“Numbers and balance sheets were what I was trained for, but life had very different plans for me.
With a degree in Commerce and no formal education in food, I recently stepped into the world of hospitality guided purely by passion, instinct, and the courage to take risks.
During my undergraduate days, while most of my classmates focused on lectures and exams, I found myself running a small café right opposite my college. It lit a spark in me.
Before I knew it, my degree felt part time while the café felt like my real classroom. That phase taught me people management, sourcing, daily operations, and a lot of real-life experiences.
Soon after, I took another leap and started a T-shirt business, handling everything from sourcing fabrics in Tiruppur to selling the final product. I learned fast by doing.
Like many others, I got placed in TCS through campus placements. It felt like a dream come true. I even pursued my masters alongside my job.
But within a year, I realised something crucial. This was not my destiny. I quit after two years, with no concrete plan, but with absolute clarity that I did not want this.
I was a hardcore foodie, spending most of my salary exploring restaurants, travelling across cities just to eat, observe, and experience. Food became my language. I started offering suggestions to restaurant owners, not just about taste but also about operations.
Some listened, some did not, but the ones who did built lasting relationships with me. Slowly, people began seeking my opinions.
This opened doors to consulting. I helped brands find locations, build concepts, and understand their audience across food, fashion, and jewellery. Money never drove me then. Seeing ideas come alive did.
In 2017 and again in 2018, I attempted to build restaurants with investors. Both times, once the businesses succeeded, I was pushed out and stripped of everything I had built. I returned to zero, but I never lost my hunger.
What I gained instead was patience, resilience, and the belief that my story was far from over.
What if a restaurant was not just a business, but the culmination of every lesson, loss, and love for food?
By 2023, Chennai had incredible food, but there was a gap I could no longer ignore. Authentic European flavours were missing. Not adapted versions, not shortcuts, but food that respected tradition while still speaking to the local palate.
That vision gave birth to Pan Sauce Poetry!
Pan Sauce Poetry was never just a restaurant. It was an emotion, a philosophy, and a reflection of everything I had learned over the years.
We focused on handmade pastas, indulgent desserts, and carefully crafted sauces that were prepared in house with precision and passion.
Every plate was built layer by layer, allowing flavours to blend, contrast, and ultimately sing together. We paired authentic European techniques with subtle South Indian influences, creating something familiar yet entirely new.
Within a year, the response from Chennai food lovers was overwhelming. Reviews poured in, repeat customers became family, and watching people truly enjoy what we served felt deeply personal.
We made sure to come up with new and refreshing items on the menu, time and time again. Our aim is to create new experiences through food for our customers.
We spend countless hours testing, failing, refining, and retesting dishes before introducing them to the menu. Every dish carries multiple sauces, each one telling its own story.
That harmony is what I call poetry.
In April, a major fire accident reduced everything to rubble overnight. Years of effort disappeared in a moment. But this time, I did not feel defeated. I felt determined.
We rebuilt Pan Sauce Poetry with a completely new ambience. It became a space meant for slow evenings, conversations, and comfort.
What kept me going through every fall was people. Those who believed in me when I had nothing and stood by me through every setback. I value them deeply, because this journey was never mine alone.
If entrepreneurship has taught me one thing, it is patience. Success is not instant, linear, or guaranteed. Pan Sauce Poetry is proof that perseverance always finds its flavour. Keep trying, learning and showing up. Success will find its way to you!”