The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

A Bangladesh-born chef being rated one of best 50s in Belgium has been made jury of a most popular television programme 'My Restaurant' this month, according to a message received here on Friday.

Mashuk Rahman, who owns Indian restaurant Saffraan in Antwerp, is one of the four foreign chefs in the jury board of the VTM television programme viewed by one million people in Belgium, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe.

The main objective of the programme is to help find promising young couples to materialize their lifetime dream to be an owner of a big restaurant, a fastest growingbusiness in Belgium that focuses on developing young entrepreneurship for future development.

The VTM had earlier selected five couples from the cities of Gent, Ostenda, Hassel, Leuven and Antwerp through a competitive process and provided them 2.5 lakh Euro to start business by their own. The couples have started their business a month ago and two of them have already disqualified.

A big team monitor every aspects of the management, cooking, behaviour, interior decoration and others indicators to find the successful couple, who will be awarded the whole amount of about Taka 2.5 crore to materialize their dreams into reality.

"The programme is very innovative and Bangladesh corporate bodies can start such programmes to develop new entrepreneurs in different sectors as part of their social responsibilities," Mashuk, hailed from Patenga of Chittagong, told BSS over phone.

He said the winner of the two-month long competition would be announced on May 29 on a live programme on VTM television.

Last year, Mashuk's Saffraan restaurant rated one of the best fifty restaurants in Belgium. The restaurant has earned quick reputation in four years of launching in 2003. It now attracts a huge crowd, hungry for Indian spicy food everyday.

Mashuk and his Belgian wife Anouk together run the restaurant and now been planning to expand outlets to other Belgian cities and European countries, where Bangla food has a big demand.