By Sourish
Bhattacharyya
WHERE else can the humble karela
be turned into a gourmet statement than at a Zorawar Kalra restaurant? And what can be a better forum to
showcase the talented young chef Himanshu
Saini's 'bitter gourd tempura' with sweet and sour raw mango chutney than
the launch of the Gourmet Passport
2014-15? The smartly designed book of 402 'buy one main course, get one
free' discount coupons from 134 restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai was presented by
the Delhi Gourmet Club in partnership with Citibank at a free-flowing launch
party on May 1 attended by all the supporters of the project.
The venue was Made in Punjab at Gurgaon's Cyber Hub; the finger-licking
good food was from the menu of the upcoming Farzi Cafe next door ("it's
not even 10 per cent of what we have in mind," Zorawar assured us, making
us wonder, "what next?"); and the guests seen enjoying Himanshu's goodies
included industry leaders Sandeep Tandon
(Old World Hospitality), AD Singh (Olive
Bar & Kitchen) and Pankaj Mathur
(The Suryaa); restaurant powerhouses Janti
Duggal (Mamagoto), Atul Kapur
(QBA and The China House), Rajeev Aneja
(Rara Avis) and Prashant Narula
(Kwality Group); some of Delhi/NCR's most talented chefs -- Soumya Goswami, Ravitej Nath, Vikas Vibhuti
and Sandeep Kalra (The Oberoi), Rajiv Malhotra and Pradeep Khullar (Old World Hospitality), Arun Kumar TR (Zambar/Lite Bite Foods), Vikram Khatri, Sujan Sarkar
and Vaibhav Bhargava (Olive Bar
& Kitchen and Guppy by Ai); F&B hotshots Ravindra Kumar (The Lalit's most durable pillar of excellence), Rajesh Namby (The Leela Palace New
Delhi), Mohit Balachandran
(Sodabottleopenerwala), Suveer Sodhi
(The Lodhi), Sid Mathur
(Impresario/Smoke House Deli), Yogendra
Negi (DLF Restaurants/Set'z) and Sohan
Bohra (Kylin Premier); and my partners in journalistic crimes -- Neeta Raheja (Very Truly Yours), Mukta Kapoor (Old World Hospitality), Deepica Sarma and Mallika Gowda (The Oberoi), Pallavi
Singh (Crowne Plaza Okhla), Nidhi
Verma (The Leela Ambience Gurgaon), Madhur
Madaan (Kempinski Ambience), Nidhi
Budhia (Crowne Plaza Rohini) and Manita
Asija Tuteja (Kylin Premier/Sartoria).
But the star of the evening was the spread planned by Zorawar
and his multi-talented deputy Varun
Duggal with Himanshu. Just back from America, where he had presented a talk
on the trends defining contemporary Indian cuisine in the august company of
Grand Master Chef Hemant Oberoi of
The Taj Hotels, Zorawar said the Farzi
Cafe, which is coming up right next door to Made in Punjab at the ground
level of the Cyber Hub, would take 'Modernist' Indian cuisine to a level that
is a notch higher than his other baby, Masala
Library at the Bandra Kurla Complex. Now, that's a very serious challenge
to set for oneself -- Masala Library, after all, has won nine prestigious
awards in the seven months that it has been around! I am sure he must have picked up ideas from his recent visit to Alinea in Chicago, where the American guru of molecular gastronomy, Grant Achatz, gave him a guided tour of the kitchen (a rare honour).
AD Singh, who's unfailing in his praise for restaurants (even
if they have the potential of becoming his competition), couldn't stop praising
the papad-crusted dal chawal arancini with achari crème cheese and onion chutney.
It was a brilliant reconstruction of the Sicilian classic with an Indian twist.
My personal favourites were the tandoori
portobello mushrooms with truffle walnut herb crust, bhoot jolokia lamb chops with tempered coriander seeds, and the
chilli duck samosa served with roasted
plum chutney. Each dish came with a twist and the presentations showed the
Zorawar Kalra eye for detailing. As one of the guests said, "The food
tasted as good as the discount coupons inside the book." Well, you have a
year to check out each one of the 134 restaurants that have participated in the
book that has stirred the pot of Delhi's imagination.
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