On Christmas Eve, 2014, Claudio Rucher was going through a lot of tension. At his Pizza Italia restaurant in Fort Kochi, things were spiralling out of control. It was not easy for him to teach the local chefs how to make Italian styled pizzas and to manage the customers who came from all over the world. “At that time, I was thinking, ‘I am from Rome, and trying to sell pizzas in another country, even though I have been living in Kerala for several years’,” he says. “I felt dispirited and wanted to shut down the restaurant.”
At that moment, redemption arrived. An Italian couple, Teo (35) and his girlfriend Emma (33), stepped into the restaurant. They ate Claudio’s pizzas, and loved it. But they also noticed that Claudio was looking troubled. So they spoke to him. When they heard about his problems, they did the unthinkable. They set aside their holiday plans and spent one month helping Claudio.
“Teo and Emma worked from morning till night,” says Claudio, adding, “They helped me to find the ingredients locally, cleaned the place, and interacted with the customers.” Today, the Pizza Italia is a popular spot and has got rave reviews on Trip Advisor and Zomato.
The USP of the place is that Claudio serves authentic Italian pizzas made in a traditional oven. This oven is made of bricks. There is a gas burner inside, which is aimed at the bricks. Once the burner is switched off, the bricks remain hot for several hours. The temperature inside is anywhere between 250 and 300 degrees Celsius. When Claudio places a pizza inside, it gets cooked within three minutes.
Another unique aspect is the use of herbs like fresh basil, rosemary, and oregano that are served as the toppings in pizza. Amazingly, whenever Claudio returns from Rome, he brings goods to be used in his reastaurant. A few months ago, he brought 200 kgs of items, which included ceramic cups and saucers, spoons, knives, long handles and herbs.
As for the menu, Claudio serves 33 varieties of pizza. They include the Pizzas Cappricciosa, Nostromo, Marinara and Margherita. “The Margherita is the most famous pizza in Italy. It has garlic, fresh basil, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and extra virgin olive oil,” says he.
For the Indian clientele, he has come up with the Pizza Kerala. This consists of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and paneer. To keep the fish-loving locals happy, Claudio has invented the Pizza Fort Kochi that has squid and prawns in it.
Claudio had set up shop in Fort Kochi because he thought that the foreign tourists would be his main clients. Indeed, many people from Germany, America, France, Spain and Italy are regulars. “After a while, they get tired of eating spicy Indian food. So they are happy to visit my restaurant for a change,” says Claudio. But he is also surprised that many of his customers are North Indian tourists, as well as Malayalis. “I am so happy about it,” he says.
What disturbs the restaurateur, however, is the use of ketchup on pizzas by Indians, Germans and Americans. “It spoils the taste. In Italy, if you use ketchup, the chef will come out of the kitchen and shout at you,” he says. So what is the way out? “There is a special way to make sauce,” explains the Roman, adding, “We use fresh
tomato every day. It is cooked in the oven to remove the water. Dough and water are enemies. Then we mix the tomato with garlic, aromatic herbs and extra virgin olive oil.”
The end result is that everybody likes his pizzas, including the difficult-to-please Italians. “Do you want to savour a little Italy in Kerala?” asks tourist Enzo Bossio from Rome. “Then you must visit Pizza Italia. The people there are very welcoming and the place serves prepared artfully pizza.”