When Vittal Shetty and Reshmi Nair — formerly corporate executive chef and operations manager, respectively, of the Bay Area’s Amber India restaurants — decided to venture out on their own, the plan was to always open their own restaurant together.

Little did they know, they joked, that it would take 11 years.

That’s because they didn’t count on the catering company that they immediately started to try to raise money for that restaurant venture turning into an immediate juggernaut.

Indeed, their Jalsa Catering & Events has grown into one of the largest and most sought-after Indian catering companies in the Bay Area. It was one of the first Indian catering companies to go beyond standard steam tables to present food with more fine-dining finesse. Shetty’s intent was to take the skills he used at Amber India and transfer them to the catering industry.

Jalsa, which means “social gathering,” caters upwards of 400 events annually, many of them weddings with as many as 500 guests, as far north as the Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe, and as far south as Carmel. It’s even been hired to do events in Arizona and Mexico.

“People would attend the weddings we did and ask ‘Where is your restaurant?’ because they enjoyed the food so much, ” Nair says. “We would have to tell them there wasn’t one.”

Not anymore. When the catering company relocated three years ago from Milpitas to Santa Clara (the former Justin’s Restaurant and Wilson’s Bakery site), it gained a lot more space. Enough for Jashn, which means “celebration,” to open there earlier this month.

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