For more than a decade Neela Paniz has been visiting the Napa Valley, and all that time the chef, restaurateur and cookbook author from India, by way of Los Angeles, kept noting our dearth of Indian restaurants.

This all changed when she opened her new restaurant in downtown Napa on March 31.

Neela’s will bring to Napa her renowned brand of Indian cuisine, a spectrum of traditional, home-style Indian dishes prepared in a light, contemporary style.

Last week workmen were putting the finishing touches on her colorful, brand new Clinton Street restaurant, kitchen staff were trying out fixtures, including two tandoori ovens, and front of the house staff were mastering the exotic names from the menu — Chota Haazari, Rassols, Bhajias. And Paniz took time from the last-minute decisions on details to talk to the Register about what inspired her to come to Napa, and to prepare for us a sneak preview of what she’ll be dishing up for the valley.

Growing up in Bombay and Dehli, Paniz said she had never been in a kitchen until she came to the United States. “There, my aunt taught me to cook, starting out by doing small things, like washing rice,” she said. “But how I learned that I loved to cook was watching Julia Child.”

Paniz married her Cuban-born husband, Franklin, and worked in banking as she raised her children, but on frequent visits to her mother in India, she began to learn recipes from the family cook, Chandan, whose traditional Indian cooking was based on practicality and subtle application of spices — and she shared with him tips she learned from Julia Child.

Back in the U.S. she used her skills and recipes cooking for family and friends, and created her own original style that defied the stereotype of heavy, rich Indian dishes. Using fresh ingredients — in Indian homes, marketing is done daily, primarily at the farmers’ markets, produce is never more than a day old and the chickens are plucked to order — she seasoned them with freshly ground spice blends, and developed a distinctive technique of tilting the pan to form a pool to infuse the spices, thus using less oil to create light, clear flavors for her bright and innovative dishes.

In the 1980s, a Pakistani friend told her, “We are opening a restaurant,” she recalled. She agreed. “I wanted to prepare dishes that I wanted to eat.”

Her Bombay Cafe, in partnership with David Chaparro, became a huge hit in Los Angeles, as did Chutney’s Indian take-out. In 1998 she published “The Bombay Cafe,” which put her on the national culinary map as a leading voice for contemporary Indian cuisine — and brought her to the Napa Valley to participate in the annual Worlds of Flavors conference hosted by the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena.

One of her greatest thrills, she said, was cooking for Julia Child at her 80th birthday celebration. “She came into the kitchen,” Paniz said, “and said, ‘I don’t usually like spicy food, but this is good.”

In 2007, she sold her partnership in the Los Angeles cafe — and she intended to retire. “It was great for six months,” she said; then the desire to be back in the business returned.

“I wish I could do what other chefs do and build a restaurant empire,” she said, “I am a one-project person.”

And on another trip to the Napa Valley, she said, “I told my husband, ‘They still don’t have an Indian restaurant.’ (Briefly, Napa had Bombay Bistro, earlier in the decade.) And I just decided to do it. I love the location,” she said. “I love this place.”

The menu she has developed (and is refining daily, she noted), reflects the rich diversity of Indian cuisine, which varies greatly from province to province, but is characterized by the subtle use of spices and vegetables, and of meat as a supplemental ingredient, combined with lentils and rice. While many of her recipe are family ones — her father was from the Punjab region of India and her mother from Sindh, both now part of Pakistan — she has also brought in recipes from other provinces, Indian street foods and dishes from the time of the British Raj, which are also part of her childhood memories.

Selections will be offered from Chota Haazari (small presentations), Thalis (all-inclusive meals), Haazari (main presentations) and Mitha (desserts), and include tandoor-cooked chicken; house-made chutneys, curries, raitas and dals; and fresh-baked flat breads: chapatis, parthas and naan. Thursday will be Bread Night with a selection of stuffed flat breads served with salads and raita, a yogurt-based condiment.

Indian beverages will be served along with a selection of beer and wine.

Paniz said she is especially fond of the small presentations because “I like to go into a restaurant and try half a dozen things — and I love Indian street food.”

As part of the decor she is installing an antique Indian mural, which she inherited from her grandmother, but new India will be in evidence as well: Paniz plans to screen ongoing Bollywood music videos in the bar.

“Indian restaurants are a dime a dozen,” she said (except in Napa), “but this will be different.”

Paniz has shared several recipes that will be on the menu at her new restaurant, including a family curry recipe, a chocolate torte that gets a kick from a pinch of cayenne pepper, a simple and easy shrimp dish, and recipes for several versions of lassis, the popular Indian yogurt-based beverages. Ingredients for Indian cooking can be found at Bazaar, at 1601 Marine World Parkway in Vallejo. In Napa, a great source for super fresh spices in small amounts as well as chiles is Whole Spice at the Oxbow Public Market.

Neela’s, at 975 Clinton St., will be open beginning March 31 for lunch Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner, Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 5-9:30 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 5-10 p.m. For more information, www.neelasnapa.com or call 226-9988.