Of all the sideways career jumps one might contemplate, leaving a secure job in the City of London to run a restaurant must be one of the least expected. We're not talking about the wealthy, who own a chunk of a restaurant as they would invest in a racehorse. We're talking about people who run the business, who like the heat so much they've got into the kitchen.
Rohit Chugh's career was, until recently, a pretty typical City story. He'd started out at consulting firm PwC, then studied at London Business School before joining Goldman Sachs, where he was a sales trader on the European equities desk. Then, in late 2004, he left the bank to run the Cinnamon Club, one of London's most highly regarded Indian restaurants.
He says his family saw this as a retrograde career move. “When you come from an Indian family and you leave the City to run a restaurant, everyone's looking at you saying, ‘Surely it should be the other way round?'”