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

High Priest of Pastry Chefs Takes Delhi on a Guided Tour of His Magical World of Flavours

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

Pierre Herme explaining the finer points of a
macaroon at his tete-a-tete with the city's leading
chefs, restaurateurs and bloggers at Le Cirque,
The Leela Palace New Delhi, Chanakyapuri.
Picture: Courtesy of Rupali Dean

WHEN Chumki Bharadwaj, Associate Editor, India Today Spice, informed us that more than 90 invitees had confirmed their attendance for the 'High Tea with Pierre Herme' organised on Monday jointly by her publication and The Leela Palace New Delhi, Chanakyapuri, I expected all hell to break loose. But Rajesh Namby, the hotel's Executive Assistant Manager (F&B), did not bat an eyelid. With clockwork efficiency and dazzling speed, he re-arranged the seating at Le Cirque, the appropriately chosen venue of the event, and inspired the equally even-tempered Executive Chef Christophe Gillino to make food for a gathering of 100-plus leading chefs, restaurateurs and bloggers of the city. It is not for nothing that Namby has been named Delhi's Best F&B Manager not once but on several occasions by top critics, including Vir Sanghvi, and leading publications.

Herme, universally hailed as 'The Picasso of Pastry', was having a quite lunch at Megu, the hotel's Japanese restaurant, when all this action was happening. When he came up to Le Cirque with his charming wife and his company's president, Charles Znaty, after what seemed like a soul-satisfying meal, he looked a little apprehensive. To unwind him, I asked him how his Sunday visit to Agra was and he instantly broke into a sunny smile, and said, "It was beautiful! It was too beautiful!"

France's most celebrated patissier, whose macaroons and chocolates are in a league of their own, dispensed with the services of the interpreter and connected effortlessly with the audience, whose questions were as well-researched as the answers were well thought out. The session was studded with profound one-liners from Herme.

Herme sketches out the macaroons he conceives
and then writes detailed recipes below. Here's his
sketch of his best-known macaroon, Ispahan.
Picture: Courtesy of Rupali Dean

"If there are no flavours to invent, I would be dead," said the man who reinvented macaroons (or macarons, as he insisted on calling them, in the way a true-blue Frenchman would call these confections). "There's no conflict between tradition and creativity," he said when asked about how he viewed the contributions of molecular gastronomy to the pastry chef's craft. "When you're in pastry school, keep asking questions, keep demanding more. Don't just accept what your teachers tell you. I was known as the guy who asks too many questions," said the former student of Lenotre, which Sabyasachi Gorai described as "the Harvard of pastry chefs", in response to a question on how a newbie could aspire to become like him.

He also shared with us his personal gold standard. "A macaron should be slightly crunchy when you bite into it and then it must be soft, not chewy," he said, laying down the definition of perfection, which The Oberoi New Delhi's talented pastry chef, Vikas Vibhuti, hopes to follow to the last letter when he unveils his own line of these delicious little temptations that Herme has made us fall in love with.

At the India Today Conclave, Herme, who draws inspiration from around the world, did not say anything categorical about how India has influenced him, but on Monday, he talked about his love for Alphonso mangoes and his interest in mustard oil. "I have always wanted to taste mustard oil to be able to understand its flavours and I got to do it during my present visit," he said, without divulging more, in response to MasterChef India co-host and The Leela Gurgaon's Executive Sous Chef Kunal Kapur's suggestion that he should not leave the country without having Dal Makhni and Butter Chicken. Well, one of his famous macaroons, inspired by a visit to an olive oil press in Italy, has among its ingredients the green first-press olive oil, vanilla and individual green olives sliced by hand into three pieces.

Herme dazzled us with the array of ingredients that he uses in his macaroons and chocolates. Of course, we didn't get to bite into the ones with foie gras, white and black truffles, which Herme rolls out only during Christmas, but we did get to taste combinations of vanilla from Mexico, Madagascar and Tahiti, hazelnut from Piedmont, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, lemon from Sicily, and single-origin chocolate from, among other places, a Venezuelan village named Chuao, which has no proper road, but whose 122 cocoa farmers produce a magical ingredient for the patissier's repertoire.

