Some people stumble into the restaurant business. I ran toward it. As a teenager, I knew one thing with complete certainty—I wanted to build something in food and hospitality. While my friends were figuring out college majors, I was already planning my entry into an industry that would test every bit of my determination, creativity, and resilience.
After finishing school, I enrolled at the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) Ahmedabad to study hospitality management. But education was just the beginning. The real lessons? Those came from what happened next.
Fresh out of IHM, I did what most entrepreneurs are told not to do—I jumped straight into starting my own business. In 2020, I launched Straina Foods as a hospital catering company, serving meals to patients and staff across multiple healthcare facilities. It was unglamorous work, but it taught me the fundamentals: managing food costs, maintaining consistency, scaling operations, and most importantly, understanding what makes a food business profitable.
But I wasn't satisfied with just B2B catering. I saw an opportunity in the emerging cloud kitchen model and decided to expand Straina Foods into the consumer space. What started as one brand grew into a multi-brand cloud kitchen operating 23 brands across 6 different categories — from North Indian comfort food to continental cuisine to desserts.
Running 23 brands simultaneously wasn't just about cooking good food. It was a masterclass in operations, inventory management, marketing, staffing, and financial planning. Every day brought new challenges — a brand underperforming, a delivery partner issue, a team member calling in sick during peak hours, a sudden spike in ingredient costs.
While building Straina Foods, I also joined Ghost Kitchens India in 2021 as a Senior Operations Executive. Yes, I was running both at the same time. At Ghost Kitchens India, I initially managed aggregator-side operations across India, working with platforms like Swiggy and Zomato to optimize performance nationwide. Soon, I was handed full operational responsibility for Gujarat — 18 restaurants, multiple brands, dozens of team members, and millions in revenue.
Managing 18 restaurants while running my own business taught me something crucial: the principles that make one restaurant successful are the same principles that make ten or twenty restaurants successful. Systems, processes, people management, and financial discipline — these fundamentals scale.
I also saw firsthand why so many restaurants fail. It wasn’t usually because of bad food or poor location — it was because the owners lacked business fundamentals.
That realization planted a seed. By 2023, I sold Straina Foods to pursue something bigger.
In 2023, I moved to Germany to pursue a Master's in International Business Management at GISMA University. I worked with multiple restaurants across Germany and learned different operational systems, management styles, and cultural business practices.
During this time, I delivered a talk at GISMA University on "From Ideas to Execution" and was featured in a France 24 documentary highlighting the success of the Indian community in Germany.
I started writing in 2020 — initially blogs, insights, and articles for hospitality magazines. But in 2024, I decided to write something bigger: a complete, practical, no-nonsense guide to running a restaurant successfully.
Published in August 2025, my book "Design Dine Dominate" covers concept building, funding, team hiring, SOP creation, marketing, finances, customer experience, and expansion — all based on real experience.
Opening a restaurant is easy. Keeping it open is the challenge. I’ve seen passionate restaurateurs fail not because they weren’t talented, but because they lacked business knowledge. I’ve lived those struggles — payroll issues, staffing shortages, cash flow challenges — and learned how to overcome them.
My mission is to make restaurant business education accessible to everyone — regardless of budget or connections. I want restaurateurs to succeed with proper systems, financial discipline, and practical strategies.
I started as a home cook, worked with the Taj Group, cooked professionally in India and Germany, managed large teams, negotiated with landlords and investors, and learned from both failures and wins.
Prajwal Soni is a restaurant consultant, author, and hospitality entrepreneur with experience in restaurant operations and management spanning India and Germany. He's the author of 'Design Dine Dominate,' a comprehensive guide to restaurant business management.
Prajwal holds a Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management from IHM Ahmedabad and a Master's in International Business Management from GISMA University, Germany. He has operated a 23-brand multi-category cloud kitchen, managed 18 restaurants across Gujarat for Ghost Kitchens India, and worked with restaurants in both India and Germany.
'Design Dine Dominate' is a complete restaurant management guide covering everything from concept development and location selection to funding, team building, operations, marketing, finances, customer management, and expansion strategies. Published in August 2025, it's based on real-world experience and practical lessons from running successful food businesses.
Prajwal works with aspiring restaurant owners who need guidance on execution and existing restaurant owners struggling with operations, profitability, or scaling. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs who don't have large budgets or industry connections build successful restaurant businesses.
Unlike purely academic consultants, Prajwal has hands-on experience running food businesses from hospital catering to multi-brand cloud kitchens to managing restaurants across regions. His advice is based on real challenges, real mistakes, and real solutions that actually work in the competitive restaurant industry.
Prajwal has been awarded the Bharat Kamal Puraskar by an organization registered under NITI Aayog, featured in a France 24 documentary on the success of the Indian community in Germany, and invited as a guest speaker at GISMA University to talk about entrepreneurship and execution.
Prajwal has worked with the Taj Group in India, operated his own businesses under Straina Foods from 2020 to 2023 (hospital catering and cloud kitchen), served as Senior Operations Executive at Ghost Kitchens India from 2021 to 2023 managing Gujarat operations, and worked with multiple restaurants in Germany during his master's degree.
You can work with Prajwal through one-on-one consulting for personalized strategy and guidance, read his book 'Design Dine Dominate' for comprehensive self-paced learning, or follow his blog for regular insights on restaurant business management. Contact information is available on the Contact page.
Prajwal writes about all aspects of restaurant business management including operations, financial planning, team building, marketing strategies, location selection, menu engineering, customer experience, expansion planning, and industry trends — all from a practical, business-focused perspective.
Yes, Prajwal is available for speaking engagements, podcast interviews, and workshops on topics related to restaurant management, entrepreneurship, hospitality business, and food industry operations. Contact him through the website for booking inquiries.
Whether you're planning your first restaurant or scaling an existing one, I would love to help you build something successful.
Contact Me