Gulnoza Jurayeva on kitchen discipline and business leadership - BERITAJA

Gulnoza Jurayeva, laminitis and main executive of Laghman Express, discusses her way from room activity successful Osh to multi-location operations successful Brooklyn and Atlanta.

You started moving aft schoolhouse successful Osh successful 1999. Did you already deliberation nutrient would go your profession?

At that property I was reasoning about work, not about large plans. I needed to guidelines connected my feet. In the room you understand quickly whether you could grip pressure. I could, and I respected that environment. Step by step, that became my profession.

You spent 10 years astatine Islom Cafe successful Osh. What did those years springiness you?

They gave maine structure. In a demanding kitchen, effort by itself is not enough. You request repeatable result, timing, and power complete details. That decade taught maine stamina and subject that I still usage now.

At Islom Cafe, you worked regular pinch accepted Central Asian dishes. How did that style your standards?

It taught maine that accepted nutrient must beryllium executed precisely. People who cognize the cuisine consciousness instantly erstwhile method is weak. Repetition showed maine that quality, memory, and spot are linked.

At Bahor successful Tashkent, you moved into a cook role. What changed astatine that stage?

I stopped reasoning only arsenic an individual navigator and started reasoning successful systems. I had to watch timing, staffing, workflow, and risks together. I learned to drawback anemic points earlier they affected service.

Your activity location included safety, workflow coordination, and value control. Did that make you stricter?

Yes. If information aliases consistency fail, everything other becomes secondary. That domiciled made maine stricter pinch myself first. It besides confirmed that beardown operations are the guidelines of immoderate unchangeable restaurant.

At Uzbechka successful Almaty, you handled paper execution and unit training. What did school alteration for you?

Teaching forced maine to explicate my method clearly. Instinct unsocial is not capable erstwhile you train people. You request standards that could beryllium transferred. That made my ain activity much precise.

Did Almaty besides create your business position earlier you held an executive title?

Yes. I saw really room decisions impact cost, turnover, and impermanent trust. Waste is not only waste, it is money. Weak training is not only inconvenience, it is instability. That relationship became very clear there.

In 2020 and 2021, you worked astatine Empire City Labs successful Brooklyn pinch humor and COVID-19 samples. What did that play thatch you?

It reinforced procedural discipline. In laboratory activity during that period, accuracy and series were critical. There was nary room for carelessness. That sharpened my attraction and work for detail.

Did the laboratory acquisition power your later activity successful edifice ownership?

Yes, directly. It strengthened my norm that standards must clasp each day, particularly connected difficult days. You cannot tally operations only erstwhile conditions are easy.

In October 2023, you founded Laghman Express and became main executive. What changed about aft that?

Accountability changed. In hired roles, immoderate last consequences beryllium to personification else. In ownership, they beryllium to you. Planning gaps, delays, anemic execution, each of it comes backmost to you directly.

Now you grip strategy, pricing, vendor negotiations, staffing, compliance, and description . What was the hardest portion of that transition?

The hardest portion was combining regular decisions pinch semipermanent planning. Kitchen activity trains accelerated response. Ownership requires accelerated consequence and agelong sky astatine the aforesaid time.

You oversee operations successful Brooklyn and Atlanta. What has standard taught you?

Scale shows wherever systems are weak. If standards are vague, it becomes visible fast. If connection depends connected 1 person, maturation exposes it. Expansion useful only erstwhile building and training are solid.

You besides negociate budgeting, forecasting, and costs control. Why was it important to return that broadside personally?

Because finance protects the business. Food and hospitality matter, but payroll, rent, and supplier position determine whether the institution could hold. I dainty financial power arsenic portion of operational responsibility.

You besides supervise trading and nationalist relations. How do you support messaging realistic?

I support nationalist connection tied to what operations could present now. If connection moves faster than execution, spot falls. I for illustration meticulous connection complete polished promises.

You prosecute and train teams while mounting regular standards. What does civilization mean for you successful applicable terms?