"We always have 18 different kinds of chocolates on our menu," Hermes said -- and the point to note is that he never repeats a collection from one season to another. What about the rose-litchi-raspberry combination that has immortalised Ispahan, his most famous macaroon? "We have 42 recipes with this combination," said the man who revels in the fine art of "the management of combinations of flavours".

Herme was only 14 years old when he got interested in macaroons. That was the year 1976 and a macaroon then meant, to quote Herme, "two biscuits with just four different types of fillings". By now, Herme must have left a trail of several hundred flavour combinations, but he's constantly seeking out more. I now wonder when we'll get to savour a hint of mustard oil in his macaroons.

India Today Conclave to Showcase the Pastry Chef Who Made Macaroons A Global Gourmet Phenomenon

A part of this article has been drawn from the curtain-raiser I wrote for the Mail Today dated March 7, 2012.

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

IN THE 13-year history of the India Today Conclave, the only chef who has had anything to do with the country's definitive festival of ideas is a self-effacing man named Rajesh Wadhwa, who presides over the kitchens of the Taj Palace, New Delhi, and ensures that each gala dinner is more memorable than the one before.

A little later today, for the first time in the history of the India Today Conclave and its many copycats, a chef is going to take the centre-stage. France's most celebrated pastry chef and the god of macaroons, Pierre Herme, will showcase his world of flavours, first at a solo session and then at high tea, where the delegates will get to sample the confection that has the world from London to Qatar, Dubai and Tokyo eating out of his hand.

Pierre Herme is the youngest
man ever to be named France's
Pastry Chef of the Year. Picture
Copyright: Jean Louis Bloch Laine

Herme, who's on his first visit to India, is being presented by the Embassy of France. The Ambassador of France, Francois Richier, a master of nuclear diplomacy in the mould of our own Rakesh Sood, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, was worried that Herme's macaroons may sideline weightier matters such as nuclear power and the space programme.

It may happen, though, that the Picasso of Pastry, which is how Vogue magazine has described the patissier, wakes up the delegates and get them into the mood to discuss the eclectic range of subjects lined up for Conclave's Day Two -- from psephology to robotics, terror to space exploration, cinema to sanitation, and finally, Salman Khan on 'Being Human'. France is the Conclave's partner country -- and you can't imagine it without good food and wine. Hence Herme.

The youngest person to be named France's Pastry Chef of the Year, and the only member of his profession to be inducted into the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, the French equivalent of a knighthood, Herme is best-known for his unusual macaroons, his most famous creation being the one with olive oil and vanilla.

Christophe Gillino, a world-travelled Frenchman and Executive Chef of The Leela Palace New Delhi, underlined the importance of Herme when he said that the extraordinarily talented pastry chef was responsible for turning around the fortunes of two old French gourmet institutions -- Fauchon and Laduree. Then he went on to create an international chain of gourmet patisseries. Herme will interact with the city's pastry chefs and gourmet bloggers at Le Cirque, The Leela Palace New Delhi's signature restaurant, on Monday, March 10.

Heir to four generations of an Alsatian bakery and pastry-making tradition, Herme is not a stranger to generous accolades. Paris Match magazine has called Herme the "magician with tastes", The New York Times hailed him as "The Kitchen Emperor" and The Guardian described him as "The King of Modern Pâtisserie".

Herme, 52, started apprenticing with the pastry-making legend, Gaston Lenotre, when he was 14, and then went on to revolutionise his craft with his original philosophy of taste, sensations and pleasure. He was the one, for instance, who promoted the idea of the use of sugar as salt -- "as a seasoning to heighten other shades of flavour".

When Desserts by Pierre Herme was released in 1999, the world therefore wasn't surprised to see him overturning established norms by marrying unusual ingredients, such as black pepper and an optional sliver of habanero in his Warm Chocolate and Banana Tart, or a basil chiffonade as garnishing for his Basmati Rice and Fruits-of-the-Moment Salad.

