THE GASTRO DIPLOMAT: 37 Years Building Community One Table at a Time | Chef Ranjan Dev.

What does it take to serve 2 million guests and still remember which table a couple got engaged at in 1992?

In this episode of The Ops Table, host Sunny Agha sits down with Chef Ranjan Dev, founder of New Delhi Restaurant, a San Francisco landmark since 1988. Chef Dev shares the philosophy behind nearly four decades of survival in a city where restaurants turn over fast, and why he believes restaurants are the modern campfires where communities gather.

In this conversation, we explore:
→ Why "guest is my God" isn't just a saying, it's an operating system
→ The Indian concept of "Jugaad" and how it applies to restaurant chaos
→ How word of mouth died, and reviews became the new Dine and Dash
→ The phone basket rule: whoever touches their phone first pays the bill
→ Why Chef Dev refuses to hide recipes, and what gets lost when chefs do
→ How 62% tariffs on Indian imports forced him to pause his spice line
→ The Starbucks story: when the POS went down, they closed, and he grabbed the old KOTs.
→ Learning to love yourself first, because "that's the first person you meet and the last one you'll say goodbye to."
Chef Dev's Bollywood pivot-dancing approach to life has kept him relevant through tech booms, recessions, and a pandemic. His secret? Embrace the chaos, do your best, and remember: change is inevitable, but growth is optional.

About Chef Ranjan Dev: Founder of New Delhi Restaurant, one of only 350 businesses on San Francisco's Legacy Business Registry, and the only South Asian establishment on the list. He has opened 40+ restaurants across 12 countries before making San Francisco home.

Produced by Stratenow, helping operators turn strategy into action.