For Any New Idea To Succeed, You Need To Persevere Through The Rainy Days

Tanuvee Agarwal My Journey: My journey began during my junior year of high school. I had aspired to be a nuclear physicist. I thought, with my knack for physics, that would be the ideal profession. Surely, that was not to be. My love for food and cooking was far greater than my want to be a physicist.

Thus, with my family’s support, I got the chance to make my passion into my profession. The only condition put forward was that I have to study at the best to be my best. Henceforth, I chose to study at a leading culinary institute that allowed me to focus on my passion and pursue a business administration degree simultaneously. I learned transferable and transformational skills, which helped open multiple future career options in both culinary and international business. Furthermore,  I got the opportunity to network with key global hospitality leaders and consequently, build a strong connection within the industry.

I am Tanuvee Agarwal, a chef at heart, an entrepreneur by design, and a sales and marketing representative by choice.

I have worked at three distinctive restaurants, started my fine dining catering brand and now, am the country manager (INDIA), for Swiss Education Group. As a twenty-five-year-old Indian woman, achieving the above, has been an incredible journey with a lot of growth and learning.

Right after attaining my Bachelor of Arts in Culinary Arts from Culinary Arts Academy, I worked at a three Michelin star restaurant in San Francisco, USA, under head chef and founder, Chef Dominque Crenn, who was awarded best female chef as per San Pellegrino’s list in 2016. I to this day, aspire to be like Chef Crenn. Through her, I learned how to be brave and pave my pathway. I learned that to be a trendsetter one needs to remain dedicated to their believes and values. I learned about team ethics.

Being a risk-taker by nature, the need to follow an entrepreneurial course was embedded in me at a very young age. Hence, to fulfill this dream of starting my venture, I started Atticus, a fine dining catering brand, located in New Delhi, India. I launched Atticus when I was a doe-eyed, 23 years old in awe of the Michelin culture I was exposed to. I aimed to bring the sustainable fine dining food philosophy to India. However, with time, I learned more about, what I call, the 3 golden P’s: perseverance, patience, and pragmatism. I understood that, for any new idea to succeed, I would need to persevere through the rainy days, be patient about it being accepted by the mass and be pragmatic in my approach to introduce it. And, to this day, I am working on fulfilling these three verticals.

To conclude, even though I have a long way it may not be the most conventional of paths, however, it is the one I believe was carved for me, and I worked supremely hard to lay down the bricks, stones, and mortar on that path with my strong will and desire to always improve and always trying to be better, by having pure dedication and professionalism to every aspect of my life.

Tanuvee Agarwal is Chef of Atticus and Country Manager (India) Swiss education group. The views expressed are the author's own.