If he hadn’t had a mustache as a young man, Dipak Biswas wouldn’t be the owner of Indian Delights, 127 Dotson Drive. In fact, if he hadn’t had a mustache, he probably wouldn’t be anywhere near Ames today.

Raised in Calcutta, Biswas initially wanted to move to Germany in order to be near friends, and found work in a hotel in Cologne.

“At that time, I had a mustache, and they said ‘you have to cut your mustache off,’” Biswas said.

“I said ‘no, I’m not going to Germany any more.’”

So, instead, he went to Brussels, Belgium, working first as a waiter and then moving to the kitchen. From there he moved to Paris to study French, where he worked in hotels and met his wife.

When they grew tired of France, the pair moved to Montreal, where Biswas worked in the kitchen of a Hilton Hotel.

Finally, they moved to Ames in 1993, at the suggestion of a friend who was living here.

But that almost didn’t work out, either.

“When I came here, I applied for ISU, and I didn’t find a job, so I went to Kansas,” Biswas said.

Finally, he got a call back from the catering department of Memorial Union, where he eventually worked for several years.

After getting a graduate degree in interdisciplinary studies and working as the catering director at Reiman Gardens, Biswas decided to branch out on his own.

“I have always been in food and beverage industry,” Biswas said. “I thought that we really need a good restaurant here.”

But as he transitioned from a university job to a small business owner, Biswas kept the connections he has made with Iowa State and now nearly all of his employees at the restaurant are students.

“I’m so happy that they are helping me because I have always worked with ISU students,” Biswas said.

“They are great, great kids.”

Along the way, he has taught several of them how to cook the recipes on the restaurant’s menu and shown them how to operate the business.

“It’s practically run by ISU students,” Biswas said. “You don’t need to have Indian people to be a chef — you can run this place as Indian.”

For their part, the students who work for him get the opportunity to put their skills to use.

Mark Purk, senior in management, has been working at the restaurant since it opened, and said the small, entrepreneurial environment has allowed him to test concepts he has learned in class.

“If I want to do a couple different management techniques … then they give me the opportunity to do that,” Purk said.

In all, the student help adds a diverse set of skills to the restaurant’s staff.

“Some of them have graphic design majors, some of them are advertising majors, some of them have business management majors, so they are also helping me to promote the place in any way they can,” Biswas said.

The strategy, he said, is for students to “learn and earn at the same time.”

“They have developed menus, they have developed takeout menus, they have put us on Facebook, they are working on a Web site,” Biswas said.

So far, the students’ work seems to be paying off. Biswas said, since opening on Sept. 19, business has been steady.

“We were very busy the first week,” Biswas said. “It has cooled down a little bit, but we are very busy on weekends.”

Hopefully in the future, students’ work will pay off in another way — through the skills they’ve developed while at the restaurant.

“I’m looking to someday start my own business,” Purk said.

“I can learn a lot by watching what they do and how they’re handing their problems.”

And the restaurant is giving Purk a little taste of internationalism, too.

“Before I worked here, I hadn’t even had Indian food before,” Purk said. “It’s a new experience for me.”