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How Chef Khaled Albaker Built Brands by Learning Every Layer of the Business
In this episode, Ashish Tulsian speaks with Chef Khaled Albaker about his journey from finance to food, building Ventri Group in Kuwait, and the discipline behind great restaurants. They discuss craft, credibility, dining vs delivery, visible leadership, adapting through COVID, and why cash flow, detail, and human hospitality still matter most in restaurant growth.
Chef Khaled Albaker
Co-Founder, Ventri Group
Chef Khaled Albaker is a Kuwait-based chef and restaurateur, and co-founder of Ventri Group, the hospitality company behind concepts including Young Po, Roto, Ruby’s, and Dragon Bun. A Johnson & Wales graduate with over a decade in F&B, he is known for building distinctive restaurant brands shaped by craft, operational discipline, and local market insight.
In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Chef Khaled Albaker, co-founder of Ventri Group, for a candid conversation on what it takes to build restaurant brands that last. Khaled shares how he left a career in finance, moved to Miami to study Culinary Arts, and learned the discipline of world-class kitchens where execution comes down to relentless attention to detail.
He breaks down why credibility matters before raising capital, why he spent years learning every layer of restaurant operations, and how Ventri Group approaches multi-brand growth across dine-in concepts and cloud kitchens. The episode also dives into his strong views on hospitality: why dining out is about experience while delivery is about convenience, why QR menus can reduce discovery to a transaction, and why leadership must stay visible on the floor.
Khaled reflects on adapting through COVID, the rise of homegrown brands in Kuwait, and the non-negotiables he believes every aspiring restaurateur must understand, especially cash flow.