WOW 2017: Ritu Dalmia of Diva (Restaurateur)

Despite owning a string of restaurants, Ritu Dalmia is frustrated so far as the wine is concerned. Wine has been her passion since she spent years living in Sicily, learning to be a Chef. She likes to offer a complete gastronomic experience to her clients in India and Italy, despite the culture difference. She is not satisfied with what she is able to achieve in Delhi and what she could have done with simpler procedures.

She has reasons to be unhappy. When she opened Diva Spice in Mehar Chand Market, she managed to get the excise liquor license after rigorous follow ups-but merely a transfer from Chez Nini, the previous occupant! There has been a reduction in the duty free license from 10% to 3%. The 5-star hotels have no problems as they have enough quota-in fact most hotels did not use the quota fully or were using it for quasi-legal imports, she says.

Ritu had met the Finance Minister Jaitley when the concession was given only to 5-star restaurants. He had agreed to give the same facility to the restaurants too. But with the limited export earnings, 3% limit is hitting her hard. She is not sure if she can keep the low prices anymore (you can get imported wines for as low as Rs. 1200 at Diva-even Soave is available at Rs. 1850 a bottle). You may buy a glass of Zardetto Prosecco DOC Treviso at Rs. 620 a glass- best value for money for a quality Prosecco.

Born in Calcutta to a Marwari business family, Dalmia joined their stone business at 16. Her work took her to Italy where she developed a liking for the local cuisine and learnt how to cook proficiently. In 1993, at age 22, she set up Mezza Luna, a Mediterranean restaurant with Italian accent, in Delhi. The food was excellent, Mezza Luna’s fortunes weren’t. An undeterred Dalmia moved to London, where she opened Vama, an Indian fine dining restaurant which was a big success and won rave reviews.

In 2000, she opened DIVA in Greater Kailash-II, Delhi. The fine dining restaurant had a Wine Cellar with no parallel. She opened one winning restaurant after another, managing a staff of 200. With Cittamani in Milan recently, Ritu has come full circle; she started her career as a restaurateur introducing India to genuine Italian food; now she’s getting Italians to taste and enjoy the flavours of the Indian subcontinent.  

Dalmia’s entrepreneurial spirit and contribution to the hospitality industry has been recognized by many institutions, including Forbes which put her on its W Power Trailblazers List in March 2017. Earlier, Diva Italian was declared ‘Restaurant with Best International Wine Selection’ at the first delWine Excellence Awards 2016. This September, she was awarded the Ordine della Stella d'Italia, the highest civilian honour of Italy.

She has met several small wine producers in Europe, who make good wines at reasonable prices but refuse to enter India because of the plethora of procedures while big brands charge 50% premium for their branding, she says. She still likes to keep the mark-ups from 50-100%. Currently Diva has only 60% wines out of the master list as others are not available due to the current excise policy status.  Barring Diva and Depot 29 she has only wine and beer licenses that the Delhi government had initiated in its wisdom to promote soft liquors like wine and beer.

She is passionate but an astute woman entrepreneur as well. Diva has over 160 labels including sufficient number of wine-by-the-glass options; she has also started Sunday brunches with unlimited Prosecco at Rs. 2800 AI. But in the other restaurants the number of labels is much less though prices are similar. For instance at the Diva Spice, she has only 40-50 labels, most from the New World and lesser known labels.

In the international events, she uses different local cuisines paired with local wines. ‘This way it is quite educational. When the guests have an excellent gastronomic experience with food and wine, they come back to India quite educated and fairly well-versed with wines and likely to continue with that experience.’

As an author of various books and the protagonist of several TV Food Shows focusing on her cuisine and travels to Italy and other countries, Ritu talks about the pleasures of wine as a gastronomic experience for her viewers and motivates them to drink wine more often. She drinks limited wine but the best.  She believes that her wine collection at Diva is the best in the city; variety and the value for her by-the-glass wines is incomparable elsewhere.

She was also included in the Top Ten WOW of India 2015 and 2013. For her background read details in the previous Recognition, visit

WOW 2015: Ritu Dalmia of Diva

WOW: Top Ten Women of Wine in India 2013 -Ritu Dalmia of Diva

Subhash Arora

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