Tuscana & Kryptos started actually in 2006 after my wife Margaret (Lawson Willson nee Freer) died in Chennai and she was ceremoniously and with great sorrow mourned in passing by myself and so many of our friends and colleagues there. But I stayed at The Park and then one year later her death anniversary came up and what a day it ended up being. I did not know how to acknowledge the day, stay at home in remembrance or do what, and in the end I went into work. The Hotel had received a scathing mystery shopper and the upper powers were livid, so I went in to protect and be with my F&B team. The report highlighted the room side, with little criticism of the F&B services, but the mud was flying everywhere. At the same time the South Indian Chef’s Society wanted to honour me with a gold coin in recognition of my impact on the Chennai food scene. Under a lot of pressure to attend, I needed to be at the hotel with my team so I declined to attend that day and the honour was withdrawn. I never had anything to do with the SICA after that, as some accommodation could not be given for my remembrance day or the hotel troubles we were having. From that day on, I always knew I was leaving The Park.

Vipin Sachdev actually turned up in December with one of the Somerset directors and Indian franchise owners and he made me an offer. Restaurant Bar set up in the Somerset building and then onto other new properties around the country. So in January 2008 after due diligence into the Somerset directors, I joined what I thought was Somerset, but turned out to be another company completely, Burgundy Restaurants! Never mind, the decision made and we started planning Burgundy’s, The B Bar and a proposed Thai restaurant. Come 2008 and the market crashed, every thing stalled as did our projects, so to keep the momentum going, Vipin and I decided to open an Italian Pizzeria. And so Tuscana Pizzeria was borne and afterwards, transforming into Tuscana Kryptos.

We found a property in Wallace Gardens, off Nungambakkam High Road, went induction cooking in the kitchen. Brought a lot of stuff from China, but Spanish refrigerators and British induction and set up. At this time I had a lot of Italian friends in Chennai and they all volunteered to taste test, give advice and get us into a proper Italian style. Our two wood fired pizza ovens were built by hand by Antonio, and between us, we learnt the art of making a wood fired pizza oven from the ground up. Now Antonio has cornered the pizza oven market in Chennai and all around the country with ready built ovens, either wood or gas and over the years I have installed about a dozen of them in various places, but the Pizzeria and then Tuscana on Chamiers double pizza ovens were both hand built, with us being the first full wood fired oven in Chennai. There were one or two wood cooking places around before us though, as in The Farm, who gave us valuable insights into their ovens.

We kept it traditional Italian, the risotto was al dente and you waited 25 minutes for it, we used De Cecco pasta and Olitalia olive oils, we were strict with the standards and our tiramisu and panna cotta were the best in the city. I had a great team of guys, Chef Hari, Chef Senthil and others who came across from The Park during the time, Italians Claudia and Rupa advised on the cooking and we made thin crust wood fired pizza that I had started at The Park. We opened Tuscana Pizzeria, then opened Kryptos, our Greek Cypriot place and then Tuscan Pizzeria on Chamiers, before finally opening a pizzeria at Akkarai on the ECR.

For the Tuscana name I just joined the English Tuscany and the Italian Toscana to make the Tuscana. For Kryptos by Willi, we were located in a basement and so hidden away a bit, and cryptic is hidden in clues, so I formed the name from that. I had just came back from a trip to Cyprus before hand, so it helped in this. We made an excellent name for ourselves, always guests lining up and waiting to be seated, great friends being made and so many people remembering their meals with us from those time. I chose Greek Cypriot because we could gather the cuisine dishes from Greece with their fresh seafood, vegetables, cheeses, oils and so on plus also incorporate all the dishes from the Middle East that over the centuries of invasion had made their way into Cypriot cooking. We also had the first chilled salad bar there which is also remembered to this day.

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