For Indian celebrity chef and restaurateur Ritu Dalmia, her food education has been based on her travel experiences, whether it’s her love for Italian food, experiments with Asian food or more recently spiritual connect with regional Indian food. Earlier, she used to choose her destination by the restaurants she needed to try, street foods she wanted to sample, but now this has changed and she likes to be surprised. All of this and much more, she divulges in an exclusive conversation with TMM.
You have been a part of the food world for more than 2 decades. How do you see the shift from an underrated career to one of the most promising in recent time?
Well now it is actually close to 30 years, I started my first restaurant in 1993. The shift has been immense; when I opened my first restaurant no one could understand why should anyone go to a restaurant outside a 5-star hotel and that too Italian? In the last 25 years, I have seen international food evolve, wine drinking evolve, and recently and most importantly regional Indian food came into prominence. To be precise, I could write a book about it, that how chefs were treated like domestic help when I started out and today, it is highly respectable, very glamorous and well-paid job.
Your velvety Kadhai Chawal had been one of the most talked-about preparations. How do you relate to authentic Indian food?
I have always been a fan and consumer of home cooking. I have loved Italian food but at the end of it I go crawling back to simple home-cooked Indian food. I rejected Indian cooking for many years, but as I am growing older my love for it is getting deeper and more spiritual in nature. I am in awe of various old recipes which our mothers and grandmothers used to cook and somewhere in the last few years we kind of forgot them and got taken in by the new fancy cooking of the world, but now I see that too coming back and that is great, because it would be a shame to lose such an important part of our heritage.
You have also recently started the DIY Taco Meal Kit concept at DIVA Casa. How far is the DIY meal concept feasible in India, where people love making their meals from scratch?
We started the DIY in April 2020, mainly out of desperation, as all the restaurants were shut and our team had nothing to do and were very demotivated, and more importantly our food does not stay good when delivered, and hence came the idea of DIY kits. Tacos are just a small part of it, we do many of our signature dishes and keep on changing the menu constantly. We have seen that it has been well accepted and people have been really enjoying it immensely.
One food trend that you are still in love with and one you dislike the most and why?
Oh dear, you are asking the wrong person. I don’t understand food trends.
When it comes to cooking, what excites you and what inspires you too?
Cooking with what I have in my fridge and pantry is what I love doing the most. To see what I can create with what I have is more exciting, rather than making a shopping list before I cook.
You are an avid traveler. How far food plays a significant role while traveling, and how do you shortlist the places you need to try?
My entire food education has been based on my travels, my love for Italian food, my experiments with Asian food, and more recently with regional Indian. Earlier, I used to choose my destination by the restaurants I needed to try, street foods I wanted to sample, but now this has changed and I like to be surprised.
Your take on the recent same-sex marriage update by the Delhi High Court.
The verdict has not come as yet, the next hearing is in April but I am confident something positive will come out of it.
What are your future plans in the world of food?
I don’t even know what I am doing tomorrow, how can I plan anything in the future? (smiles)
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