�Till not long ago I had no intention of cooking, nor the urge, but now I am into baking chocolate cakes and brownies because of my grandchildren! They like my pastries. Apart from this, I can make a French omelette, in this the eggs are not beaten and the inside of the omelette is very moist. I can do a fish fillet in the oven, it is difficult, mind you, and needs practise. �

SIMONE Tata, businesswoman, industrialist, chairman of TRENT (which is Tata Retail Enterprises, a Tata business venture, just like TELCO and TISCO, and which runs the chain of popular Westside department stores) is somewhat disparagingly funny and deliberately downmarket about being one of the �Tatas� . �Oh, being a Tata is the same as being a Singh, a Mehta, or, say, even a Smith,� she says, tongue firmly in cheek, a twinkle in the eye. �We are pretty ordinary people. Don�t know why others tend to look at us with big eyes.�

She is a handsome and distinguished lady, almost majestically leonine in looks, with thick platinum hair pushed back to reveal a broad and intelligent forehead, humorous eyes, a bemused look, and a mouth that is pursed up as if always on the verge of breaking into a smile. And Simone Tata smiles easily. Ask her about food, about eating and drinking and cooking, about entertaining and dining out, and she smiles charmingly and mysteriously.

Food is not one of my great likings,� she admits. �I wouldn�t call myself a foodie. I like good food but don�t give much attention to it. My tastes are simple. I prefer vegetarian food, something that is non-spicy, no red meats, though I eat chicken, lamb, veal. And my favourite cuisine, perhaps, would be Italian, with lot of fresh herbs, vegetables, and mushrooms. I make a very good pasta sauce myself. But I am not a good cook at all. Till not long ago I had no intention of cooking, nor the urge, but now I am into baking chocolate cakes and brownies because of my grandchildren! They like my pastries. Apart from this, I can make a French omelette, in this the eggs are not beaten and the inside of the omelette is very moist. I can do a fish fillet in the oven, it is difficult, mind you, and needs practise. When I was a child, and my sister spent all her time in the kitchen, I would be shooed out because the cook used to complain to my mother that I simply had no talent for cooking. Now it�s coming to me slowly.

But so slowly, it�s rather annoying. Hopefully, I will get there in the next five years...� Simone Tata begins her day at 7 o�clock with the newspapers and tea. The tea has to be very light because strong tea gives her heartburn. �It is without milk, without sugar, so obviously the tea has no taste,� she says, mouth turning down. Is her favourite brew Tata�s Tetley? �It is, because Tetley is a good tea, but not because it has to be. Sometimes I use Society Tea. People are not married to tea!� Tea done with, there is no breakfast in her mornings, it is not the main meal of her day. �I do everything wrong,� she says with a wry smile. �I find it difficult to eat a breakfast.� So she has a good lunch, instead. It is sometimes at the office, at Bombay House, the Tata Group of Companies� HQ in Bombay.

And it is had in the director�s lunch room. �It is a good lunch, with salads, main course, pudding, and I eat too much. I get tempted. Depending on who is in town, the directors sit around the dining table and talk over lunch, some five to 12 people,� she says. She admits to being erratic about her lunch. Times she goes home for the meal, because she lives close by, and she finds it refreshing to get out of the �office box� and go out for some �mental oxygen�. She often dines at the Taj�s restaurants, at the Shamiana or Sea Lounge, depending on the season, mood, occasion and who she is taking out. She believes the food at Golden Dragon in the Taj is exceptional. And the Trattoria at Taj President is great when she is out with her grandchildren. �But, otherwise, I am also happy dining at the Bombay Gym or at Indigo.

And eating out all depends... sometimes I am out every day, sometimes not for a week,� she says candidly. Simone Tata loves entertaining at home. She often hosts small dinner parties for close friends and family. And she likes her guests to be on time, she starts her parties at 8.30 p.m., dnner is served at 10. �I wouldn�t call them parties. They are small sit-down dinners,� she says.

She orders the food from out. Not from restaurnts but from ladies whom she says make very good stuff. Or her cook at home produces the meal. �It is mainly western food, a little Indian, something for everybody, but it is difficult to entertain when I am working and traveling,� she complains. She talks about her work. She is the non-executive chairman of Westside. She works with the company secretary and looks at the good running of the chain of department stores. She gives input into fashion and store layout. �It�s a lot of detail, whether for cosmetics or retailing, and a woman�s input is very good,� she says. And Simone Tata is also the chairman of the RTI, which is the Ratan Tata Institute, and which is a job that is a difficult proposition because it is difficult to run a charity institution as a commercial business. For the RTI, she is currently busy renovating its old Piccolo restaurant at Fort in Bombay, making it a better place, trying to understand the food and what people look for in an eatery like this one

This is the same elegant lady who will hang the Tata hat at home when she is not at work and, say, travel for pleasure to destinations like the Atlantic coast north of France (�from Normandy to Italy�) which she particularly likes. There she will do such wonderfully everyday things such as bicycling, trekking, visiting old castles and other monuments, watching the fishermen bringing in their nets. �It�s amazing,� she says, �the thing that can give me a real high is friendship.