Simply Pizza with Simple Kaul

Click on the pic to view slideshow Earlier I have met my dear friend Simple Kaul over many casual dinners and events but this time it was officially for my column on eating out and the newly opened UK based pizzeria Pizza Metro Pizza in Bandra seemed to be a good choice since from the time she stepped in, Simple loved the Tratorria ambience with an open wood fired pizza kitchen and a parmesan wheel for Tagliolini Bombay prepared in front of our eyes where it is flambéed with cognac and pasta tossed in it. We also admired the paintings on the wall by artist Geoff Gough and the huge framed posters of Napoli actor Toto. Simple was impressed with chefs having flown in from Italy by owner Chef Diego Palladino. The name suggests meter long pizza which comes with four different toppings of your choice and is ideal for a group of six guests. And a good selection of wines to keep up that Italian spirit soaring is an additional feature. The actor with an endearing lips sported a black-n-white short skirt with a black top. She had just completed her role as Jetha’s Kashmiri wife on SAB TV’s Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and for the uninitiated, she is an original Kashmiri who is a vegetarian by choice. It was salad for the figure conscious actor - Insalata Verde was served with lots of rocket leaves, cherry tomatoes, lettuce drizzled with olive oil and both of us felt rejuvenated to start our conversation. It was difficult to believe that the delicate lady is trained in martial arts and is quite tough when it came to eve teasers and after having been brought up in Delhi, she was quite adept at dealing with them, “I used to carry stones with me while going to school to ward off ruffians who tried to get fresh. Even after I came to Mumbai, I encountered a guy who misbehaved with me and I beat the blues out of him,” reveals the soft-spoken Simple to my astonishment. Though she is not seen in many shows, she keeps herself busy with modeling for commercials and of course, did you know she is married and her husband Rahul is based out of Delhi. How does the long-distance marriage work? “Oh, either I go to the capital for 15 days a month or he comes down to Mumbai,” she says. And we know distance makes the heart grow fonder. By now a half meter pizza was served with two different toppings, one of mushroom and the other with tomatoes parmigiana. Simple preferred thin crust pizzas to Metro Pizza Metro’s thick crust ones. Nevertheless she enjoyed the mushroom topping. Another unique feature of this eatery is it does not use chilli flakes or oregano but instead uses chilli oil. When I introduced Simple to Semin Melde the Mumbai owner, Pizza Metro Pizza, he enthused, “The Battersea Pizza Metro Pizza is somewhere where we’ve being dining for over 15 years; it’s our favourite pizzeria in London. We felt it’s time for the people in Mumbai to fall in love with it too.” We are sure as right away Simple expressed her plan to revisit the outlet soon with her gang of friends, “I loved the setting and feel of the restaurant besides the yummy gastronomic offerings.”