Sunil Bhu

Download as doc, pdf, or txt
Download as doc, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 3

Sunil Bhu, Flanders Dairy Sunil Bhu is a thoroughbred alaiva/a, although his parents are originally from UP.

"His father, for his time, did something different. He was one of the first pilots with Indian Airlines.Sunil grew up in South Extension and went to St Columba's school where the education was good, but he was not a very bright student. "His mother used to be happy if He managed to pass and luckily He did manage that!" After class 12, Sunil went on to Pusa the well-known Institute of Hotel Management in Delhi. Nobody insisted he take up any particular line' but both his sisters had already done hotel management. "He simply followed in their footsteps." Besides, Sunil's mother had started a restaurant - his father managed it after retirement. . "The only thing was He did not want to work for somebody. He knew that very early." In fact, Sunil skipped the internship which was a mandatory part of his course: so he does not even have a graduation certificate! But he has no regrets. " He just wanted to do what He felt like doing." What he felt like doing was working with animals - living on a farm, milking We had this book in school called Far from Me Madding Crowds by Thomas Hardy. It was all about the pastoral life. Somehow, that book made an impression on me." At the same time the idea of doing something related to cheese crept into his head. Back in 1985. cheese was quite scarce - no one knew much about it in India. But that did not deter Sunil. " He had a friend from Belgium. so I asked him to find out il there was any farm where He could work - not for money, just the experience." The friend located such a farm and Sunil landed up in Belgium, with 'nothing clear in his head'. But things did not quite click. Sunil tried his luck at another farm nearby. Can you come and pull out the weeds?" asked the owner. 'Sure," replied the 21-year-old. And that's where it all began - in Diksmuide. a tiny town in the Flemish province of West Flanders. Thousands of miles away from life, as we know it. And your parents did not have a problem with all this? He wonder. "No... I mean they did not really understand why and maybe they did not like it. but no one ever stopped me." In fact, Sunil's sisters chipped in to help him buy a cheap ticket. He even managed a one-year visa - ostensibly to study about microbiotic food. Things just 'fell in place'. "As luck would have it, the farmer - Marc - was starting out in cheese making at that time. He traveled with him to Holland and France to see the techniques others were using." Making cheese is really a family business, a closely guarded secret passed on from one generation to the next. But Marc, being European. managed to open doors quite easily. And Sunil quickly absorbed it all. "We would come back to the farm and implement various methods, so it was a very good learning experiencer Life is really about being in the right place, with the right person, at the right time. The right chemistry. "Communication could have been a big problem," muses Sunil. "But Marc had an interest in languages. He made that effort to learn English and He also learnt some Flemish - so somehow it worked out!" After two years in Flanders, Sunil returned to India. " He was not one of those people who wanted to settle abroad. You are your own boss in your own country, anywhere else you are always number two. So He came back."

