Ritu Dalmia is an Indian chef and restaurateur who specializes in Italian food and has opened several restaurants in various cities in India and other countries including Delhi, Mumbai, London and Milan. She has also written books about cooking and appeared on various TV cooking shows. He is very vocal about LGBTQ rights in India.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ritu Dalmia was born on Tuesday, 26 September 1972 (age 50 years; as in 2022) in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. His zodiac sign is Libra. She did her schooling at the Convent of Jesus, Delhi. He started cooking at his home at the age of 9 and also eats non-vegetarian food, although he comes from a vegetarian family. After completing his formal schooling at a missionary school, he entered the family stone business at the age of 16. He had to regularly visit Italy, Egypt and South American countries to purchase materials for the business. Gradually he became interested in the food of Italy and started learning about Italian cuisine. At the age of 21, she opened her first restaurant in Delhi and since then she has been working as a chef and restaurant owner.
Family
He belongs to a Marwari family.
parents and siblings
His father’s name is Gautam Dalmia, who was an importer of granite and marble stones. she has a brother.
A picture of Ritu Dalmia’s mother
A family photo of Ritu Dalmia
husband and children
He is unmarried and has no children.
sexual orientation
he is a gay.
Career as a chef/restaurateur
He started his first Italian restaurant in 1993 at the age of 21 in Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village and named it ‘Mezza Luna’. He opened it with Rs 5 lakh he saved while working for his father. It was an Italian restaurant, and she traveled to Italy on an almost weekly basis to buy ingredients for the restaurant; However, the restaurant failed as it did not find many customers for the Italian cuisine. While talking about the failure of his restaurant in an interview, he said,
“Mezzaluna closed within two years because the market wasn’t ready for Italian food.”
In 1995, she sold the Mezza Luna restaurant and moved to London to open Vama, an Indian restaurant. He opened it in partnership with another chef, Andy Verma. It was very successful and gave her a reputation as a good female restaurant owner; However, success did not come easy for Ritu in the early days of her restaurant in London, and it was hard for her to survive as she had very little money. He talked about this in an interview and said,
“I struggled a lot in the UK. For the first two months, I couldn’t even pay my grocery bills. But in the restaurant business, at least you won’t starve.”
In 2000, she came back to India and again opened an Italian restaurant in Delhi and named it DIVA. This time the restaurant became successful. Italians living in India would especially flock to the restaurant because Ritu focused on a homely style of cooking with fresh ingredients. However, traveling between Delhi and London became too busy for her as she wanted to devote all her time to her Delhi restaurant, so she sold her stake in Vama restaurants in 2002 to focus on DIVA. He opened 5 more restaurants under the DIVA restaurant chain in Delhi. The names of two of them are ‘Latitude 28’ and ‘Cafe Diva’. In 2017, he opened an Indian restaurant in Milan, Italy and named it ‘Sittamani’. In 2019, he partnered with Viviana Varese, a renowned Italian chef, and opened another restaurant in Milan and named it ‘Spica’.
Ritu Dalmia (left) with Viviana Waris
In 2018, he opened an Italian restaurant under the DIVA chain at the Andorra Resort & Spa in Goa. In 2021, he opened an Italian restaurant under his restaurant chain DIVA in Lower Parel, Mumbai. They named it ‘The Tasting Room by DIVA’. In the same year, he opened a pizza place named ‘Motodo’ at Jio World Drive, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. She has also served as the host of 2 famous cooking shows – Italian Khana and Traveling Diva on NDTV Good Times. She has published 3 books – ‘Italian Food,’ ‘Travelling Diva,’ and ‘Diva Green: A Vegetarian Cookbook.’
Petitioner against section 377
At the age of 23, he realized he was gay and told his parents about it. His parents were surprised to know this; However, they never let him realize that being gay was taboo. In 2016, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India along with 3 others (hotelier Aman Nath, dancer Navtej Singh Johar and businesswoman Ayesha Kapoor) against Section 377 of the Indian Constitution. Section 377 criminalized homosexuality and in 2018, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court struck down Section 377, which legalized homosexual relations. He talked about this in an interview and said,
“There was no voice for the victims, especially women, who were afraid to sign the petition. So, the day I was asked, I didn’t think twice. In my career, I have received recognition and I am grateful but it was for selfish reasons: fame, money. When the verdict came in 2018 – something I didn’t think I would see in my lifetime – I was shocked and crying. “Nothing means more to me than that moment.”
award
- He was included in Forbes India’s first W-Power Trailblazer list of 2017.
- He was named one of the 25 greatest chefs of India by the Indian Federation for Culinary Associations in 2016.
- In 2018, his restaurant DIVA was among the 50 greatest restaurants in India according to the Condé Nast Traveler India list.
- In 2017, he was awarded Italy’s highest civilian award, the Ordene della Stella d’Italia.
- His restaurant DIVA was awarded as Favorite Italian Restaurant (Standalone) at the Peaklife Gourmet Awards 2019.
- She was given the DeLwine Top Ten Indian Women of Wine (WOW) award in 2019.
- She received the Sunday Standard Devi Award in 2017.
Chef Ritu Dalmia received the prestigious Sunday Standard Devi Award from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. #moment of pride @chefritudalmia pic.twitter.com/RM6THkUPkL
– DIVA Restaurants (@divarestaurants) 19 December 2017
Facts/General Knowledge
- He has not received any formal education in cooking and learned to cook by experimenting with food.
- His father was not happy with his restaurant business; However, his mother was very supportive of him.
- She considers herself a workaholic, a control freak, and detail-oriented.
- She was taught to cook Italian food by her friend Sera Turgutkan.
- She was very vocal against the government policies during the nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn