The Hindu Business Line : A strict Italian fare

Her day starts around noon when she walks into Delhi's most happening Italian restaurant Diva in Greater Kailash Part ll. No, not for a leisurely meal of stromboli, antipasto and lasagne washed down with Chardonnay. Ritu Dalmia is checking out if everything is in order for the expected lunchtime rush.

From Diva she drives down to the Chanakyapuri area to sample the preparations at her second restaurant in the Italian Embassy that exclusively caters to the demands of the diplomatic community. And then she's off to 3-Cs the upmarket shopping mall-cum-cinema hall in Lajpat Nagar just in time to greet guests coming out after watching the noon show and coming to her outlet for a late afternoon snack.

By 7.30 she's back at Diva and from then on to the wee hours, Ritu Dalmia is totally committed to her guests — cooking, helping them select the right dish and taking care that everyone spends a memorable evening. After the restaurant has downed shutters she makes sure things are back where they belong and returns home, sometimes, at 3 a.m.

A hectic routine but this energy enthused individual simply enjoys every minute of it. Ritu Dalmia has many credits to her name — smart entrepreneur, itinerant gourmet and consummate manager.

"I am a restless soul. I can't stick to something for a long time," confesses Ritu who started experimenting with various professions at the age of 16. "I always wanted to get going on my own and when I was in eleventh standard I joined my family business of exporting marble that we procured from the mines of Rajasthan."

But, she soon realised the hard grind of marble exporting wasn't her forte. During her many business trips to Italy to test samples of granite and buy machinery, she developed a liking for Italian cuisine. Soon, this liking turned into a passion, and she learnt the art of Sicilian cooking from Marchessa Anna Tasca Lanza, owner of one of Italy's finest vineyards who bartered the secret recipes for the spicy Indian cuisine.

Her mastering the fine art of Italian cooking coincided with the complete boredom that was creeping in as far as the marble was concerned. At 22, Ritu retired from her family business, came to Delhi and set up an Italian eatery Mezzaluna in the then happening Hauz Khas village. The restaurant offered a Mediterranean platter, with an Italian focus.

Wooing the International palate

However, the restaurant soon flopped as the conventional Delhi eaters stuck to cappuccino and garlic bread, which obviously wasn't enough for the business to prosper. After three years, Ritu shut Mezzaluna. "It was way ahead of its time. And it was a misjudgement, as Delhites at that time were not ready for international cuisine and were happy with their `tried and tested' fare. Of course things have changed dramatically now and people are more than willing to experiment," she says.

Not the one to sit back and nurse the wounds of failure, Ritu decided to shift base to London, along with her foodie friend Andy Verma, seven chefs and her knowledge of Indian cuisine.

In 1996 she opened Vama — meaning the essence of women in Sanskrit. There too the going wasn't easy, especially a competition of 2000 eateries dishing out Indian delicacies. For a year the Vama team worked at breakneck speed and put in ceaseless efforts to arrange permits, figure out logistics, hire staff, fire ovens, create a menu and woo customers. All this often left Ritu homesick and pining for India. But she was determined to make a mark this time. Once after a year when A.A Gill, a respected food reviewer visited Vama and gave it a favourable rating there was no looking back.

Vama was voted the `Best Indian London Restaurant' at the prestigious Carlton Awards and won the World Food Championships held by Sir Terence Conran. The restaurant acquired a devoted following amongst the `Chelsea hot steppers' who just loved its glamorous setting and its exotic Northwest Frontier cuisine.

Its amazing clientele included the likes of Martina Navratilova, Bryan Adams, Dame Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, Mick Hucknall, Tony Curtis, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and more.

"There were around 2,000 eateries at that time and most of them were operated by Bangladeshi families. We knew exactly what we wanted, we were aiming at finer aspects like sophistication, exclusivity and a touch of richness both in the restaurant and the food that we served," says Ritu.

Invaluable lessons

In such competitive business experimentation is vital so Ritu added tandoori duck and scallops to the North Indian barbecue repertoire making it one of the most delectable dishes the restaurant served. After three years and having ensured that Vama was up and running with the best, Ritu returned to India, to her first love — Italian! She and Geeta Bhalla ("her official quality control checker, food taster and arbiter on everything!") are the real `divas' behind Diva, which opened in 2001.

But this time she was determined not to repeat the mistakes of her earlier India experience. "I decided to learn from my mistakes. Mezzaluna taught me hospitality and Vama operations, I blended them both in Diva," says Ritu who had a more contemporary and eclectic platter this time with English, French and Lebanese add-ons.

The place was decorated to create the right ambience. Diva has off-white walls, Italian marble flooring, an anytime coffee bar, table top games (chess, backgammon) and ample `food for thought' — books from Ritu's personal collection. And no, there are no pizzas on the menu... "We wanted to do something deeper than the rip off pastas and pizzas that have come to mean `Italian' to many Indians."

She has succeeded in that as, today, she has a large clientele that simply laps up the Italian food served at Diva. "We make it a point to change our menu every two months, this is a lot of fun as you can experiment and it keeps the clientele hooked," says Ritu who makes it a point reach out to each guest with a smile and a polite conversation.

"It's fun and I don't have any plans of getting into something new right now. And there are no expansion plans either in other parts of the country. I don't want to spread it too thin that it becomes out of my reach to control it. Moreover it's a tough to run a restaurant business in India," says Ritu whose menu boasts of 170 labels of wine labels, which took over a year to procure.

While she is the `cook that stirs the Italian broth' she herself prefers to eat simple Indian food, "I prefer eating kadi chawal at my place," says Ritu for who has turned vegetarian herself but loves cooking fish.

Ask her the secret of being a successful entrepreneur and she says, "Learn everything about the business you are doing and then give it your best shot. You can't go wrong then!" Let's toast a glass of clear sparkling Italian wine to that, to her and her tribe!

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