Fasting, feasting

THE FOOD CLUB

Today is the last day of the Navratras, and restaurateurs all over Delhi are sighing with relief. Not, let it be said, a very gusty sigh, because there's still the blight of bird flu hanging over their head.

The peace and happiness of a restaurateur is a fragile thing indeed, which is apt to get shattered by several factors. On the face of it, bomb blasts, bird flu, political instability, Diwali and school examinations would seem to have little in common, but they're all factors affecting the restaurant trade.

Ask any restaurateur in Delhi about how bird flu has hit them, and as if on cue, weeping and gnashing of teeth begins. "It's all the fault of these nutritionists," they wail.

"Always telling the public to avoid red meat. Hardly anyone used to eat beef or pork anyway, but now even lamb has become Public Enemy Number One. Which leaves only chicken. And now, even that has been wrenched from our grasp."

If Delhi's restaurateurs are to be believed, few typical north Indian families think it worthwhile to go out to chomp on vegetables, and seafood is too expensive for some, too fishy for others.

Positioning is another sensitive area. Says Vikash Prasad, executive sous chef of Shangri La, "Elsewhere, Saturday is the busiest day of the week. For us, it is decidedly dull because the hotel has no night club. And Saturdays are the day for letting your hair down."

What does affect them " and others in the top bracket " is the annual closing of accounts. From around the 20th of March for two weeks every year, the best restaurants in every city wait impatiently for customers, who only start trickling in during the first week of April, when annual budgets for entertaining kick into effect.

What the Navratras are to north India, examinations are in other parts of the country. Sonia Mohindra of Under One Roof, the restaurant consultants who have done projects in every region of the country, feels that school examinations, and particularly the dreaded board exams, have the effect of a thunderbolt in smaller towns.

"Visit restaurants in Chandigarh, Mount Abu and Pune during school exams and you'll be taken aback at how few people there are dining out. The same applies to Kolkata, where academics are taken far more seriously than, say, in Delhi."

There's the general view that non-Indian cuisines fare more consistently than Indian food, all through the year. Also, there's the feeling among restaurant owners that ensuring foreign clientele succeeds like nothing else does.

"They're immune to Monday fasts for Shivji, Tuesday fasts for Hanumanji and Thursday fasts for Sai Baba. Diwali and Holi are just another day for them," goes conventional wisdom.

Ritu Dalmia of Delhi's Diva reveals the other side of the coin. "When India and Pakistan were on the brink of a war, Diva used to do an average of one table a day, which usually were expatriate customers visiting us for their last meal in India." Scary? You bet.