Gaggan Anand Sets Out to Reinvent the Cuba Libre at his 11-Course Theatre of Molecular Gastronomy for Centurion Card Holders

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

A CULINARY team representing four nationalities -- Indian, Thai, Spanish and French -- is working overtime at the ITC Maurya even as I write this post to put together the first-ever Progressive Indian feast being curated by the inimitable Gaggan Anand in his mother country.

Gaggan Anand is all set to unveil
India's gastronomic event of the
year on September 4 in New Delhi.

The 11-course meal, priced at Rs 15,000 per person for owners of the American Express Centurion card, will feature items that are not on the menu of Gaggan's eponymous Bangkok restaurant ranked No. 3 in Asia and No. 17 in the world. These are being created especially for the two-city (Dellhi and Mumbai), eight-dinner event, facilitated by Mangal Desai and Nachiket Shetye's Cellar Door Kitchen. Among them will be a drink that Gaggan proudly calls the Indi Libre. An exciting take-off from the Cuba Libre, the concoction consists of the famous rum that Gaggan appropriately describes as "Rocky Mohan's Old Monk", ginger, kala namak and Thums Up (a far better choice, I believe, than the standard, sweeter Coke).

I met Gaggan at the hotel's 28th Floor Executive Lounge, where he'll present the four back to back dinners starting from Thursday, September 4. A bundle of positive energy sporting his trademark unkempt ponytail, Gaggan talked excitedly about the 250 kilos of ingredients that he and his team had carried with them from Bangkok to New Delhi. These include fresh yuzu and wasabi and one of Japan's best sake from Tokyo, fresh coconut milk extracted out of burnt Thai coconut from Bangkok, and white asparagus from Chiang Mai. For his genre-defining white chocolate paani poori, he contacted Cocoberry's Asian region head and got her to source for him the world's best white chocolate shells. And he has also brought along his dehydrator, his liquid nitrogen mixing bowls and a host of other gizmos from his kitchen, apart from customised Gaggan-endorsed sake cups made in Japan.

Foie gras was the only favourite ingredient of his that Gaggan could not get. "But why has the government issued a blanket ban on foie gras?" he asked -- and added: "Not all foie gras is extracted out of force-fed geese. I get my supplies from the Spanish ethical farmer, Eduardo Sousa, who produces the world's best foie gras without force-feeding his birds." At Gaggan's restaurant, no farmed fish is allowed and 70 per cent of the fresh ingredients used are organically grown.

Gaggan's 11-course meal will be more or less carb-free, so there'll be no "naan breads", he warned, though a truffle oil risotto will take care of carb cravings of the guests. Among Gaggan's exclusive creations for this series of meals is a drink he has named Yos (Japanese for 'drunk') Samurai -- it comprises an exclusive sake, umezu (pickled plum 'vinegar') and fresh juice of a yuzu, the tart citrus fruit that physically looks like a small grapefruit. Coconut lassi is the other one, but the matcha (green tea) ice-cream sandwiches with a topping of freshly grated wasabi are designed to take the privileged diners by surprise.

For Dalal, who first met Gaggan two years ago when both were in Copehagen for an internship at Rene Redzepi's Noma restaurant, and Shetye, it's the first big step towards "taking Indian cuisine to the world". Of course, they had their moments of fun (and creative tension) -- "our WhatsApp exchanges, if not R-rated, are certainly Not Safe For Work!" Dalal said with a chuckle -- but they were surprised by the spontaneous interest in the event. "We didn't have to scream and shout that Gaggan is coming," Shetye said about the response to the sold-out event. "I am surprised by the buying power of Delhi," Gaggan added.

Unsurprisingly, Dalal and Shetye are planning four pop-up events next year. Gaggan has already mentally mapped out his next outing in India -- a picnic brunch at a Himalayan resort with freshly sourced local ingredients (you can't get any cooler than that!). With such electric excitement in the air, it was hard to let Gaggan get back to work. He returned to the kitchen with one worry hanging over his head. Would all his guests arrive sharp at 8? Forewarned about Delhi's habit of being always fashionably late, he said with a degree of finality: "Those who come late will have to start at the course that is being served." Consider yourself cautioned.

The Lalit's 28th Floor Gets New Gastronomic Destination Set to Open on Aug. 15 Weekend

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

The Grill Room at The Lalit's 28th floor is all
set to re-open with a tempting new menu

THE LALIT'S rooftop, perched on the 28th floor, is one of Delhi's prized pieces of real estate offering a panoramic view of the sights that define the Capital, from the Ba'hai Lotus Temple to India Gate, Red Fort and Jama Masjid, and Akshardham Temple. It has seen two Thai restaurants, first the Silk Orchid and then the international franchise, Blue Elephant, come and go on one side, and a grill-based restaurant on the other, which has seen many avatars, and is all set now to re-open on the Independence Day weekend as The Grill Room presided over by the talented Ishika Konar, an IHM-Kolkata alumna whom I'd first met at the Pullman Gurgaon Central Park.

