Interning at CoolChef - Surbhi Deckers

Learning more about the meat industry in India Introduction

My name is Surbhi Deckers, I am 24 years old and live in the Netherlands, Europe. From origin I am an Indian woman, I was born in Nagpur. I was adopted when I was 1 year old. I am a self-confident and motivated young Dutch woman, who is always eager to learn. With over 10 years experience in the horeca I value respect, ambitions, communication and teamwork. I enjoy variety in my life and work which allows me to grow both personally and professionally

How did I get this internship?

In September 2017 I started with my second year of “International Business and Languages”. One of the main reasons I chose this education was because we had to go abroad for our internship and minor. In the third year we have to go abroad for our internships so I started immediately with my search for a good, educative company in a country I would like to live for five months. One of the countries was India because I was born here. I always wanted to come back for at least one month because I always have been very curious about the country I came from. To see the real country I couldn’t only do the touristic things, I had to work there too. This is the moment I contacted Mr. Kaviraj Thadani and his company CoolChef & Kaavo Meat. Unfortunately the company didn’t meet all the requirements of my school so I had to look further. In February I got a delay of six months because of private reasons. That’s when I contacted Mr. Thadani again. I asked him if he had an opportunity for me for two or three months. Luckily for me he had an opportunity for me and I could start at the end of October.

The first five weeks

Today the first five weeks have passed. My mentor, Mr. Thadani himself is helping and guiding me around in the meat business in Mumbai. I am learning a lot about his company and the meat industry in India. In addition to that I am also improving my English. Besides that Mr. Thadani is guiding me, I am also guided by his mother and his brother. All three are helping me to understand the Indian meat market more. The main thing during my two months internship with Coolchef is the marketing of this company. I need to update the social media, attend the events Mr. Thadani has in the weekends, answer emails and finally meeting a lot of interesting people. I already have learned a lot and I am sure I am going to learn much more from Mr. Thadani and from this incredible experience I am having here. I am very thankful for this opportunity at CoolChef. Because of this internship I have the chance to see the country I was born, to improve my marketing qualities and I have the honer to work with these amazing people!!