Tough cookies

Hotelier Farhan Azmi, owner of the popular Café Basilico, is not very optimistic. “Nobody is going out anymore now. I think this slump will especially hit the bigger five- and seven-star hotels and restaurants, but even the smaller places won’t remain unaffected.” Chef Moshe Shek, owner of Moshe’s, one of the city’s premier restaurants, points out that this is the peak season for the industry and things just couldn’t get worse. “As it is, we were affected by the recession with corporates spending less and less on entertaining. Now, we have a new problem to deal with.”

With reports filtering in that two of the terrorists were actually employed as part of the housekeeping staff at the Taj, hoteliers feel that more stringent measures like thorough background checks on employees is called for. Nikhil Chib, owner of Busaba, another of South Mumbai’s watering holes, is concerned that not enough is being done to ensure the bonafides of employees. “All hotels should compulsorily ask for copies of passports and ration cards of applicants and they should submit these documents to the police who can then run background checks.” But that, feels Brainard Colaco, Corporate Executive Chef at Mocha, is a difficult task. “You can run checks on junior level and senior level executives, but it’s very difficult to do that with lower order staff,” he says. Shek concurs and adds, “Most of the lower rank staff are people who come from outside, from other towns and villages. I’m sure the Taj and the Oberoi run regular checks on their staff, but it’s not an easy job.”

Will job prospects in the industry be affected? Chib feels that the next couple of years will show that. But he’s quick to point out that any industry could’ve been hit; it’s just that this time hotels were targeted. “The targets could very well have been the BSE. I don’t suppose any job feels safe these days. But I do feel that people will still be looking at this industry for lucrative career options.”