What would he do? Well, he did start making cheese but at the time it was not really a business. More just to prove to the family that he had learnt something in the two years spent in Belgium! "His mother had a little piece of land - this farm - and she gave me one cow: Talk about 'working' capital! Initially, the cow was actually kept in the backyard of Sunil's house in South Ex. " He can't believe it." "Yeah, my friends used to laugh!" They said. "People take their dogs out for a walk, you are taking your cow out!" He said, "So what!" " He wanted to work on a farm - to be with cows, be with animals. And somehow He connected this with cheese, which was quite scarce in our country then!" And Sunil milked that cow and made his one ball of cheese everyday. "There is a certain process of pressing the cheese - He used to press it under my bed!" he recalls. But quickly. Sunil realised that conditions in India were very different from my bed!" he recalls. But quickly. Sunil realised that conditions in India were very different from Europe. It was far easier to make cheese in Diksmuide than in DiIli! Indian milk is different. Indian climate is different. Indian tastebuds are different. Trial and error. " He went back to Belgium for short durations - to learn more - but meanwhile I was helping out with my dads restaurant. The cheese thing was more like a hobby, something He did on the side." And that's how it remained for close to eight years. But even as a hobby, his talent was quickly recognised. A friend knew the owner of Steakhouse. a famous gourmet food store in Delhi Sunil offered them his cheese. The store owner tasted it and said exclaimed, "If you can make a hundred balls like this, bring them to me!" That was the birth of 'Flanders' - a small homemade ball of cheese bearing the logo of Sunils 'first cow'. Slowly. Sunil went from one ball of cheese a day to two. From two balls a day to five. Each ball sold for ninety-odd rupees but it was hard manual labour. Made, quite literally, with your Own hands. Of course, one cow could only yield milk for two balls of cheese in a day so eventually Sunil increased the workforce. He bought more cows. "More cows of course meant shifting here, to the farm. And He got someone to start working with me as well.., it just grew little by little over the years." As did Sunil's love and his passion - for cheese. As did Sunil's love and his passion - for cheese. And no matter how much he perfected the technique, there was always more to learn. Wherever he happened to go. In 1989, he was in northern Italy. eating at a little pizzeria. He asked the owner. -Where does this cheese come from?" The Italian answered, "A dairy close by." The next day Sunil decided to go see for himself. It was a huge factory, quite unlike the one in Belgium. " He explained to the lady at the reception that I am a cheesemaker from India. She asked me to wait." The boss was not available, so in the meantime Sunil and his friend were treated to lunch at a fabulous restaurant. " He was thinking to myself. these guys might be expecting some major collaboration! But no. nothing like that - it was simple hospitality." The owner was a short Italian man who patiently heard Sunil's story. Then he said, " He started out exactly the way you did! You are welcome to come and be in my factory and learn whatever you feel like learning." Sunil spent three months at the factory and learnt how mozzarella cheese was made - in a commercial way. The Italian way. "Italian cheese is more favourable to our conditions and suits the Indian palate better. So He bought some small machines and started off production of mozzarella cheese."

In 1988, Sunil's father passed away. No one in the family was keen to carry on the restaurant, so they downed the shutters. Leaving Sunil to do what he loved best - making cheese. " He am still doing manual labour even today. He like it so much that He put on my boots and work everyday from the morning till afternoon - He can never tire of it!" But it was only in 1994 that cheesernaking reached a scale which you could call an enterprise. At this stage Sunil was handling 500 to 600 litres of milk a day, turning them into 70-80 balls of cheese. There were 20-odd cows on the farm and the the turnover touched 25 lakh that year. This is probably the point at which Sunil started seeing himself as a businessman. "Yes, it did become a business but He am still very passionate about it. It is a business which He love!" And what exactly does he love? "I love that it gives you the freedom to excel in what you are doing and you can keep going higher and higher and higher - there is no limit!" But, isn't every ball of cheese you produce similar to the last one? And the way you do it certainly does not change... "True, but you can keep making your systems of working better." Like? "Well. starting from milk collection. There are so many ways to make collection of milk better in our country! India may be number one in production of milk in the world but if you look at the per capita yield, it is very low." How you feed the cows, how you milk them and how you store the milk in clean and hygienic conditions - these are all areas Sunil is constantly working on. And although the story of Flanders began with a man and his love for animals, that story has now been rewritten. "I used to have my own cows there came a stage when I realised He was spending 75% of the time on the animals and just 25% on making cheese. Whereas it should have been the other way round!" So three years ago Sunil 'gave away' his 30 cows to another farmer and now he simply buys all the milk that suppliers can bring him. Recognise your limitations: focus on what you love, what you're good at. Says Sunil, " He realised at an early stage that He should not be trying to do everything myself. So He did not get into marketing - He got a distributor." What Sunil focuses on then is making the best cheese he possibly can - mascarpone. gouda, mozzarella - the works. Today, Flanders churns out between 500 to 600 kg of top class cheese everyday. 7 days a week. Sunil is on the farm every morning at seven. And there is nonstop action upto 12 noon. By 12.30 the cheese production for the day is completed; by four it is all packed and ready to go. " He have a small team of eight people working with me, as well as my nephew Gaurav. All of them have been with me since many years and they're equally passionate about what we are doing." Simple people, not highly educated, trained from scratch. Exactly the kind every entrepreneur needs... The process of making cheese involves attention to detail. As well as physics, chemistry - all the stuff Sunil never paid attention to in school! "Machines break down, you fix them, work with your hands - that's the physics part!"

You might also like