At Total Environment, we love creating rich, colourful and vibrant experiences that evoke emotions and touch the heart. We draw our inspiration from nature, the earth, arts and crafts and our deep-rooted cultural heritage
It was the love for brewing that took this tech nerd from Texas to one of America's oldest brewing schools, the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. Several lessons later, his brewery dreams found their buzz in partnering with Kamal and Shibanee Sagar in Bangalore, India, in 2011. This partnership led to the opening of Windmills Craftworks, Bangalore, Oota, Bangalore, Windmills at the Quad at BIAL, and Windmills at Grandscape, Texas, USA.
As CEO of Total Environment Hospitality, Ajay insists on checking everything, personally, be it Beer or Baked Blueberry Cheesecake. No wonder he's dubbed Chief Eating Officer!
https://windmills-usa.com/ &
https://windmills-india.com/
Mandaar Sukhtankar
Corporate Chef
Lover of puns. Prince of pasta… Ladies & gents - we present Chef Mandaar!
This one-time NDA aspirant is a Chef from Belagavi (Belgaum) and the winner of more culinary awards than there are chicken curry recipes! Top Young Chefs of India, 2006… Celebrated Chefs of India, 2013… Chef of The Year, 2016… and, also, as a young lad, Best Packer of Mom's Tiffin!
A Revivalist of Nizami cuisine & Master of European nuances, Chef Mandaar is the author of 'Romancing the Chicks', a culinary ode to green chickpeas (why - what did you think?), and the man behind Italia, Bangalore, He was also Team Chef to Australia's Cricket Team during their 2017 tour of India.
Suresh
Director of Culinary Operations
From Kolar to Mauritius to Bengaluru to the UK to Bengaluru - life, for our Director of Culinary Operations, has always been a highway! And now, the journey takes him onwards to Windmills, Grandscape, Texas.
From 2014-17, he undertook a 20,000 km fieldtrip around Karnataka to deep dive into regional cuisine. The results of that adventure are now showcased at our award-winning restaurant, Oota. Many of the popular dishes on the Windmills menu, from the Beef Picante to the Wild Mushroom Risotto, are also the result of Chef Suresh's excellent handiwork.
Good luck in your onward journey, Suresh. We know you'll always go the extra mile as you move ahead on your culinary adventure.
Sanil Rai
Manager Operations
From pizza making to report making, admin and pre-openings, and with a degree in International Hospitality Management in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sanil had tried his hand at almost everything but soon got bored with the lack of new challenges.
All set to move to Thailand in 2011, Sanil had refused three interview calls from Windmills. But guess it was a case of fourth time lucky - for us! A start-up specialist, Sanil was part of the pre-opening team for Windmills, The Terrace, Oota, and Windmills at The Quad at BIAL - the latter being entirely his 'baby'. Today, as Operations Manager, he has a finger in every pie - be it housekeeping, valet supervision, maintenance, security, uniforms, and vendor management. Truly, everyone's 'go to' guy!
Shaan ran away from his modest options in the rural hinterland of Krishnarampur near Kolkata to try his luck in Bangalore. And, after working as a steward at Ruby Tuesday for nine months, he joined Windmills as Senior Steward in 2010.
He would spend two hours in the brewery each night, from 10pm to midnight, cleaning and diligently helping out American brew master, Ed Tringali, with the inventory, until, finally, Ed had no choice but to teach him brewing! After 6 months of training, he honed his craft under successive brew masters, Todd Holder, Jacob Daniel Angel, and Cal Ryan. Today, as our Head Brewer, Shaan's is the archetypical runaway success story!
