THE NEWS BRIEFLY: Le Cirque's Star in Exit Mode; Vella Ramaswamy Heads Home; Vikramjit Roy Returns with Nian; and a Greek Skydeck

Mickey Bhoite is heading back
to Florence leaving his Royal
Enfield for the highest bidder

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

DELHI'S five-star hotels are heading for a churn because of exits by familiar faces and entrances by new arrivals.

The big news is that Le Cirque's Abhay Singh 'Mickey' Bhoite is going back home to Italy, where he plans to settle down in Florence (closer to his collection of more than 60 venomous snakes, who are now in the custody of his mother). That'll be a big blow to The Leela Palace New Delhi (a little bird informs us that Bhoite's deputy, Federico Tucci, is exiting as well) because Le Cirque's reputation owes a lot to Bhoite's personality and style of cooking.

Royal Enfield enthusiasts, though, are waiting for the opportunity to bid for Bhoite's custom-made motorbike, which comes equipped with mind-blowing woofers. Bhoite and his young colleague, Vaibhav Roy, team up together with friends as often as they can and hit the highways. People who know the motorcycle (known as the Highway Queen) say it is in sparkling condition and Bhoite is reportedly asking for Rs 4 lakh for the beauty.

Vella Ramaswamy may not have burnt rubber on highways, but the Mauritian who grew up in Australia is the only expat general manager I know who has seen two hotels in Delhi-NCR come up under his guardianship from the bhoomi pujan to the first guest walking in.

As the opening general manager of The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon (now known as The Leela Ambience Gurgaon), he got the hotel off the ground at a rather difficult time for the global economy and successfully established Spectra as one of Delhi-NCR's foremost restaurants. Then, as the founding father of the Kempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi, he turned its locational disadvantage on the head and took full advantage of the size of its banqueting area to make it the go-to destination for mega business providers in the MICE (Meetings Incentives Conventions Exhibitions) segment. The hotel is also a favourite of wedding planners and has seen many a Big Fat Bania Wedding take place with a no onion, no garlic vegetarian spread laid out for 1,000-plus guests.

Vella Ramaswamy gave Delhi-NCR
to hotels, but is now returning to
home city Melbourne

Puneet Singh is back in Delhi after
spending 20 years with Kempinski
Hotels in eight countries

Ramaswamy's time is up. The affable hotelier with a brilliant sense of humour is going home to Melbourne and he is in the process of handing over charge to a Delhiite, Puneet Singh, who is returning to his home city after putting in more than two decades with the Kempinski hotels in eight countries. After completing his hotel management studies in Germany, Singh got selected to Kempinski's four-year management training programme, which took him to Germany, the U.S. and Turkey. Thereafter, the polyglot roving hotelier, who's fluent in six languages, spent six years gaining F&B operations experience in culturally diverse markets, then held leadership positions at Kempinski hotels in China, Tanzania, UAE, Russia and Egypt, and even in the midst of all this movement, got his Executive MBA from the top-rated Reims Management School, France. Before his transfer to Delhi, Singh was the General Manager of the Kempinski Grand and Ixir Hotel at the Bahrain City Centre.

In other developments, Sevilla at The Claridges has been shut for its annual refurbishment; it is expected to open in October-end. I can't wait to see what Executive Chef Neeraj Tyagi and his deputy, Rajiv Sinha, have up their sleeves for the new Sevilla. Vikramjit Roy, who Delhiites remember from his days at Wasabi by Morimoto, is returning to the rooftop of ITC Maurya to open an 'Asian Cooking Studio' named Tian. The restaurant will replace My Humble House, which never came close to the popularity of Bali Hi. An IHM-Taratolla graduate, Roy opened Pan-Asian at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai about a year ago and became an instant superstar in a city that hadn't been exposed to his genre of fine dining.

And of course, The Leela Ambience Gurgaon is taking a leap of faith by turning its poolside into a 69-seater restaurant, Skydeck Lounge, with a Greek menu washed down by ouzo, the anise-flavoured aperitif, and retsina wines, which have a more than 2,000-year-old history. It is the first five-star hotel to tread into this unfamiliar territory. I hope it's not the only one taking this plunge.