Pullman's loss clearly has been The Lalit's gain. And she's fortunate to have as her guide the brilliant chef, Nimish Bhatia, a fount of knowledge and experience who assiduously stays away from the limelight. Bhatia is the Corporate Chef of The Lalit group, so he has collected more frequent flyer miles than most people I know, because he has 11 hotels under his charge, and he has been slowly but surely making a difference to their restaurant offerings.

I got a foretaste of the combination of Bhatia's vision and Konar's skills -- she's a dab hand at the grill -- at a preview dinner where I had been invited by my Delhi Gourmet Club partner in crime, Rocky Mohan, who's too well-known to be re-introduced. Ravinder Kumar, The Lalit's Corporate General Manager (F&B), and the chain's most reliable pillar of strength, gave us company and was his quietly witty self.

As our conversation moved from a discussion on micro-greens to foreign imports imperilled by the new food safety and standards law, to Rocky's experience at The French Laundry, we had a remarkable meal (each one of us ordered different items) of goat's cheese and onion jam tart, cheese empanadas, grilled prawns with a soul-nourishing beurre blanc, baked and blow-torched provolone, grilled Cornish hen's breast (as succulent as they come!) and a wagyu-style steak that didn't require a knife to be cut, such was the extent of the marbling. As you'd expect from a good chef, Bhatia did not make us believe that the steak had just been flown in from Japan, which is not possible under that country's law; it had come from America, he clarified.
The Grill Room is all about honest food, down to the flavoured salts served with the breads, the piri piri sauce and the morel mash. A welcome addition to Delhi's gastronomic repertoire.

Manjit Gill Flags Off Top Chef Awards Voting; Nominees List Out; Good News From Elle & Vire

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

MANJIT GILL, Corporate Chef, ITC Hotels, and President, Federation of Indian Culinary Associations, green-flagged the online voting for the Delhi Gourmet Club's Top Chef Awards 2014 on July 18 with the stirring declarations that chefs are "the custodians of the nation's nutrition".

Chef Manjit Gill (with red turban), flanked by
David Hopcroft, General Manager, Pullman
Gurgaon Central Park (to Gill's right) and yours
truly, with Delhi Gourmet Club founder-members
Rocky Mohan (far left of the picture) and Atul
Sikand at the hospitality trade media briefing
on the Top Chef Awards Delhi-NCR 2014. 

Gill had chaired the nine-member jury that shortlisted the names of the 48 nominees in 14 categories who will vie for the vote of the Delhi Gourmet Club's 5,500-strong Facebook community of food aficionados. "Chefs are no longer responsible for your indigestion," Gill said on a lighter note at the briefing and then added: "They not only safeguard your digestion, but also ensure the absorption of the nutrients in the food they cook. Awards such as these will only make them more committed to their profession and encourage them to deliver their best."

Puneet Sharma, Dean, School of Hospitality,
G.D. Goenka University, which has partnered
Le Cordon Bleu to provide hospitality
education in India, also spoke at the
hospitality trade media briefing on July 18.

DGC's founder-members -- Rocky Mohan, Atul Sikand and yours truly -- released the list of nominees to the hospitality industry media at a briefing held at La Riviera, the much-awarded European restaurant of the Pullman Gurgaon Central Park. Members of the Club will cast their online votes till July 22, 12 midnight, by logging on to www.topchefawards.com.

The invitees and the speakers gather around the
Moltini, the Rolls Royce of show kitchens,
at La Riviera, the award-winning European
restaurant at Pullman Gurgaon Central
Park, which was the venue of the
hospitality trade media briefing,

The results of the vote will be declared at a gala event, expected to be attended by Parvez Dewan, Secretary, Tourism, Government of India, and the leading luminaries of the hospitality industry, at the Pullman Gurgaon Central Park on July 27. DGC will also honour the chefs who have been nominated by the jury (these awards are not up for voting) for the Best Young Chef, Chef Leader of the Year and Lifetime Achievement awards.

On the eve of the announcement, there was good news for the winners of the awards for the Pastry/Bakery Chef of the Year (Five-Star and Independent) from Elle & Vire, the brand of butter and cream preferred by professional chefs across the world. A co-sponsor of the event, Elle & Vire has said it will gift to each of the two winners an all-expenses-paid trip to Bangkok to attend a three-day bakery programme led by the world-renowned Eric Perez at the Macaron Pastry Training Centre on September 18-20.

An illustrious chef from Toulouse, France, Perez has represented the U.S. and won medals at the Pastry World Cup in Lyon, work with the Ritz-Carlton and the upper-crust pastry shop, La Maison, in Shanghai, launched his own chain under the brand name Visage, where he lifted pastry art to a level not seen before, and then opened the Macaron Pastry Training Centre (www.macaronbkk.com) on Soi Sukhumvit 63, Bangkok, to share his vast knowledge with "young and old, professional and enthusiast".

