A passion for pasta

Mom said go to India. Mom said be a chef. I''ve done both." The route was a little long-winded though. Tarsillo Nataloni went about it via Italy, through engineering college, an MBA degree a few years later, an office in Heidelberg as marketing head south-east Asia for ABB (Asea Brown Boveri), and a 21-day holiday to India in 1991, when he was 39.
"I had travelled a lot during my engineering and marketing career — first with Montedeisou and then with ABB," says the grey-haired, generously-proportioned Nataloni."By 1991, I reached a stage where work would inevitably mean more effort, less enjoyment. I had enough money and time." So he thought of what mom had said and took that Indian vacation.
"I liked India and I''d always loved food. I felt this multi-cultural, multi-cuisine country would be a good place to settle down in if you wanted to cook for a living." He also felt that the "Italian and Indian mind and heart worked at the same level." He was at home here.
Nataloni''s passion for food began early though, in Bologna in south of Italy. He would walk with his grandfather most mornings for a pick of fresh vegetables and his "military-mom" insisted that he learnt how to grate parmesan cheese and stir a good soup. She also said he should take it up as a profession. But of course he didn''t take her seriously then.
His 1991 decision took practical shape only in 1996, when he opened Flavors, an ice-cream parlour in south Delhi. Nataloni admits that he had been "spoilt by big salaries. So whatever I did had to be paying as well." Where do you make a lot of money and do less work? "Make and sell ice-creams! It''s easy to make. No one eats it in the morning, so you can open shop late. And you can experiment."
It began as a counter with a single stove and Italian know-how. He was just getting along when someone said, "You are Italian. Why don''t you fix us a pasta as well." So Nataloni decided to expand. And a full-fledged Italian restaurant came up.
Does he still enjoy the ''work''? You know the answer of course. It''s there in the seriousness with which he serves that cup of cappuccino, the waving of his arms when the red sauce pasta comes in a little before the white sauce pizza. "It will taste like ash," he says with disgust. The admission that he''s a little tired because he''s "been up from 4 am to 7 am" searching the Internet for a tofu recipe that would be "Italian enough and yet satisfy the Indian palate." He hasn''t found the right one yet. "But don''t worry, I will soon," he says with a twinkle of anticipation in his eyes.
The one thing about passion is that you cannot hide it.