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· Kathmandu · Kolkata
The Story of
Fire And Ice, Kolkata
A Call With a Purpose
The Italian ambassador called Annamaria Forgione with an idea, not a business pitch. In Kolkata, a doctor named Dr Sujit Kumar Brahmochary had built something meaningful - the Institute for Indian Mother & Child (IIMC), an organisation supporting some of the city's poorest families. His Milk and Mozzarella Cheese Production Unit was already helping local women earn a living selling milk. He wanted to take it further - to teach them to make mozzarella itself, and find it a real, lasting market. He raised the idea with the Italian Consulate. The Consulate called Annamaria.
She agreed to open a restaurant in Kolkata because of that call. A restaurant would mean somewhere for that cheese to go, every day, for good.
Kanak Building
2005
The Building She Wouldn't Let the Car Pass
Annamaria already knew why she was coming. Finding the right building was the only thing left to decide.
Driving down Jawaharlal Nehru Road - the road most people here still call Chowringhee. She saw the Kanak Building through the car window. High ceilings. The kind of light that makes a room feel bigger than it is.
She didn't wait for the car to stop properly. She went in and told the building's owner exactly what she wanted: “I want to put my pizza in your building.”
In 2005, she did.
Annamaria Teaches Kolkata to Make Mozzarella
Annamaria already had someone who could do this properly - the mozzarella maker she'd trained herself in her Kathmandu kitchen. She sent him to Kolkata to teach the skill to two workers at IIMC, who then passed it on to the rest of the women's production unit - the same technique, the same standards, the same care.
That's how it started. A restaurant on Chowringhee Road, and a cheese-making skill carried from one city to another, on purpose.
Mozzarella Project
Hogolkuria - Where the Milk Comes From
The women IIMC worked with lived in a village called Hogolkuria, about 30 kilometres south of the city. Through IIMC's micro-credit programme, many of them bought their first cow - something they couldn't have afforded outright.
Today, more than a hundred women in Hogolkuria still make that cheese and bring it to Fire And Ice, under a long-term supply agreement that's run for twenty years. They're paid above the local market rate for it, because that was the whole point from day one.
Annamaria has described it simply:
“It was not just I open a restaurant. It was I open a restaurant and I help the community.”
Keeping the Kitchen Consistent
A restaurant far from the original kitchen can drift - different hands, different habits, a recipe that slowly stops tasting like itself. Annamaria wasn't willing to risk that.
She brought a chef from her own Kathmandu kitchen to Kolkata - someone who already knew the recipes, the techniques, and exactly the standard she expected, and could build the same discipline into this kitchen from day one.
That's why a pizza in Kolkata tastes like a pizza in Thamel. It isn't an accident. It was planned that way.
Chapter Five · The Kitchen
The way we cook
Every dish here is made with the same care - nothing shortcut, nothing outsourced. Here's what actually goes into it.
Dough
Made fresh, rested, and shaped by hand every day. Nothing pre-made, nothing shipped in frozen.
Tomato Sauce
The same base recipe that's been part of Fire And Ice since the beginning - simple, and unchanged.
Mozzarella
Made through the same Hogolkuria project that's supplied Fire And Ice for twenty years - cheese and community, in every bite.
Imported Ingredients
Olive oil and cured meats still come from Italy - the parts of the recipe that can't be substituted.
Local Ingredients
Everything else is sourced as fresh and as local as possible, because good Italian cooking has always meant using what's good near you, not just what's imported.
The kitchen runs the same way every day, whether it's a quiet Tuesday lunch or a full Saturday night. Same hygiene standard, same care, no exceptions made because it's busy.
What You'll Find Here
This kitchen carries twenty years of memory - recipes that traveled from Naples to Kathmandu, and then here. Every plate carries a little of that history, and none of it is an accident.
Thin-crust pizza. Handmade pasta. Salads and desserts, made the same simple way since the beginning. Some dishes came from Kathmandu.
Come in, and you'll find Italy in your neighbourhood.
The Pizza Kolkata Gave Back
Every Fire And Ice location has a dish that belongs only to that city. In Kathmandu, it's the Rompipalle. In Kolkata, it's the Fire of Bengal - spicy mutton, coriander, chilli. It's the one pizza on this menu that could only have been invented here.