The media briefing was also addressed by David Hopcroft, General Manager, Pullman Gurgaon Central Park, who lauded DGC for "doing the right things" and pledged his hotel's wholehearted support for the first-of-its-kind initiative. Pullman Gurgaon Central Park is the co-presenter of the event. Puneet Sharma, Dean of the School of Hospitality, G.D. Goenka University, which has joined hands with Le Cordon Bleu's famed hospitality management and culinary arts programmes, also spoke at the media briefing. He said the Top Chef Awards Delhi-NCR 2014 was the first industry-focused activity of Le Cordon Bleu-G.D. Goenka University and he expressed the hope that this would be the beginning of many more such collaborations.

Top Chef Awards Delhi-NCR 2014: An Overview

For the first time in the country, the Delhi Gourmet Club is organising an awards evening dedicated exclusively to chefs who have quietly contributed to the success of Delhi-NCR's celebrated restaurants. At the Top Chef Awards Delhi-NCR 2014 on July 27, the Delhi Gourmet Club, in association with the Pullman Gurgaon Central Park, is giving these chefs the limelight they deserve at a gala event where the chief guest will be the Secretary, Tourism, Government of India, Shri Parvez Dewan, and leaders of the hospitality industry will be in attendance.

Giving DGC support for this first-of-its-kind consumer initiative to honour Delhi-NCR's top chefs are some of world's finest brands. The event is being powered by hospitality education leader Le Cordon Bleu and its Indian partner, G.D. Goenka University. Its lead co-sponsors are leading food and beverage brands Elle & Vire (French; dairy products), Delverde (Italian; pasta), Torani (American; juices, mixers and smoothies) and Granini (German; fruit juices). The other co-sponsor is Nestle Professional, a global network of 10,000-plus professionals providing top-drawer culinary and beverage solutions to businesses around the world.

Massive Restaurants Pvt. Ltd., the banner behind the ground-breaking Masala Library, Made in Punjab and Farzi Cafe restaurants; FnS, the brand behind a new generation of cutlery; and Foodhall, the Future Group's premium multi-city food destination, are the award sponsors. Beam Global is the beverage partner, offering Teacher's Single Malt, Teacher's Original, Jim Beam bourbon and Sauza tequila.

And the nominees are...

Award for Excellence in North Indian Cuisine (Five Star)

*Gaurav Tandon, Masala Art (Taj Palace)

*Ghulam Qureishi, Dum Pukht (ITC Maurya)

*Karan Singh, Dhaba (The Claridges)

*Shams Parvez, Made In India (Radisson MBD, Noida)

Award for Excellence in North Indian Cuisine (Standalone)

*Bernard Mondal, Kwality

*Chiquita Gulati, Gulati's Spice Market

*Gurpreet Singh Gehdu, Punjab Grill

*Pradeep Khullar, Chor Bizarre

Award for Excellence in South Indian/Coastal Cuisine (Five Star)

*Ravi Vatsyayan, Amaranta (The Oberoi Gurgaon)

*Velu Murugan, Dakshin (Sheraton New Delhi)

Award for Excellence in South Indian/Coastal Cuisine (Standalone)

*Arun Kumar TR, Zambar

*Pawan Jumbagi, Carnatic Cafe

Jiggs Kalra Award for Excellence in Modern Indian Cuisine

*Anshuman Adhikari, Diya (The Leela Gurgaon)

*Harangad Singh, Varq (The Taj Mahal Hotel)

*Shantanu Mehrotra, Indian Accent

Award for Excellence in Best Regional Cuisine (Standalone)

*Cris Fernandez, Bernardo's

*Bhaskar Dasgupta, Oh Calcutta

*Shekhar Bhujel, Yeti: The Himalayan Kitchen

Award for Excellence in Asian Cuisine (Five Star)

*Nilesh Dey, Wasabi (The Taj Mahal Hotel)

*Yutaka Saito, Megu (The Leela Palace New Delhi)

*Zhang Hongsheng, China Kitchen (Hyatt Regency New Delhi)

Award for Excellence in Asian Cuisine (Standalone)

* Khoo Thiam Huat, Royal China

*Kim Suk Hee, Gung The Palace

*Lok Prasad Subba, Yum Yum Tree

Award for Excellence in European Cuisine (Five Star)

*D.N. Sharma, Orient Express (Taj Palace)

*Federico Pucci, Le Cirque (The Leela Palace New Delhi)

*Rajeev Sinha, Sevilla (The Claridges)

Award for Excellence in European Cuisine (Standalone)

