Bhupendra Nath

A Restaurateur Tres Indian

Founder & MD, Passion F&B

Bhupendra Nath is a passionate entrepreneur who likes putting his money where the mouth is. To give people around the world a dining experience they will cherish, he launched his restaurant business as a tribute to his father.

Interviewed by Shraddha Mishra
Photographed by Vijay Barathe

"I am a hard-core businessman, working in the world of food,” he says with a playful laugh. He is a good businessman, but we can tell you Bhupendra Nath is a lot more than that. Hailing from the city of Patna, he belongs to a family of a well-known hotelier. Palace Hotel & Restaurant was THE place to dine at in the city, and everyone knew it. In a turn of events that he still can’t forget, he saw his father lose everything that he had worked so hard for all his life. The hotel was gone. “I felt shattered when I saw my dad crying,” he says. And it was that day that shaped what his future was going to be. He resolved to gift his dad a restaurant of his own some day. This was way back in 1979, and three decades later, today that dream has come true and how!

Today, Mr Nath has multiple restaurants under his hat; Tresind Dubai, Tresind Studio, A Capella, Carnival, Tresind Mumbai and the outdoor catering speciality, Gala. However, like any entrepreneur will tell you, success didn’t come as an up-up-up graph. Life definitely had a few lows to start with. Back in Patna, young lad Bhupendra tried his luck with stock trading, but unfortunately suffered great monetary losses. And again, like any entrepreneur will tell you, he didn’t give up. He picked himself up, dusted himself off and with the help of his mother got a job opportunity that took him to Nigeria. “I went there with the mentality that if you want to make money, the best way is to go abroad,” he shares. And soon, that was meant to be. In 1990, he launched a frozen fish business in Nigeria.

The business took flight successfully, making him one of the biggest traders in Nigeria with a large fisheries enterprise. Soon after that he moved to Dubai with his family, who had also left Patna for good. In 2014, Mr Nath embarked upon what you can only call his dream project. He had fallen in love with Dubai. The opulent city had shown him a great time, and he felt it was time to give back to the city an experience it didn’t have before. It was also time to fulfill the dream he saw 15 years ago. Bhupendra Nath launched a modern Indian fine-dine restaurant in Dubai that would go on to completely change the impression of Indian food among the people there. “I am Indian at heart, and wanted to share the essence of my homeland and its cuisine through my restaurant. And so I named it Tresind, which simply means very Indian,” he shares.
“The dictionary that has the word impossible also has the word possible,” is the motto with which Mr Nath went on to pursue his goals. Tresind Dubai was everything he had ever dreamt of, and he dedicated it to his father, “Shri Prem Nath” as the plaque at the restaurant reads. The restaurant was frequented by renowned personalities who appreciated the experience they took back. The restaurant also won ‘Best Restaurant in UAE’ award among many others. The reason was very simple. Tresind treated guests like kings!

He may be a businessman to his core, but in his heart, Mr Nath understands food. He knows the pulse of a diner, knows what they expect when they are out for good food, and knows just how to deliver that experience. “The Indian values that I grew up with have instilled in me, atithi devo bhava– your guests should be respected like God," he says. Tresind also introduced diners to a world of Indian cuisine that they hadn’t experienced before. Most people think Indian food is just paneer makhani and butter naan, but Indian cuisine is way more than that, Tresind proved, introducing dishes for from every corner of the country with its diverse ingredients, flavours and textures, presented in a modern style yet keeping the authenticity intact. With a good meal and impeccable service, and most importantly, the worth for every penny spent, guests at Tresind were more than impressed.

After the success of the first restaurant under the umbrella of his company Passion F&B, he went on to launch other dining concepts at coveted locations, serving good food and good times. In his heart, he knew that now India is calling, and in his very practical business-oriented mind, he knew Bombay was the place to be at. And that is how the popular Indian restaurant from Dubai came to India for the first time with the launch of Tresind Mumbai. With one foot in Nigeria, one in Dubai and if he had a third, in Bombay, we wonder how his lifestyle would be. “I run the business, the business doesn’t run me,” he says confidently, talking about how he manages along with his efficient team. “I have anyway noticed that 95% of all problems go away on their own,” he jokes, expressing that he is not one to stress over the smaller everyday hurdles.

As a son, he is humbly proud of establishing an enterprise as a tribute to his father. And as a father himself too, he is happy to have created a legacy for his two sons, who are only all of 17 and 19 years of age. The young boy Bhupendra, who once stood in Patna watching one dream crumble, is a man today who looks at the globe, with a new dream fulfiled.