CULINARY ENTREPRENEUR Dominic Miles is combining flavour and goodness to fill the bellies of thousands of hungry expat workers in the kingdom who are helping to build a brighter Bahrain.
The cuisine must combine healthy, nutritious options and satisfy the cost-conscious demands of some of the leading construction companies operating on the island, and boast the highest food safety standard classifications.
Former restaurateur Mr Miles, a food importer and celebrity chef who built up a huge following on local radio offering cooking tips and recipes, is managing partner of expanding Ajyal Catering Bahrain. He said: “Restaurant and hotel catering is a far cry from the disciplines needed to provide more than 3,000 meals a day for a varied and diverse workforce within strict budgetary parameters.
“There was a very fast learning curve which still hasn’t plateaued completely, and I’m grateful to my management team and kitchen brigade who brought much needed experience to the company.”
Ajyal Catering Bahrain, which recently opened a new, state-of-the-art facility in Sitra, was originally a spin-off operation of the former Blindside BBQ & Grill at Bahrain Rugby Football Club, and the first order in 2016 was to provide 385 workers with three meals per day.
Soon the demand for the fare became so great that a move from a property in Riffa to larger premises was necessary. “Since the start of operations we have grown and developed as a business and adapted to meet the requirements and demands of mass catering to a diverse community,” explained Mr Miles.
“Current contracts with major industrial companies are all seeing an increase in worker numbers and we are also in negotiations with several other well-known corporations to provide catering services.
“Our new facility was a necessity but also a natural progression as we’d outgrown our site in Riffa and, although it had all the required certificates from the Ministry of Health, there was no space for expansion.”
The success of Ajyal Catering appears to have a lot to do with producing a traditional taste of home for many expat labourers missing their family and friends.
“If you are away from your home and family, living and working hard in a foreign country, then food becomes not just the fuel you need but a connection to home,” believes Mr Miles.
Mr Miles
“Many of the guys we feed perform manual work on construction sites, roads and within industrial sectors of Bahrain like Alba & BAPCO, which means they’re building up quite an appetite. There is an emotional connection to food, and we try to ensure that a little of the taste of home is provided wherever possible.
“When catering for thousands of people a day there are many challenging aspects, however, we produce different menus, covering a diverse range of demographics at several price points, to try and give choice as well as value for money.
“When catering for such a diversity of nationalities - North Indian, South Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Filipino and European / Western workers - you have to adjust and amend tastes to suit the palates as much as possible.
“We do appreciate how important food is and try to meet the expectations whilst working within the tight budgetary parameters. Salt, spice, oil, coconut and different vegetables all vary depending on the region or country people come from.”
Ajyal Catering Company has recently achieved the internationally-recognised ISO 22000 certification.
“Becoming certified to ISO 22000 allows a company to show their customers that they have a food safety management system in place,” explained Mr Miles. “In the catering business there are always opportunities to improve, it is so multi-faceted and diverse that meeting all the criteria is a challenge.
“We wanted to ensure that we met not only the strict rules and regulations of the Bahrain ministries but also demonstrated our exceptional standards by being recognised by achieving international accreditation. I’m incredibly proud of the hard work put in by the directors, management, kitchen brigade and the food service team in achieving this.
“Our operation works seven-days-a-week, 20 hours a day, working two shifts and everything is done ‘in house’. Fresh vegetables are delivered three to four times a week, dry and frozen goods at least twice-a-week. Just to give an idea of volume, we use more than 10 metric tons of rice a month!”
To ensure the company keeps pace with the taste challenge, as several of its latest contracts boast a growing number of Nepalese workers, Ajyal is in the process of recruiting a specialist Nepalese chef to help it adjust some dishes to make them ‘even more traditional whilst still ensuring they’re healthy, fresh and nutritious’.
“Our team grows almost monthly and we are continually looking for experienced, enthusiastic and hardworking people to join Ajyal Catering Company,” added Mr Miles. “We have three Bahrainis working with us now as well as more than a dozen Indian, Filipino and Bangladeshi staff and all are vital to our operation but our GM, Mahesh Mohanan, plays a pivotal role in bringing all the elements of this challenging and diverse business together.
“We’re looking to bring more Bahraini staff into the business in supervisory or junior management positions, especially those who have graduated from catering colleges in Bahrain.
“Tamkeen supports small business enterprises in a myriad of ways and we have been working with them since January. Not only do they provide support of a financial nature in some areas but also advisory and training opportunities.”
Assistance has come from a variety of sources and none more so than the Ministry of Health which assisted with the design of the new outlet and helped by visiting the facility during construction to ensure all requirements for commercial catering were complied with.
“Our new facility is currently running at 35 per cent capacity and we look forward to providing catering for the workforce of many more companies in Bahrain and challenging our staff to maintain our high standards whilst providing a greater variety of cuisines,” added Mr Miles.
“We already have other elements of the business currently in operation, we import some niche frozen UK items and also provide bespoke outside catering however both of these are relatively small in comparison to our main operation but there is real potential for growth and we look forward to expanding the business in all sectors.
“One area we are exploring is providing onsite catering services to banks, large businesses, hospitals and schools as we are Ministry of Health certified.”
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