SHE CAN have her ‘Gordon Ramsay’ moments in the kitchen, super-mum Romy Gill admits as we chat at the front of her quirky salmon-pink restaurant.

I’m not surprised. The mum-of-two is working 16 hours a day making sure her business remains firmly on the radar.

Romy’s Kitchen, in Thornbury, is the culmination of five years’ battling to get a bank loan as well as planning permission for the various alterations she wanted to make to the wooden-beamed grade two listed building in Castle Street.

Her achievement made her the first Indian woman in the UK to own a restaurant and also be the head chef.

It has clearly been well received, given that within eight months it has been short-listed for the best Indian, best vegetarian and best newcomer at the Bristol Good Food Awards.

On top of that, Romy has also been short-listed for the 2014 Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

“It was a genuine surprise as I didn’t know I had been nominated,” Romy says, taking a breather from the kitchen and still dressed in her chef whites preparing for the evening.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had walked out in a superhero cape, given that she has also somehow found time to run the New York, Berlin and London marathons and is taking part in the Bristol 10k on May 11.

But ever since Romy took the plunge into the culinary world, she has been creating waves with her healthy, authentic dishes, using local suppliers wherever possible.

Brought up in West Bengal, she watched her mum cook and was influenced, too, by her father’s palate for very different north Indian fare.

“Any excuse to have a party in India with different foods from around the country is always welcomed,” she said. “Here I like to cook street food, which I would eat when I was going to school and didn’t have much money.

“You certainly wouldn’t find my menu in a typical Indian restaurant, that’s for sure.”

Her journey into the food world actually started when she first came to the country in the early 1990s.

“I was craving Indian food and went to a Bangladeshi restaurant, where there was a selection of red, yellow and pink curries,” Romy said. “I think from that day I really dreamt of opening my own place with authentic food.”

It took a while, but the ball started rolling when she started hosting dinner parties in Thornbury and was being encouraged by her friends to allow a broader audience to experience her delicious dishes.

She had started to cook healthy food and was running in a bid to lose some weight after the birth of her second daughter. Before she knew it, she was doing cookery classes at events such as the Ideal Home Show, Grand Designs, Bristol’s Love Food Festival and Alchemy Festival Southbank.

Now, as well as her restaurant, she even has a range of her own Indian sauces and spice mixes.

“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family,” said Romy, who still fights to make time for her daughters Reet, 11, and Neev, aged eight.

“The culture in India would frown upon a woman with kids running her own business and not being at home, but in fairness both my parents and my in-laws are very proud of what I have achieved.”

The 40-year-old also said the friendliness of the chef community in Bristol remains hugely helpful.

“London is a great place, but the chefs are very competitive,” she said.

“I think in Bristol chefs really help each other out. I think there is a feeling of being in the same boat and working really long hours in an industry we love.

“Of course, there is still competition, but we help each other, which is great for me, being a self-taught chef.”

I look over a menu. All of it interests me and I like the simple nature of most of the dishes.

“It’s all about how you spice things,” Romy says. “If people want heat, that’s fine, but heat should come after, not when you are eating it, otherwise you can’t taste the food.I am putting the same ingredients together as other chefs, but putting my mark on it – luckily people like it.”

There is a 54-strong list of nominees at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards ceremony, at the London Hilton, Park Lane, on June 4. Supporters of the awards, including Cherie Blair and the Duchess of York, will be in attendance.