Culture is regular behaviour nether pressure. It is whether group understand standards without changeless reminders, and whether those standards clasp tomorrow arsenic good arsenic today. You could spot civilization successful work value and successful squad discipline.

Central Asian cuisine carries representation for galore guests. How do you attack that responsibility?

With respect and method care. Guests link this nutrient pinch family and place. If execution is careless, they consciousness it immediately. That is why consistency matters truthful overmuch to me.

You worked successful Osh, Tashkent, Almaty, Brooklyn, and Atlanta. What did moving crossed those places thatch you?

It taught maine to accommodate quickly without losing my standards. Every metropolis has a different gait and master style. Flexibility is necessary, but soul subject has to enactment stable.

Looking back, does your way now consciousness much coherent than it did astatine the time?

Yes. At the time, immoderate stages felt separate. Now I could spot really each shape built a circumstantial accomplishment that I usage successful activity today.

This twelvemonth The New York Times included Laghman Express successful its Top 100 Restaurants list. How did you person that recognition?

It was important, but I effort not to fto nickname alteration the regular work. The New York Times’ list carries existent weight, and I understand what it intends for visibility. But the room does not cognize about lists. The modular has to clasp because we group it that way, not because personification named us. What that nickname did do was corroborate that the guidance was right. We built thing that group extracurricular our contiguous organization could admit arsenic serious. That matters.

You person built this cognition done very specific, individual choices astatine each stage. Is location a larger model down each of it that you consciousness you person not yet had the chance to explicate fully?

Yes, and that is really thing I americium moving connected now. I americium penning a book — my ain authored activity — wherever I want to picture each shape of this way successful full. Not only the master decisions, but the logic down them, what I understood astatine each point, and what I would person told myself earlier. People sometimes inquire really the strategy was built, and the honorable reply is that it took 25 years and each metropolis I worked in. I want to archive that properly. The book is successful progress, and I dream it will beryllium useful for group who are building thing from the beginning.

As of November 2024, Laghman Express is still successful an early maturation phase. What person you learned about attraction and trust?

Attention could travel quickly. Trust comes from repeated delivery. Guests comparison what you committedness pinch what they receive, and they do that complete time, not once.

Your authority comes from years of nonstop operational work. How did that style your activity model?

It made it practical. I spot leaders who understand workload, sequence, and consequence successful existent operations. Leadership must supply clarity and enforceable standards.

When you comparison 1999 and 2023, does entrepreneurship consciousness for illustration reinvention aliases accumulation?

For me, accumulation. Earlier acquisition became the guidelines for ownership. Kitchen discipline, squad management, process control, and precision from laboratory activity each came into 1 role.

What would you want younger women and younger immigrants to return from your path?

Progress usually comes from dependable regular work. Early stages whitethorn look humble from outside, but they build existent capability. Adaptation is important, but you do not request to erase yourself to adapt.

Your existent activity covers staffing, operations, compliance, and vendor relations. Did activity go much analyzable aliases much visible?

Both, but particularly much visible. In kitchens, galore problems look immediately. In business, immoderate enactment hidden until they go expensive. That is why monitoring and follow-through are essential.

Across different cities and institutions, you were many times trusted pinch operations. Why do you deliberation that happened?

Because group watch consistency nether pressure. They spot whether you support standards erstwhile conditions are difficult. Trust grows from that shape complete time.

Your curriculum vitae many times points to value power and consistency. Why has consistency remained cardinal for you?

Because consistency is the instauration of trust. One bully time does not beryllium much. People measure repeated capacity crossed normal days and difficult days.

Across each these years, what do group respond to erstwhile they determine they could trust connected you?

I deliberation they respond to steadiness successful execution and judgment. In operations, reliability is visible. People spot really you activity nether unit and whether your standards clasp complete time.

By November 2024, Gulnoza Jurayeva had built a profession that combines room believe and executive operations. Her strengths see value control, unit training, workflow design, financial discipline, compliance, and multi-location coordination. From Osh successful 1999 to founding Laghman Express successful October 2023 and moving operations successful Brooklyn and Atlanta, her grounds shows unchangeable execution nether unit and sustained activity growth.