. And saying so, his face takes on such a nostalgic look, that sitting opposite him, at his office in Om Chambers, Bombay, I turn quiet myself, and dart into a rosy, memory lane.

In the �80s Nelson�s China Garden was all the rage. If you were not seen dining there, you were a nobody. And if you were �somebody�, you�d have not just your own personalised, monogrammed napkins, regular table and all that but Nelson himself would go into the kitchen and cook for you, like he did many a times, for Busybee, who thought the world of Nelson�s cooking.

�That was no problem, I love competition. But you know, cooking is not like Nike - just do it! You have to have the right equipment, and you have to cook it right, one extra minute in the wok and you can kill the food!� And then he adds, �But I move on, now I have created a new menu at CG �83.�

And if you were a rich, famous and a powerful woman (or at least had a powerful husband), you would be a member of The Piano Bar, Nelson�s brainchild, where membership was exclusive to women. It was next door to the restaurant, very unique in concept and was mind blowing. We are talking 20 years ago. Yet, it was how lounge bars look today. Nelson thinks ahead. He has talent and great marketing ability, a lethal combination.

The restaurant where he started when he first came to Bombay from Calcutta, as a young lad of in July �74, alighting from the Howrah Express, with just Rs. 27 in his pocket, was Frederick at Colaba. Here he worked as a cook. In those days there was Ssi Hai at Colaba Causeway so popular that even the Late JRD Tata used to go there to lunch. The propietor of Ssi Hai offered Nelson a partnership in China Town at Kemps Corner, which Nelson naturally accepted. But he had already got his big break by this time, catering Chinese food at the prestigious Cricket Club of India (CCI).

In many ways Nelson revolutionized Chinese cooking - by adding a hint of Indian-ness to it. The now all too famous Manchurian Chicken is Nelson�s creation. So popular did this dish become, that the recipe of stir-fried garlic, ginger, soya sauce, cornflour and boneless pieces of chicken, was replicated everywhere - from street carts to five star hotel restaurants across the country. �That was no problem, I love competition. But you know, cooking is not like Nike - just do it! You have to have the right equipment, and you have to cook it right, one extra minute in the wok and you can kill the food!� And then he adds, �But I move on, now I have created a new menu at CG �83�.

And what might CG �83 be? It�s Nelson�s newest pride and joy, the phoenix that arose from the ashes of China Garden! Well, here I�d like to talk about the road downhill, the rough patch in Nelson�s life. That was a bit of a brush with the law, he had. No thanks to a few FSI irregularities, the powers that be had Nelson�s restaurant closed down and parts of it demolished. It was a tragedy, Bombay sulked, Bombay cried, and Busybee in his famous column Round and About lamented, �With China Garden turned to rubble, a man�s single- handed enterprise of more than a decade has turned to dust�.

But it was not for long, Nelson soon re-opened at Cross Roads, Bombay�s swankiest mall. Alas, it was not the same, the spirit was missing, and even if the recipes were the same, the taste wasn�t quite the same. As Nelson very honestly says so himself, �It was a tough patch.

I lost so much of my clientele. Yes, eating in a mall is never fine dining, you know...�

Yes, we know, just as we knew that this Chinaman was down but not out. China Garden was re-reborn at the beginning of this year, at the same old place at Kemp�s Corner but in a new avatar - CG �83. Orient inspired, with silks in rich hue, ornate back lit, huge vertical onyx slabs from Iran, brand new eastern furniture, the signature pepper prawns back in place!

Nelson�s smiling, and not sitting idle either. He is working at a furious pace at opening yet another China Garden at Bandra, in North Bombay. He is also flying up and down to Delhi. With Delhi-wallahs as half his customers, Nelson had no choice but to take China Garden there. It�s a fancy place that. Two storeys, full of fabulous antiques, a lounge, a bar, all under one roof, in upscale GK II.

Fortunately for Nelson he has two sons to carry the labour of his love forward. They share the mantle and are actively involved in the running of his enterprises, Edward who studied Hotel & Food Technology in Toronto looks after Bombay, and Henry who studied the same in Geneva is the face in Delhi.

We are happy for Nelson Wang, glad that his dedication has paid him good dividends, that he is the success he is. �Oh, it�s not such a difficult job to be successful,� he smiles, and mischievously adds, �but to remain there, it�s five times harder�.

Yes sir, wiser words were never spoken.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY FARZANA CONTRACTOR