DINING OUT: Summer Menu Lifts Le Cirque New Delhi to a New Stratosphere

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

QUICK BITES

WHAT: Summer Menu at Le Cirque

WHERE: The Leela Palace New Delhi, Diplomatic Enclave, Chanakyapuri

WHEN: Dinner only

DIAL: (011) 39331390

AVG MEAL FOR TWO MINUS TAXES & ALCOHOL: Rs 7,000

(The restaurant doesn't levy service charge)

WHEN Le Cirque first opened on the rooftop of The Leela Palace New Delhi at Chanakyapuri, I went against prevailing wisdom and trashed its tired Franco-Italian menu, which, I discovered, was more or less the treatment being meted out to it by critics at the restaurant's birthplace, New York City. It was at this time that someone alerted me to the till-then undiscovered talent of Abhay Singh 'Mickey' Bhoite, the restaurant's Gujarati-born Italian executive chef. He could do much more than just replicate the mother restaurant's menu.

Mickey Bhoite, Le Cirque's
Chef de Cuisine, has proved to
be a fine orchestrator of the
unusual -- jasmine-smoked
scallops and pan-seared foie
gras with jamun confit, anyone?

Mickey grew up in Tuscany and worked at some of the world's best-known Italian restaurants before being handpicked by Le Cirque's Grand Old Man, Sirio Maccioni, to come over to Delhi. On arrival, Mickey at once attracted notice with his spiky hairstyle and sunny disposition. And stories started circulating about his lifelong love for venomous snakes (his collection of 60-plus of these slithering creatures back home in Italy is now in the custody of his mother), his passion for motorbikes and football (AC Juventus has his unwavering loyalty), and, as you'd expect from a chef of his standing, his mastery over contemporary gastronomic techniques such as sous vide, or  slow cooking in a water bath to ensure uniform cooking and protect the sanctity of the essential juices of meats. But we got to see very little of Mickey's repertoire.

Not any longer. Le Cirque's recently unveiled summer menu retains the popular classics such as the Porcini Consomme, Caesar Salad (with sunny side-up egg toast), Sirio's Pasta Primavera, Bistecca alla Fioentina (prepared with a chunky Angus T-bone steak), and Lobster Risotto, but it allows Mickey and his deputy, Federico Pucci, the freedom to give their creative instincts a free run. The formula seems to be working, for the restaurant, despite its steep prices, is forever full. The last time I was there, the celebrity diners included Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, his party colleague, Louise Khurshid, who was celebrating her promotion as senior citizen, the Iraqi ambassador, who had come with friends, and Kapil and Romi Dev, who were with an eclectic group at yet another private dining room.

Mickey loves to marry tastes and textures into seamless gastronomic experiences with the confidence that comes only when a chef understands his ingredients well. I asked him, for instance, about why he feels the need to import aubergines from France, and his reply made sense to me, despite his lengthy carbon footprint. Indian vegetables can be very temperamental -- sometimes, they taste like the best in the world; at other times, they are just not right. This can be extremely frustrating for a chef whose reputation is built upon consistency.

What I admire about Mickey is his memorable little creative touches, like presenting Asparagus Soup with buttermilk foam and salmon roe, or Wild Forest Mushrooms with parsnip puree, fava beans and hazelnuts, or Double Cooked Mozzarella with figs, arugula, aged  balsamic vinegar and  strawberry gazpacho (how cool!). His killer app, though, is the Pan Seared Foie Gras with perigordine sauce (a must for a Beef Wellington), caramelised peach, summery jamun confit (this is a touch of genius!) and toasted brioche. And Mickey's scallops come delicately jasmine-smoked, an idea that carries stamp (as does his Masala Tea Tiramisu).

Mickey brings an element of surprise to each dish, but the standouts are Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi (with spicy carrot reduction, caramelised onion and spinach cracker), Lamb Côtelette in Grissini Crunch (with cocoa butter, which is another inspired choice, like using grissini for crumbs, potato and roasted garlic mash, plus a mint and onion sauce in the style of the Argentinean 'chimichurri'), and Olive Oil Poached Black Cod (drizzled with fresh tomato and parsley guazzetto, or slow-cooked, sauce and burnt eggplant 'pestato'). A world of influences congregate on the plate and Mickey orchestrates this gastronomic symphony with the elan of a Zubin Mehta.

This restaurant review first appeared in Mail Today on Friday, June 26, 2014.
Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers