Jasper Reid, a multifaceted entrepreneur and restaurant brand expert, brought PizzaExpress, Jamie Oliver, and Wendy's to India. His TV shows include "Jasper’s Cook In," "Billion Dollar Idea," and "The Great Indian Pizza Adventure." He's known for his TED Talk, press contributions, and British-Indian heritage, residing in Delhi. He spoke to Asian Voice about living in India, his heritage, and more.
Can you share more about your family's unique journey of living and working in India for four consecutive generations, particularly after 1947, and how it has shaped your sense of identity and connection to the country? Does not having an Indian passport make any difference to how you feel living in India?
My Grandfather was an engineer and left the UK in the 1950s to work with Tata Sons. He was an aviation specialist and was part of the team building Dum Dum Airport in Calcutta.
Later my Father ran the international operations for Help the Aged and worked in India with Help Age India who run eye camps and leper camps. My Father travelled all around the country.
In 1996 I was first posted to India where I was the deputy in charge of Cathay Pacific Airways for India, Nepal and Bangladesh. I was based in Mumbai for two years and travelled everywhere.
Later with Macquarie Capital, I came to India for business. In 2011 I started my own business in London called IMM and we won the contract to help PizzaExpress expand in India and China. This ended up as a JV with the Bharti Family Office (the Airtel promoters).
I wanted to own and operate my own restaurant brands under IMM and won the rights for Jamie Oliver Restaurants and Wendy's. I raised money from well-respected UK investors then moved to Delhi in 2014 with my young family to set up and operate the business. Our twin girls Cecilia and Elsa were then six years old.
Now we have completed a decade in India and live happily in Delhi where the girls are at school. Our household now includes two Persian cats, one labrador retriever and three parrots. My daughter Elsa flies her parrots in Delhi and she has trained them to return to her. She is one of the only people who knows how to do this in India. It's called Free Flying and she takes her parrots all over town.
My wife Megan is heavily involved in charitable work in India and her American family funds a school in Gangtok, Sikkim. Her cousin is also the Dalai Lama's representative in the US.
I don't think not having an Indian passport matters but I do feel that there's a better way than having all foreigners renew their residency on an annual basis - especially those who are committed, have invested and create employment. We are all three. There was a law gazetted in 2014 which provided permanent residency for people like us (and allowed Megan to work which she cannot do now) but it seems to be taking a while to become active. We want to be the first to take this up!
What inspired your mission to establish Jamie Oliver Restaurants in India, considering your deep-rooted connection to the country and its culture?
I saw the fast food giants, eg Domino's and McDonald's expanding and had a very strong belief that people would gravitate towards fresh, no junk, good quality Western food. This is the heart of what Jamie does and he shared our vision. We are also huge believers in the awesome culinary traditions of India and we wanted to compete in this great arena.
We don't believe we have any rights in India except what we earn by being an active player in the Indian food scene. After a decade we feel we are making progress but the journey ahead will be as wild and exciting as the path to get here. So far we have 31 restaurants in 13 cities and we operate 3 formats - Jamie's Kitchen, Jamie's Pizzeria and Jamie's Cafe.
How do you navigate the complexities of blending British culinary traditions with the diverse flavours and preferences of the Indian palate while maintaining authenticity and respect for both cultures in Jamie Oliver Restaurants India?
Jamie has a huge culinary repertoire and we don't customise to the market as such, we just choose the menu items we know will work. We do classics and we do them well and a lot of this is about local sourcing. India has amazing produce and we import very few items.
About half our customers in India are vegetarian and again Jamie is super knowledgeable about veg which is a great starting point.
Of course, India is vast and diverse and tastes change every 100 miles or so. We have deep respect for every market in which we operate and we adjust accordingly. For example, our Ahmedabad Jamie's Kitchen is 100% veg - the first all-veg Jamie's restaurant in the world. In some areas we serve alcohol and in others, we don't.
But most of what we do is the same across India and always fresh, always made to order, always served with love for our customers whom we are so proud to serve.
In the end, we are there for customers who want good, authentic food with zero junk and high-quality, ethical ingredients. We are mostly Western with a little bit of the East in certain restaurants and our recipes are pure Jamie. We feel like this is super relevant to the modern Indian consumer who of course wants the best.
