'Latin' Chef

Bill Marchetti. Celebrity chef, restaurateur, business man, author, educator and now consultant. Many hats
to be worn by someone who has been touted as the pacesetter of Italian culinary. Having been in India for
several years working with the ITC welcome group and running his signature restaurant ‘Marchetti at West
View’ with the group, he now brings i n his expertise to the blue food group.

‘I’m a self- confessed India lover since 1981, when I came here for the first time,’’ he says. For a chef who
's been amazed by the wide range of taste that Gujarati food offers and swears by Bengali cuisine, he
punctuates his unaccented English with theek hais, and hanji, an Indian touch that seem to come naturally.

At the pizza fiesta, the pizza piemontese, (Prosciutto or cured ham and gorgonzola cheese on a tomato
paste) and the insalata ai spinachi (baby spinach and goat cheese in a balsamic dressing) went down really
well with the Maison Pierre glass of wine he recommended. His Prosciutto and goat cheese had come all
the way from Spain. "Although you do get a lot of the ingredients in India, everything here is available
only in wholesale and nothing in retail." says Bill Marchetti. He uses imported pepperoni salami from
Naples, to olives from Spain, his country’s best extra virgin olive oils and cheese while making sure his
Parma ham is thin enough to read through.

"Every chef has to educate. But I believe in seducing. If I put out interesting, appetising looking dishes, my
guests are bound to get lured into trying them" said Bill. For someone who refused to make pizzas when he
first started his restaurant Latin in Melbourne with his then wife, he says palates have changed in India
from just "bloody steaks, pizza and grills" to a finer awareness about the nuances of culinary differences.

But how different are his Italian fare from the hordes of other 'authentic' Italian joints that run across the
city? "In Naples, where pizza originated, you can order only two kinds of pizza, with cheese or without.
But if you give that to a non-Italian, they’ll never like it. So I try innovations that suit the local palate." he
replies.

While he waits for the five-star hotels to die out, he plans to open up a gourmet style restaurant "when the time is just right!"