Bob Moodley cooked his first hamburger at his newly launched takeaway using an electric frying pan because he could not afford a stove.
That was 12 years ago. Last December he opened a restaurant that seats 150 people and a bar which can accommodate 90 people.
Moodley (47) admits to being a "technicolour dreamer" who wakes up in the middle of the night with ideas bubbling in his head. His latest venture is the R3.5 million Banana Leaf restaurant in the Blue Lagoon region.
It serves a fusion of Indian and South African cuisine. The adjoining bar, complete with furnishings from Cape Town's defunct Planet Hollywood, uses the Indian film industry as its theme and is named Bollywood Cafe.
He has plans for two more fastfood outlets and wants to develop a conference and functions facility on site.
Born in Durban, he moved with the family to Dublin for two years as a child and returned to finish school at Merebank High.
He started working in the family metal business, then became a furniture salesman and canvassed in the Springfield Flats area before joining the SA Petroleum Refinery as a process technician.
Tired of shift work, he joined the Indian community newspaper, Graphic, where he took on various tasks including management, selling advertising space, distribution and putting up posters.
He then worked on the Herald section of the Sunday Tribune, selling advertising before returning to the family metal business and moving to Johannesburg for seven years.
Together with his wife and their two children, he ran a stall at the Market Theatre flea market, selling overruns and rejected Pierre Cardin tracksuits to students. "I was always hungry and wanted a better life."
He did a marketing course and bought three taxis that plied routes between Durban and nearby townships. But in December 1989 he felt it was time to do something different.
He had long wanted to buy the kiosk behind the Blue Lagoon putt-putt course. Moodley gives credit to the owner, John Taalman, for giving him a headstart.
He bought the building for R130 000 and Taalman agreed to wait four months for the R20 000 deposit and accepted the rest of the money on terms.
Initially the takeaway struggled, sometimes making as little as R20 a day. Then, Moodley bought an old Combi and, starting at 5am, the family filled it with takeaway food and drinks which he sold to construction workers building the Springfield Industrial Park.
On weekends the takeaway stayed open until 2am. This continued for two and a half years.
Over time Coconut Grove developed a reputation for offering good takeaway food and became a destination of choice for young people out on the town.
"I wanted our business to run like Kentucky Fried Chicken. People must know what kind of taste sensation they can expect and the standard must be consistent. If the clients get satisfaction then one has a customer for life."
He added a go-kart track and then leased the building that houses the new Banana Leaf restaurant. Several proposed development plans for the site were turned down by the Metro Council, which then cancelled his lease.
Like all of the other contenders, he had to put in a new tender for the site. Strapped for cash, Moodley approached Business Partners, the business development organisation.
"They came in when we needed them and allowed me enough latitude to get on with the project," he says.
Coconut Grove started with three employees but his businesses now employ 70 people, including chefs from Pakistan and India who are transferring their skills to African chefs.
He is immensely optimistic about South Africa and has tried to promote job creation projects that use casual labour to build roads.
Durban should have official beach days to promote tourism, he said.
He says aspirant entrepreneurs need to believe in themselves, to dream and to be passionate about their business. They also need to live life and to travel as "it really opens the mind". - Durban