Come Into My Gondola
PERIZAAD ZORABIAN IRANI takes another serving of sunshine, as her life brims over with motherhood, magic and many happy meals, discovers SHERNAAZ ENGINEER Among the many metaphors for life food is, perhaps, the most appropriate.  Like life, food can nourish or deplete you, depending upon the choices you make; it can entice or exhaust you, depending upon your attitude; it can buoy you up or bring you down, depending upon your ability or inability to draw the line between indulgence and excess!Perizaad Zorabian Irani happens to be in a happy place. Everything appears perfectly in balance, with the warmth of motherhood making her bubble over with mush as she exults over the arrival of her four-month-old daughter, Zaha. It is not unusual for those who love life to the hilt to be great foodies, helping themselves unabashedly to the buffet of everything enticing, edible and otherwise! Perizaad is a big believer in that feisty feast sort-of-a-life, except that right now she is on a post-pregnancy diet. Zareen Watson, her trainer, is getting her ship-shape for a brand new TV series on NDTV Good Life titled Limited Edition, which is a sort of personalised luxury tour with Perizaad playing guide. She's down to 55 kilos, with five more to go.  So, as we meet at her father's restaurant, the quaintly-named Gondola, at Bandra's Pali Market, while she poses with her favourite Beef Chilli Roll and wistfully declares, "This could take me straight to heaven", she stays grounded and does not gobble it down!But thereafter comes the declaration: "I'm obsessed with food! I love to eat." The family is in the food business, so it appears appropriate. Her father, Khoram Zorabian, started the Gondola restaurant as a coffee shop some thirty four-years-ago, soon after Perizaad was born, and it was initially called Perizaad's Gondola.  Those days, it was done-up like a boat, with little tables serving cakes and confections made at her grandfather's Irani bakery. Her dad thought Gondola sounded romantic when her mum, Firoza, suggested the name! "My mother is the best cook on the planet," Perizaad proclaims, "her prawn biryani is to die for." Down the years, her father expanded into the poultry business and a huge farm at Khopoli, now looked after by her youngest brother, Shahzaad, became a frequent haunt for family and friends. "At the farm, my cook makes the most amazing akoori, dhansak and chicken kebabs and my entire college gang would go there with me just to pig out!" she recalls. Still more food came into their lives when her father started Cheron Caterers, now run by her other brother, Sohrab. "Without being biased, Cheron serves the best Parsi food you can get!" she gloats. Perizaad doesn't enjoy cooking as much as she enjoys eating! "When I was doing my MBA in New York, I used to cook. But my Taiwanese flatmate soon remarked, "Everything you cook smells and tastes the same!" Post-marriage to famous builder, Boman Irani, a genteel and refined man, with understated food habits and a subtle palate, she has reconciled to the fact that, in her forthright words, "there is zero compatibility on the food front!' Boman and she, it appears, affirm the adage that opposites indeed do attract."When I first met him I was horrified to find that he ate sprouts and dahi and satvik food. I loved my masalas and meats and he soon realised that a good date for me was, quite simply, good food! So, very sweetly, bechara mahro Boman (my poor Boman) just went along with me wherever I wanted to eat, because a good meal always put me in a very good mood! He soon discovered I'm a fairly placid person. But mess with my food and I become a tigress! He also gauged I'm not the sort of person who can be told what to eat and when to eat it! So he just lets me be the glutton I am!"  Right now, though, she's being a good girl. "I had put on so much weight with my pregnancy that I was stressed looking the way I did. I must say my husband has been hugely supportive and kept saying I was beautiful even when I was bursting! But I'm back on track now," she grins. Her diet is stringent. Egg whites and brown bread for breakfast, protein shake and fruits mid-day, dal, chicken and a nachni roti for lunch, walnuts and fruit juice at tea time, some cold cuts later in the evening, and soup and chicken salad for dinner. And she's at the gym, too, toning up and looking like a million bucks in the bargain. With her striking good looks, added to Farzana Contractor's ingenuity with the camera that took her out of Gondola and into the adjoining Pali Market for a few shots, Perizaad quite effortlessly turned into a traffic-stopper. But her effervescence is more than just skin deep. As we had taken over the restaurant for our interview and shoot, lunch-time regulars were asked to wait outside until we finished. Such is the popularity of Gondola's steaks and sizzlers, that a bunch of college kids patiently awaited their favourite fix. Rather delayed and dismayed, they were assuaged by her apologies and some refreshing iced tea on the house. That wasn't all. After they'd had their hearty meal, when the bill was presented and they started going Dutch, Perizaad, a few tables away, playing hostess to our team, swooped down and snatched it away, leaving them dazed with disbelief. As they protested she grinned, "I made you wait for your lunch, so it's only fair I treat you to it!"  Khalique, the loyal old Gondola manager was aghast and miffed. She jokes, "He thinks I'm very bad for business. In interviews when I recommend the Beef Chilli Roll that I love here he fires me - it's only for seventy rupees, can't you recommend something more expensive?"Gondola, as an aside, has seen many film stars flit in and out of its cosy confines. "Once I started working in Bollywood, so many people confessed that they'd come here for their romantic rendezvous! In fact, even Boman had brought some of his ex-girlfriends here!" Recently redone by Perizaad, it is still simple, although charming. And she still drops in for a meal whenever she feels like although, right now, the diet rules!  Still, she is unaffected in her affection for her favourite eateries which, apart from Gondola include Out of the Blue in Bandra, where Boman and she had many memorable dates ("the manager came to our wedding!"), Thai Ban, also in Bandra, and the Konkan Café at the Taj President. In New York, she recalls how she sought out "hole-in-the-wall" eateries in her student days, and took Boman to them when they visited after their marriage. "A friend of his was there around the same time, and when we returned he asked Boman whether we'd eaten at Nobu's and other posh places and Boman said no, my wife took me to some really strange restaurants! But I was sharing a part of my life with him…"  Perizaad, in the course of our interview comes upon a discovery: "All my memories are in some way related to food!" So, what was her pregnancy phase like? "It was great, except that I ate rice like an adivasi - I would just pile it on in heaps! I craved carbs. But I also pushed in my fruits and vegetables, and was very active throughout." However, a bout of malaria just before her delivery derailed her health. But she's back in the pink now, and partaking of her plateful of happiness, with a nachni roti on the side! |
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