*Jerome Cousins, Rara Avis

*Nira Kehar, Chez Nini

*Shamsul Wahid, Smoke House Deli

*Sujan Sarkar, Olive Bar & Kitchen

*Suman Sharma, Tonino

Pastry/Bakery Chef of the Year (Five Star)

*Devendra Bungla, Hyatt Regency

*Vikas Vibhuti, The Oberoi New Delhi

*Anil Kumar, Pullman Gurgaon Central Park

Pastry/Bakery Chef of the Year (Independent)

*Avanti Mathur

*Jaya Kochhar

*Kishi Arora

Best New Entrant of the Year

*Anahita Dhondy, Soda Bottle Opener Wala

*John Oh and Kurt Michael, Akira Back

*Rahul Dua, Cafe Lota

*Vikram Khatri, Guppy by Ai

*Yenjai Suthiwaja, Neung Roi

Best Restaurant Manager of the Year

*Sarabjeet Singh Bhalla, K3 (JW Marriott, New Delhi Aerocity)

*Deepak Rawat, Megu (The Leela Palace New Delhi)

*Shipra Pradhan, Le Cirque (The Leela Palace New Delhi)

*Malvika Sahay, Wasabi (The Taj Mahal Hotel)

*Deepak Shettigar, threesixtydegrees (The Oberoi New Delhi)

Turning Point Wines Get A Capital Welcome as Delhi Gourmet Club Serves Paradise on a Plate

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

IT WAS only appropriate that the wines being showcased at the Delhi Gourmet Club's 68th event are called Turning Point. DGC's first-ever al fresco wazwan lunch on Saturday, January 25, was indeed a turning point for the club, which is now, despite being a 'Secret Group', a 5,000-strong Facebook community.

Delhi Gourmet Club's founder-member Rocky
Mohan (left) with Shafi Waza, one of the four
brothers who are carrying forward the great
gastronomical legacy of Khan Abdul Ahad
Waza. Picture: Shalini Chauhan

It was the first time that the club had invited a well-known catering company, none other than the inimitable Ahad Sons, which is carrying forward the legacy of Khan Abdul Ahad Waza, to present a traditional 16-course wazwan lunch. A celebratory wazwan meal can accommodate up to 32 courses, but the club's three founder-members (Rocky 'Mr Old Monk' Mohan, Atul 'The Guru of Sikandalous Cuisine' Sikand and yours truly) decided that 16 would be more than enough! And believe me, they were.

Of course, with Rocky, whose book Wazwan: Traditional Kashmiri Cuisine is the most insightful on the subject, to guide us, with the suave Shafi Waza, the third of the four brothers who are now the custodians of Ahad Waza's legacy, personally supervising the proceedings, and with Mohit 'Chowder Singh' Balachandran orchestrating the service with club member Nikhil Alung, we could expect the lunch to be a memorable affair, even though the weather wasn't.

Turning Point wines, which have just been launched
in Delhi and Gurgaon, share the limelight with
the invincible Old Monk, Ketel One and Bacardi.
Picture: Ajay Gautam

It was a cold and gloomy day (we joked that we had brought Srinagar's weather to Delhi), and the ever-hospitable Rocky, at whose sprawling Vasant Kunj farmhouse the lunch had been laid out, was worried that the chairs would be wet. The weather made no difference to the elevated spirits on the ground, for there was enough warmth to be had from the wood fires, the lavish spread of delectable wazwan dishes, and Turning Point wines, which have just been launched in Delhi and Gurgaon after a fairly good run in Mumbai and Pune.

Turning Point is the brainchild of Ashwin Deo, whom many of you'll remember as the man who steered Moet Hennessy India very successfully in the company's early days. A product of Nashik's wine lands, Turning Point is India's first wine label that addresses young people, the  country's largest population segment that hasn't evinced much interest in wine.

I suspect it is because wine has been presented in a manner that it comes across as some 'serious' drink that only 'connoisseurs' can appreciate. The truth is, wine, like any other alcoholic beverage, is meant to be savoured in the company of friends, with good food to accompany it, and not intellectualised upon. Turning Point wines draw you in with their bottle design -- it's sassy, youthful, vibrant. You just have to keep a bottle on your table to get people talking about the wine. It's a great ice-breaker.

But Turning Point wines have more to offer than their sleek bottles and meaningful conversations. The wines are made from grapes sourced with great care from contract farmers in Nashik, and matured and bottled at Ravi and Kailash Gurnani's York winery with expert advice from the roving biochemist-turned-oenologist from Bordeaux, Marc Dworkin. I had the Turning Point Rosé, made from Zinfandel grapes, and I was surprised by its lively freshness. It was not overly sweet; instead, it balanced crisp acidity with a hint of fruitiness.

I thought I would stick with the Rosé, but I changed my mind after I had the Cabernet Shiraz. It was young, flavourful and delicately balanced. The vines from where the grapes are sourced for the Turning Point Cabernet Shiraz are 10-15 years old, yet there's no rawness in the wine, which made it a perfect match for the food that was served piping hot from silver containers by by Shafi's men, all clad in white kurta, pyjama and skull cap.

And what a feast it was, from the nadru (lotus stem) fritters and mutton lahabi kebabs circulated as appetisers during the meet-and-greet hour, to the pounded mutton kofta with an apricot at the centre, the ruwangan chaman (my most favourite paneer dish), the unbeatable Hind roghan josh and its polar opposite, the aab gosht (mutton cooked in a milk curry), the unputdownable haak (Kashmiri spinach) and monje (turnips), the spongy gushtaba bearing the unmistakable Ahad Waza stamp, and the sooji halwa, phirni and kahwa (Kashmiri tea) at the end. It was a meal I won't forget in a long time.

For DGC, it was without doubt a landmark event -- a brilliant showcase of a regional cuisine rooted in tradition and a new wine label that has set out to re-write the old, cobwebbed rules of wine drinking.

Delhi Gourmet Club Rates Masala Art's Dal Makhni Above Dal Bukhara; Moti Mahal Delux at No. 15

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

THE world of Dal Makhni won't be the same again. An 11-member Delhi Gourmet Club (DGC) tasting panel led by 'Mr Old Monk' and author of critically acclaimed cookbooks, Rocky Mohan, voted the Dal Makhni served at Masala Art, Taj Palace, as Delhi's Best.

The judgment should send ripples of shock along the corridors of neighbouring ITC Maurya because its famed Dal Bukhara has been unseated from its perch at the top by the judges who conducted a blind tasting of 24 Dal Makhni samples in three batches of eight across three days.

The last lot of Dal Makhni samples that were tasted
by the Delhi Gourmet Club panel led by its
founder-member, Rocky Mohan.
Photo by Rajeev Gulati

Just one point separates the weighted average of Masala Art's Dal Makhni and that of the venerable Dal Bukhara (70.44 vs 69.44), though, if I had my way, my vote would have gone to the Langarwali Dal at Taj Palace! Bukhara is separated by a whisker from (surprises don't cease!) Jamawar at The Leela Palace New Delhi (69.11) and Baluchi at The Lalit (68.44). So, just two points separate No. 1 and No. 4. It must be the closest contest ever. Spice Art at Crowne Plaza, Rohini (No. 19; 36.89) and Dhaba at The Claridges (No. 20; 30.67) are at the bottom of the heap.

The results must have taken the jury by surprise, which may explain why its members decided unanimously to honour Dal Bukhara with the Hall of Fame Award. It is indeed the benchmark, although Monish Gujral of Moti Mahal Delux (MMD) insists that it was his grandfather, the legendary Kundan Lal Gujral, who invented Dal Makhni, along with Butter Chicken. The jury had a shock in store for MMD.

It has been a real comedown for the self-declared inventor of this post-Partition Punjabi restaurant dish, which the rest of the country regards as an insult to our favourite urad dal (acclaimed columnist Vir Sanghvi calls Dal Makhni a "dairy product"). MMD's Dal Makhni is at No. 15 with 49.56 points! If the recipe given by Monish Gujral in his book, Moti Mahal's Tandoori Trail (Roli Books), is anything to go by, you might as well have lots of milk, butter and cream and start imagining that you've had dal!

Here's the list of ingredients used by Moti Mahal Delux (and it's pretty much true for all Dal Makhni variants, including Dal Bukhara, except that it uses only urad dal, or black gram): Urad Dal, whole, 3-1/3 cups or 500gm; Kidney Beans (Rajma), 1-3/4 cups or 250gm; Bengal Grams (Chana Dal), 1-3/4 cups or 250gm; Milk, 5 cups or 1 litre; Tomato Puree, 5 cups or 1 litre; Red Chilli Powder, 25gm; Cumin (Jeera) powder, 25gm; Garam Masala, 25gm; Butter, 1 kg; Cream, 2-1/2 cups or 500ml; Salt to taste. Did someone say this is dal?!

A Punjabi grandma would have an nervous breakdown if she were told this is a Punjabi dish. Sanghvi blames this on post-Partition Punjabi migrant restaurateurs from Peshawar, whose idea of making a dish shahi (blue-blooded) was to pump it up with butter, cream and tomatoes, and he extensively quotes ITC's hotelier-at-large Gautam Anand, who's also a brilliant blogger, to back his view.

Having said all this, I have to point out that Dal Makhni, like Butter Chicken, has a dedicated following, including the 11 brave men and women on the jury who went through the tasting exercise with dedication and passion. The jury represent the average anonymous consumer who keeps restaurants in business--just one of them is a hospitality industry consultant. And as with the previous Delhi Gourmet Club panels, which judged Delhi/NCR's best butter chicken, hamburgers, seekh kebabs (which, incidentally, was won by Bukhara), pizzas, dosas and now Dal Makhni, it is the voice of the average anonymous consumer that gets expressed in these results.

The rest of the list makes for interesting reading because of the fractional differences between the various contenders. Is this because of the fundamental uniformity in the Dal Makhni recipes across restaurants? Dal Bukhara is made with bottled water, others are not, but that doesn't seem to have helped its cause! Some may be using full-fat cream, others may not. Some may be using salted butter, others may not. The results show that there's no real product differentiation in Dal Makhni offerings across restaurants.

Before I wrap up, here are the rankings of the rest of the restaurants, other than the ones already mentioned, that made it to the First 20:

4. HAVEMORE @ PANDARA ROAD (63.89)

5. SET'Z @ DLF EMPORIO, VASANT KUNJ (62.89)

6. MINAR @ CONNAUGHT PLACE, OUTER CIRCLE (60.89)

7. INVITATION @ ASHOK VIHAR (56.44)

8. KWALITY @ PARLIAMENT STREET, CONNAUGHT PLACE (56.11)

9. MOET @ DEFENCE COLONY (56.00)

10. MADE IN PUNJAB @ DLF CYBER HUB, GURGAON (55.78)

11. THE GREAT KEBAB FACTORY @ RADISSON BLU PLAZA, MAHIPALPUR (53.89)

12. GULATI @ PANDARA ROAD (53.44)

13. EMBASSY @ CONNAUGHT PLACE (50.89)

14. KASBAH @ N-BLOCK MARKET, GK-I (50.67)

15. MOTI MAHAL @ M-BLOCK MARKET, GK-I (49.56)

16. MUGHAL BBQ (49.22)

17. UNITED COFFEE HOUSE @ CONNAUGHT PLACE (45.33)

18. MUGHAL MAHAL @ M-BLOCK MARKET, GK-II (40.78)

(This blogger is a founder-member of the Delhi Gourmet Club, but the views expressed in this post are entirely personal.)

Olive Bar & Kitchen Tops Delhi Gourmet Club's Best Pizza of Delhi/NCR Ranking

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

The Olive Bar & Kitchen team posing for a photo-op with
the Best Pizza Trophy being handed over by Rocky Mohan
and other members of the Delhi Gourmet Club jury

AFTER enjoying a long Diwali weekend, I am back with a bucketful of news, starting with the announcement of the Delhi Gourmet Club's Pizza Hunt results. When I look back at the evolution of the pizza in our city, I remember the days when the Nirula's Keema Do Pyaza Pizza used to be my post-examination treat from my father. The pizza crust used to be like toast, with shredded Amul processed cheese filling in for mozzarella, the 'tomato puree' suspiciously seeming to be straight out of a ketchup bottle, and the keema do pyaza was unevenly spread on top, with the serving getting thinner as the pizza got popular. Of course, there was also the pepperoni pizza, which was hugely popular (with good reason!), but I discovered it much later.

I am speaking of the early 1980s, when a pizza was a treat that few middle-class families could afford. That was when Taxila, the city's only respectable Continental restaurant on the Maurya rooftop, was struggling to survive, and so was Valentino at the fledgling Hyatt Regency, which made way for the juggernaut named La Piazza. It was La Piazza, together (a little later) with Italian electrical engineer-turned-restaurateur Tarsillo Natalone's Flavors, which ended Delhi's pizza virginity. In fact, the opening chef of La Piazza, who was an Austrian, was so pernickety about the restaurant's Neapolitan pizzas that he banned the waiters from dousing them with Tabasco sauce or chilli flakes. The waiters, as a result, had to smuggle bottles of both in their jacket pockets to serve their contents on the sly.

Since those early days, we have seen Ritu Dalmia introduce Delhi to the wonders of the wood-fired oven at Diva. We have had Bill Marchetti inaugurate one with great fanfare at Pavilion, the all-day restaurant at the ITC Maurya, but the restaurant never became famous for pizzas. We have watched Olive Bar & Kitchen turn pizza slices, freshly out of the wood-fired oven, into popular party snacks in the days when the trio of Anirban Sarkar, Mohit Balachandran and Sabyasachi 'Saby' Gorai had made the restaurant a force to reckon with. And Mist at The Park, in the days of Bakshish Dean (the golden age of the Connaught Place hotel's culinary journey), rolled out such novelties of the time as the smoked salmon and quattro formaggi pizzas.

Of course, we had our share of PR gimmicks as well, such as the pizza priced at Rs 9,999 (its toppings included a generous helping of beluga and lobster), with which The Qube opened its doors at The Leela Palace Chanakyapuri. It was the creation of the hotel's then executive chef, the affable American, Glenn Eastman, who formerly presided over the kitchen at the personal yacht of the world's richest man, Mexican telecoms tsar Carlos Slim Helu. Talking about Americans and pizzas, India is well on its way to becoming one of the top five market for Domino's, which straddles across 55 per cent of the country's Rs 1,300-1,400-crore organised pizza market. Pizza Hut is hot in pursuit, followed at a respectable distance by players such as Papa John's and Sbarro, and now, JSM Hospitality, the company behind Shiro and Hard Rock Cafe, is ready to roll out California Pizza Kitchen in Delhi/NCR after a successful run in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

With Delhi's pizza offerings getting more diverse than ever, it has become important for food connoisseurs to get a sense of where they can get the best pizzas in the city and its upscale suburbs. True to its record of becoming the final arbiter of taste in the city, the Delhi Gourmet Club, led by 'Mr Old Monk' and author of four well-received cookbooks, Rocky Mohan, went on a whirlwind hunt for the best pizza, covering 15 restaurants a record three weeks.

The jury consisted of a mixed group of well-travelled people united by a passion for food but representing the universe of Delhi restaurants--a couple of home-makers, a social media marketer, a management consultant, a well-known restaurateur, and even a professor of human rights at a reputed law school. Each of them spent Rs 5,000, tasting a basic margherita pizza followed by a gourmet pizza at each of the 15 restaurants, over five nights to arrive at a ranking that is refreshingly honest, though some of the big names in the business may not agree with their relegation to the lower end of the list.

My big complaint against the jury is that it left out Flavors and Cilantro at The Trident, Gurgaon, which, I maintain, has been consistent with the superior quality of its pizzas. I wholeheartedly endorse the No. 1 position going to Olive Bar & Kitchen, but I was left wondering how threesixtydegrees at The Oberoi managed to be No. 2 -- I have never known of anyone going there to ask for a pizza. Fat Lulu, in my opinion, should have been No. 2, not No. 3. But the shocker was Diva ending at the bottom of the heap, at No. 15. The news made me lapse into a state of violent disbelief followed by shock. Has Ritu Dalmia allowed her restaurant to slip to such an extent or was it a bad dough day? Anyway, without more quibbles, let me share the ranking with you:

Olive  Bar & Kitchen, Mehrauli, 79.33; threesixtydegrees, The Oberoi New Delhi, 74.50; Fat Lulu, Gurgaon, 70.50; San Gimignano, The Imperial, 68.50; La Piazza, Hyatt Regency, 68.44; Sen5es, Pullman Gurgaon, 66.25; Sartoria, Vasant Vihar, 62.93; Mistral, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, 62.20; Prego, The Westin, Gurgaon, 60.57; La Tagliatella, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, 58.47; The Qube, The Leela Palace Chanakyapuri, 53.35; Amici, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, 50.36; Tonino, Andheria More, Mehrauli, 48.57; Mist, The Park, Parliament Street, 43.22; Diva, M-Block, Greater Kailash-II, 42.88.

So, how do you rate a pizza? Did the jury follow certain guidelines? Rocky shared them with the Delhi Gourmet Club before posting the results. Though Rocky did not mention this fact, you'll find the pointers in the blog 'A Gravy Train with Biscuit Wheels'. Anyway, here they are:

Is the crust worth eating on its own? Or is it simply a load-bearing device to hold up massive quantities of toppings (not necessarily a bad thing, but not usually seen in the best pizzerias)?

Is the bread dense or airy?

Do the individual toppings taste good on their own? Would you eat them if they were served on an appetiser plate alone? Or do they need cheese, bread and tomato sauce to work.

What types of cheeses are being used? Would the cheese(s) also taste okay on its own?

Is there a lot of sauce, a sauce drought, or is it in-between? Is the sauce delicious on its own?

Does it rely on salt or sugar for a strong taste?

Does the pizza remain tasty and interesting from start to finish? Or does the pizza have a great first bite, but then become an uninteresting trudge to finish eating. Over-salted pizzas can definitely fall into this trap. If you wish to check out the original, go to http://cincinnatimalavita.blogspot.in/2012/12/how-to-judge-great-pizza.html. 

Interesting pointers! Keep these in mind the next time when you to have a gourmet pizza experience.

Chefs Share Seekh Kebab Secrets as Delhi Gourmet Club Honours Bukhara, Chor Bizarre & Kwality

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHAT’S the secret of the perfect seekh kebab? I asked this question of three chefs, all winners of the Delhi Gourmet Club’s Best Seekh Kebab of Delhi/NCR title, and none of them was as forthright as Pradeep Khullar of Chor Bizarre.

Delhi Gourmet Club's seekh kebab jury members with chefs
Purshottam Singh (right) and Balkishen (left) at the Bukhara

Yours truly giving away the first runners-up certificate to
Pratik Sinha, General Manager, Chor Bizarre, and Master
Chef Pradeep Khullar. To my left is Rocky Mohan, the
captain of the jury, and behind us is the inveterate
travelling gourmand Rajeev Gulati

Kwality scion Divij Lamba and Master Chef Bernard Mandal,
flanked by the men who run the restaurant and seekh kebab
jury members, hold the certificate for the second runner-up.
 All images by Ajay Gautam

The bright young chef, who looks as if he never eats the food he cooks, said it was the right proportion of a goat’s kidney fat (250 gm for every 750 gm of mutton mince) to give the seekh kebabs their sheen and bound and Amul processed cheese to act as the binder. “Without these two key ingredients, it is impossible for us to conceive our seekh kebabs,” said the genial chef, whom I had some time back given the trophy for the best roghan josh at Food & Nightlife magazine’s Delhi’s Most Delicious Awards. The other Chor Bizarre secret is to use ginger and garlic paste, instead of using these whole, to produce those juicy temptations that inveigle you to keep eating till you lose track of time.

The Delhi Gourmet Club’s demanding jury led by Rocky ‘Mr Old Monk’ Mohan, though, ranked Chor Bizarre at No. 2, with Bukhara’s meaty seekh kebabs (70-80 gm apiece, I was told, which makes a plate of four a complete meal) besting the Old World Hospitality restaurant by just two points. The styles of the two kebabs are distinctly different — Bukhara’s were mutton-first, chunky Frontier-style beauties, whereas Chor Bizarre were smoother, softer, more gentrified. They’re like the village woman made famous by Nawaz Sharif acquiring an urban gloss. It’s because less fat (not more than 20 per cent) goes into the Bukhara seekh kebabs to maintain their rusticity.

At Bukhara, we missed the on-tour-to-Kolkata Executive Chef J.P. Singh, who, it is said, has fed more heads of state than we can count on our fingers many times over, but we had the good fortune of meeting his able deputies — Purshottam Singh, whose professorial looks and athletic frame (he used to run up to the top of the ITC Maurya’s Towers block every day when he was younger) doesn’t give away his profession, and Balkishen, who has travelled the world, from New York to Ajman to Hong Kong, with the Bukhara brand since the time of the legendary Madan Lal Jaiswal, the brilliant chef who passed away in a car crash. They are the architects of a brand that feeds over 400 people a day and makes more money than any other restaurant in the country.

At No. 3, and a good eight points behind Chor Bizarre, was Kwality. Being a lover of gloss and glam, I am a great admirer of Kwality’s to-die-for succulent seekh kebabs, so I was quite heart-broken by the No. 3 spot, but when the tussle involves 15 formidable restaurants (shortlisted from 30 by members of the Delhi Gourmet Club), final rankings can spring surprises.

I couldn’t resist asking Divij Lamba, the Kwality scion who’s a Cornell and Yale alumnus and has done stints at the Brookings Institute and the Senate Office of Hillary Clinton, how the restaurant always manages to get its seekh kebabs right. He gave the credit entirely to the success of his chefs in not deviating from the age-old recipe followed at the restaurant. Kwality’s Master Chef Bernard Mandal, a man of few words and a welcoming smile, nodded in approval. Beyond learning that the main ingredients were love and care, I couldn’t gather more from the Kwality team, which included the company’s CEO, Prashant Narula.

ITC Maurya’s General Manager, Anil Chadha, asked us who the members of the jury were and how they were chosen. Well, Rocky Mohan, who being the author of four acclaimed cookbooks knows his seekh kebabs better than most, put together the jury comprising a mix of food enthusiasts who had eaten around the world and professionals who took the trouble of visiting each of the 15 restaurants unannounced and assessing the seekh kebabs, at their own expense, on four criteria: quality of the meat; taste; add-ons; presentation.

The judges were Mohit Balachandran, AD Singh’s national business head who’s also famous as Chowder Singh on blogosphere; inveterate travelling gourmand Rajeev Gulati, who’s in the pharmaceuticals distribution business; corporate lawyer Sanhita Dasgupta-Sensarma; restaurateur (Angrezee Dhaba) Rajat Pahwa; young hospitality professional Nikhil Alung; self-employed businessman and hobby cook Vikram Bali; and Yogesh Magon, who’s in the liquor business.

They knew their seekh kebabs well and though they had generally good things to say about most of the places they went to (their big surprise was Kebabs and Curries at Greater Kailash-I, but sadly, it was at No. 8, below the Connaught Place restaurant, Embassy, which is better known for its Dal Meat and Chicken Pakodas), they were unanimous in their expressing their shock at the decline in the standards of two Defence Colony institutions, Colonel’s Kababz and Moets, which rubbed shoulders at the bottom of the heap.

Such exercises are important because they give followers of groups like the Delhi Gourmet Club a user’s guide to the delicacies they all crave for. As the dining world is moving towards giving greater credence to peer reviews, the Delhi Gourmet Club’s hunt for the best seekh kebabs in Delhi/NCR is the right step in the direction of giving these reviews a prejudice-free structure.