He is a thinking person's pastry chef and a successful business baron who made the idea of 'Patisserie Haute Couture' an international statement of style, which has powered the growth of his chain of pastry shops from Tokyo in 1998 to France, England, Hong Kong, Qatar and Dubai.

Before he launched his empire of taste, Herme was the pastry chef for 11 years for the French fine food merchant, Fauchon, and in 1997, he was powering the expansion of another French institution, the luxury bakery, Laduree. He brings to New Delhi this vast experience and he will be here to talk about his life's journey with "pleasure as the only guide".

Gaggan's is Asia's No. 3 & Continent's Best Indian Restaurant; Indian Accent Rises 12 Notches, But At No. 29, Behind Bukhara's No. 27

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHEN I last met Gaggan Anand, the high priest of Progressing Indian Dining, at his namesake restaurant in Bangkok last year, he said it was his dream to reach the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants -- in the footsteps of his icon Ferran Adria, at whose laboratory he had mastered the techniques that make his kitchen special. He was then at No. 66 on the hallowed world list -- the only Indian restaurant to make it to that pantheon of greats -- and I thought he had a long way to go.

The winners pose for the photo-op on the Asia's 50 Best
Restaurants awards night at Capella Hotel in Sentosa,
Singapore, on Monday, February 23.

Not anymore. Gaggan, a Kolkata-born Taj alumnus who made Bangkok his home in 2007, is today at No. 3 of the Asian's Best 50 List, which was unveiled at a glittering awards ceremony at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore, on the night of Monday, February 23. He's up by seven notches from his 2013 ranking, next only to the list leader, Australian expat David Thompson's Nahm (also in Bangkok), and the No. 2, Yoshihiro Narisawa's eponymous Tokyo restaurant. That makes Gaggan's, without doubt, Asia's Best Indian restaurant.

That's also where the good news ends. For, India's Best, Bukhara at the ITC Maurya, figures 24 notches below Gaggan's, at No. 27. And Indian Accent, which is the closest to Gaggan's in style and deserving of a far better ranking, is at No. 29, thankfully up by 12 notches from its No. 41 in 2013. I still cannot fathom how you can have Bukhara, the last outpost of predictable dining that hasn't changed as long as Mount Everest has been around, Gaggan's, Indian Accent, Nahm and Narisawa on the same list.

I also wonder why Zorawar Kalra's Masala Library (Mumbai), which is Indian Accent's most serious challenger, Abhijit Saha's Caperberry (Bangalore), Rahul Akerkar's Indigo (Mumbai), the magician Vikramjit Roy's gastronomical laboratory, Pan Asian at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, or the brilliant Mickey Bhoite's creative playground, Le Cirque at The Leela Palace, New Delhi, not on the list. The Indian jury seems to be terribly out of sync with the country's changing reality, or it's too five-star-centric, that too stuck between ITC and Taj.

India is represented by six mostly uninspiring restaurants -- Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya, New Delhi (No. 30), which has lost its creative sparkle; Varq at The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (No. 32), which has quietly given up any claims to leadership on the Progressive Indian front; Wasabi by Morimoto at Taj Mumbai (No. 36), which is without doubt one of India's finest restaurants; and the has-been Karavalli at the Gateway Hotel on Residency Road, Bangalore  (No. 40).

India, like a patchy middle-order batsman, has been fumbling in the lower end of the list. Bangkok also has six names on the list, but the rankings of its restaurants, starting with Nahm and Gaggan, are far more impressive. Singapore leads the list with eight restaurants, followed by Japan with seven and Hong Kong with six.

Hong Kong's Fook Lam Moon, the unpretentious traditional Chinese restaurant that opened in Wamchai in 1948, has been the most spectacular climber, going up by 29 notches on a list where most restaurants have slipped. Barring Indian Accent, which has seen its ranking climb, the other Indian restaurants on the list have fallen behind -- Bukhara by one, Dumpukht by 13, Varq by two, Wasabi by Morimoto by 16 and Karavalli by five. The Best Indian Restaurant is now at No. 26, compared with No. 17 (Dumpukht) last year. But Indians at least have the consolation of savouring Gaggan's spectacular rise.

Carlsberg India Launches French Premium Beer Kronenbourg to Target Upscale Audience

Kronenbourg Blanc, with its distinctive citrusy notes,
was the favourite of all those who tasted the French
beer at Le Cirque, The Leela Palace New Delhi

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

FOR THE discerning drinker, beer conjures up images of lager louts breaking into an orgiastic frenzy at football stadiums, not a brew to be had within the rarefied confines of Le Cirque, The Leela Palace New Delhi’s chic rooftop restaurant. I have never been a great fan of Le Cirque, despite the magnificent views its offers, because there’s a clear disconnect (or so I came to believe after my previous meals there) between the prices it charges and the goods it delivers.

This past Wednesday I had one of my most memorable dinners of the year in the company of people I didn’t know (with the exception of the bright and immaculately attired Magandeep Singh), with a drink I normally don’t drink, except after a long day spent tasting wine.

The beer was Kronenbourg, the French beer acquired by the Carlsberg Group after it got a part of Scottish & Newcastle’s operations in the elaborate April 2008 deal that saw the Edinburgh-headquartered company being divided between Heineken and the Danish company. The world’s fifth oldest beer brand that still exists gets its full name, Kronenbourg 1664, from the year of the founding of the brewery in Strasbourg, France, the capital city of Alsace now famous for being the home of the European Parliament.

Brasseries Konenbourg was the brewery that Geronimus Hatt opened in 1664, but the institution acquired its present name only in 1850 after it moved to Cronenbourg, an area of Strasbourg. Today, after a series of mergers and acquisitions, Kronenbourg — by the way, it is the top premium beer brand in France commanding a 40 per cent market share in its home country — is produced in the Alsatian town of Obernai along with 300 other beers. Well, that’s how the beer business is organised in the world!

It is this pale lager that we started the proceedings with at Le Cirque over a conversation steered by Subodh Marwah, Marketing Director, Carlsberg India. He said the beer gets its distinctive taste from the hops that go into it. The strisselspalt, he said, with its distinctive floral aroma is the “caviar of hops” and a native of Alsace. And we know that Carlsberg takes its hops seriously — the three artistically represented leaves you see on its brand identity are hops. The “fundamental” ingredient of beer, though, is yeast — the one that goes into Carlsberg travels to each of the 106 countries where the beer is produced, so each of the six breweries the company operates in India (a seventh one is coming up in Bihar) uses the same yeast.

The brew we loved was the Kronenbourg Blanc, a wheat beer with addictive citrusy notes that kept drawing us back to it. It went along merrily with the four-course meal — Le Cirque’s signature Caesar’s salad; porcini risotto with a beetroot emulsion whose taste lingered on the palate; chunky chicken escalope in mushroom sauce; and the inimitable Floating Island. Marwah said the brand strategy for Kronenbourg is to reach out to a “very select audience” and introduce it to the beer through Sunday brunches at five-star hotels and pairing with food. Well, this was one beer and food match that seemed to have been made in heaven.

Before I sign off, let me share with you some of the interesting beer market facts that Marwah told us about.

* Chandigarh has the highest per capita consumption of beer — five litres per person, compared with the national average of two litres per person.

* India, minus Tamil Nadu (for some reason I couldn’t get a grip on, the state is kept out of the count), produces 1,800 million litres of beer in a year.

* Ours is an overwhelmingly strong beer-loving country — within three years, strong beers will constitute 90 per cent of the market.

* Andhra Pradesh is the largest beer market and it is the fastest-growing too.

* Carlsberg has the third largest share of the Indian market, after Kingfisher (50 per cent) and SABMiller India, the subsidiary of the South Africa-based global behemoth that makes strong beers such as Haywards and Knockout in the country.