Deep Adhya, PhD

I am not an aficionado of Italian cuisine. As a matter of fact, after eating out at The Big Chill Café at Khan Market, I doubt whether prior to this I had any knowledge of Italian food at all. The pastas and the pizzas have invaded into the Indian palate since time eternity, but not without that local hint. The main ingredient of Italian food, the cheese, used here has always been processed cheddar. Even mainstream pizza joints which were offshoots of their Western counterparts do not serve stringy mozzarella cheese. In fact, real Italian cheese are very rare in India, except for in big departmental stores of big malls. I remember eating pasta at home made using spicy tomato ketchup and processed cheddar cheese. Sometimes, if lucky, I would find some Italian herbs such as oregano and parsley to add that European touch to the dish. The pizza experience was not any better. Making a pizza at home is ten times more difficult than pasta, first because you need an oven to bake it. T...