Pod#183 - Zoya Marri (feat Kazi Akber) - Running a fine dining restaurant in Karachi

Finally putting out the first of two excellent episodes I'd been wanting to record for a long time. This one is with baker extraordinaire and former fine dining restauranteur Zoya Marri! Something we'd been trying to make happen for over a year. Dive in, its a great one.    Many thanks to brother Kazi without whom this episode wouldn't have been possible.   Things discussed in this episode:   00:00 Intro and why we’re talking to her 03:10 What is happening with her restaurant Thyme currently 05:40 Young Zoya wasn’t into cooking! She was teaching dyslexic children 13:02 How she first got into baking back in 2008/09 19:47 Getting married and her in-laws’ love for food infecting her too 24:37 She gets back into baking, her banana bread is immensely popular 28:35 Interlude on Facebook food-groups and how perhaps NOT to run a business 30:24 Her baking plans grow, the family encourages her to take the next steps 32:43 Chaotic interlude as a surprise guest joins 33:25 Back to talking about her first physical venture, and her in-laws’ honest feedback 38:38 How they were approached to join the original Thyme 41:32 How Zoya had to change if she wanted her restaurant to be done right 45:50 Learning how a restaurant works, going perhaps a bit overboard with the design 50:42 The restaurant launches, gets off to a tough start 55:05 “If you don’t like the food, you don’t pay” 58:32 Bakery clientele vs upscale restaurant clientele - DISCOUNT LOVERS 1:03:43 Social media food groups and people who love to tear you down 1:11:14 Zoya’s no-compromise approach to using only the best ingredients 1:21:49 How the 2020 floods, COVID and daily toll lead to Thyme being closed 1:29:28 Lessons learned and how the restaurant changed them 1:35:57 Would she open another restaurant? How about a bakery? 1:39:09 What advice would she have for newcomers to the business 1:42:41 An outro full of catchphrases!  LINKS:  Zoya's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoyamarri/  Aurry's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurrym/  Kazi's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaziakber/   Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod  Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan