QUICK BYTES
Kunal surprises you not in the Gaggan Anand or the Manish
Mehrotra way, with modernist drama and molecular gastronomy, but in his
orchestration of flavours and influences he has imbibed from across the
country. His style of cooking is classical with a contemporary twist, a touch I
find missing in my favourite Indian fine-dining restaurant, Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya.
The most eloquent representative of his style is the multi-textural haleem kebab, where the solidity of the
mutton boti is balanced by the slight
mushiness of dal, daliya and jowar -- biting into one is like having a generous helping of the
Hyderabadi dish (a Ramzan must-have), whose taste is reinforced by the quenelle
of haleem that is served along with
the kebab.
WHAT: Five Years of Diya with Kunal Kapur
WHERE: The Leela Ambience Hotel, NH-8,
Gurgaon
WHEN: Till July 27. Open only for dinner (6:30
to 11:30 p.m.).
DIAL: (0124) 4771255
PER PERSON: Four-course meal (vegetarian) Rs
3,350++; (non-vegetarian) Rs 3,850++
By Sourish
Bhattacharyya
Masterchef India co-host Kunal Kapur earned his spurs as chef de cuisine at Diya, the under-rated Indian restaurant at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon, where he's now the executive sous chef. |
FIVE YEARS AGO, after dining at Diya at The Leela Ambience
Gurgaon, I'd hailed the restaurant as the next big thing in Indian fine dining,
without knowing that the chef who had sweated it out to inspire me to write
that glowing review was the now-famous Kunal Kapur, the endearing (and enduring)
face of Masterchef India.
Kunal was then an uncelebrated chef de cuisine, but he
brought with him the experience of working at some of the finest Indian
restaurants of the Taj Group hotels -- the old Handi and Haveli in Delhi;
Southern Spice at Taj Coromandel, Chennai; Karavalli at The Gateway Hotel on
Residency Road, Bangalore; and at the Holiday Village, Goa, under the greatest
exponent of the state's cuisine, the inimitable Urbano Rego. Yet, Diya hardly
ever figures in drawing room conversations, or in animated Facebook food group
discussions. Neither does Made in India at the Radisson Blu, Noida, where Kunal
worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the under-rated master chef, Arun Tyagi.
In the last five years that Diya, and the hotel, has been
around, Kunal has become a celebrity TV show host and best-selling cookbook
writer (he has moved up the corporate ladder as well), and the restaurant is
now headed by Angshuman Adhikari, a former acolyte of the Michelin-starred,
UK-based chef-restaurateur, Atul Kochhar. You can imagine my joy therefore when
the hotel invited me for a meal cooked by Kunal, who has returned to his old
kitchen to showcase the cooking skills that got him the ticket to fame. Giving me company were the hotel's friendly (and hands-on) General Manager, Michel Koopman, and the charming Nidhi Verma, the marcomm manager, who's a fund of stories.
I have had a lunch orchestrated and served by Masterchef Australia co-host Gary Mehigan at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, where I shared my table with a media baron who had just made a lot of money selling his popular afternoon newspaper, but who insisted on describing himself as a farmer from Alibaug (of course, he knew more about farming than all of Delhi's farmhouse owners put together, so he could qualify to be a farmer!). Mehigan wasn't cooking; his executive chef was. On July 15, however, it was Kunal who prepared dinner for me and at the end of it, I was happy to see my long-held view -- that TV chefs can't cook, so they are on TV -- lying in ruins around me.
I have had a lunch orchestrated and served by Masterchef Australia co-host Gary Mehigan at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, where I shared my table with a media baron who had just made a lot of money selling his popular afternoon newspaper, but who insisted on describing himself as a farmer from Alibaug (of course, he knew more about farming than all of Delhi's farmhouse owners put together, so he could qualify to be a farmer!). Mehigan wasn't cooking; his executive chef was. On July 15, however, it was Kunal who prepared dinner for me and at the end of it, I was happy to see my long-held view -- that TV chefs can't cook, so they are on TV -- lying in ruins around me.
The mutton shank guddu kurma is one of Kapur's stand-out dishes, which showcases his ability to meld the influences and flavours of India's many kitchens into an unforgettable taste experience |
The Hyderabadi influence kept showing up, first in the
grilled scallops served with the saalan
of a baghare baigan, and then in the guddu kurma, where mutton shanks were
cooked in a rich bone marrow gravy. If the surprise of the evening was the
'Punjabi bruschetta' -- liver, kidney and diced mutton cooked in the tak-a-tak style, topped up with a kachumbar salad, and served on toasted
French bread -- the murgh malai shorba
with a vol-au-vent island stuffed with murgh
khichda was a treat for the senses: an explosion of flavours that did a
tango with the taste buds. But the desserts blew my mind: cinnamon-flavoured shrikhand with juliennes of a Granny
Smith apple (its tartness the perfect counterfoil to the shrikhand's sweetness) and the Bailey's chhena payesh must at once be declared the national dish of Greater
Bengal! Kunal is not just the co-host of Masterchef
India; he's the master of his craft.
This review first appeared in the Mail Today edition dated July 18, 2014. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers.
This review first appeared in the Mail Today edition dated July 18, 2014. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers.
Murthal is famous for restaurants foods & haveli. Many ways to get from Delhi to Murthal by Cab, taxi, bus and so on. Famous place near Delhi to Eat out with frinds or family. This is the best place to eat late night food on NH1. Approx 40 KM away from Delhi, 90 KM from Gurgaon and Noida. If you are looking best Place to eat in Murthan then I suggest Murthal Haveli.
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