Vidita Kamat: Owner, Mezclaa

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting?

I come from a male-dominated industry that is the hospitality industry, but the area where it mainly consists of most number of males is the kitchen area. In earlier days there were mostly 99% males in the kitchen and only 1% females, however it is not the case in the present time. It was very difficult to survive in a place where you are needed to put your weight around. As a female if you are the Head Chef, people look up thinking why should we listen to her as she is a female; and in the kitchen we have lot of males coming from different cities so their mind-set is that women should have no authority to take a decision in the kitchen area. As things started getting better and more females started to join this industry in the kitchen department there has now somewhere been a level of acceptance.

However, till date, compared the man to woman ratio in the kitchen is stark, with more males than females. The kitchen is a place where you need to be very strong-headed, ready to battle physically and mentally as you need to stand around for long durations depending upon how busy the restaurant or hotel would be. It very important to set standards, be disciplined, help you team members in achieving the goal together to reach the target, as in the end, it is all about team work and also balancing their mentality and emotions; making sure their freedom is not jeopardised. Although, it is squally important for then to know where to draw the line.

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

I feel women should be head-strong and believe in whatever their heart says would work because a woman’s intuition is much more stronger. Plus they dedicate themselves towards their goals and achieving their target. There is tremendous competition and I feel one must believe in what they feel good for themselves not what others feel or say, because at the end if you have and idea a believe it in very strongly you will achieve your goal…no one has succeeded in one and it is only when you FALL that you RISE UP stronger.

3. What is Mezclaa all about?

‘Mezclaa’ is a brand which deals into food catering and services. We cater entremenets, bonne bouche to small party events (where we have a fancy display with food that are all bite size). We also handle events and organise them under another brand name as we are expanding in other sectors.

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values?

Our vision is to serve satisfactory, quality products to our clients with a smile, as we believe in not only giving out the best to the clients but also making sure that they are happy and satisfied with the product. Personally I feel that, it also sends out a positive prospective about the brand so we would always want our costumers to always come back to us for more.

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why?

It’s important to follow your passion because you put your whole heart and soul into it and making sure you give your customer the best because when they are satisfied and happy. You know that they would definitely be loyal to you and would come back to you, having appreciated your efforts and the  personal touch that you have given to it. In this world, there are going to be a lot of things which will be beyond our control, but what you do have control over is how you react to whatever happens in your life.

You become exactly what you believe and if you believe in it the universe helps you to achieve it. When you are passionate about something is where things comes from your inner soul while being practical comes from the head. If you need to achieve something you need to be passionate about what you love doing and that’s where you would succeed because that is where your heart is at!