Three New Pedigreed Chefs Land in Delhi: Angshuman Adhikari at Diya, Sujan Sarkar at Olive Mehrauli and Alex Marks at Orient Express

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

DIYA at The Leela Gurgaon is one of Delhi-NCR's few finer Inventive Indian restaurants that can be counted on your fingertips, but it has never got its due, maybe because the chef who was responsible for its outstanding menu, Kunal Kapur, is more famous as the genial host and judge of Masterchef India, and not for his tawa parantha stuffed with feta cheese, spring onions and onion seeds (kalonji).

Kapur has risen steadily up the hotel's corporate ladder -- he's now the executive sous chef -- so Diya will soon have a new chef and he's Angshuman Adhikari, who has been running Michelin-starred Atul Kochhar's Simply India restaurant at the year-old St Regis in the scenic Le Morne peninsula, an old hideout of runaway slaves on the south-western tip of Mauritius. Angshuman was sous chef at Kochhar's Dubai restaurant, Zafran, before he moved to the Indian Ocean island nation.

The St Regis at Le Morne stands in the shadow of a 556m-high basaltic monolith that looms over the palm-fringed resort thriving in glorious isolation on a beach in pristine condition. It is here that Kochhar, who opened London's Tamarind restaurant and now presides over Benaras, conceptualised Simply India, where the Samundri Do Pyaza, a treat for seafood lovers, competes for your attention with Karara Kekda Aur Salad (soft-shell crab paired with apple and peanut salad and apple chutney); Batak Chettinad served with cabbage and vermicelli foogath (which gets its name because of coconut and curry leaves); Tandoori Machhi teamed with crispy bok choy and Kochhar's signature smoked tomato chutney; and Citrus Rice Pudding with Blood Orange Ice Cream.

I can see Diya becoming the talk of the town, which Angshuman knows very well, having worked at Set'z with the formidable Master Chef Arif Ahmed, but it is not the only restaurant that'll see the infusion of pedigreed talent. The ever-popular Olive Bar & Kitchen at Mehrauli has got itself a prized import -- the young Sujan Sarkar, who's fresh off the boat from London (and all set to get married). I was reading up about Sujan when I stumbled upon a tweet by Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck fame informing his followers about how this talented dynamo was "preparing [a] dazzling display" for TreatFest 2012. It's not often that Blumenthal tweets as enthusiastically about a young chef.

Described as a "gastronomic genius", Sujan was crowned London Chef of the Year and was National Chef of the Year finalist in 2012. The rising star of 'molecular ingenuity' who uses liquid nitrogen like a magician, left Mumbai's JW Marriott, where he launched his career, in 2004 to join the Hilton hotels in the UK. Soon, he found himself working at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, from where he moved under the wings of the Relais & Chateaux grand chef Peter Tempelhoff, and then on to the Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows on the 28th floor of the London Hilton at Park Lane, where he got to work with Andre Garrett and Chris Galvin.

Sujan Sarkar, seen at the TreatFest 2012 in the UK,
has joined Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mehrauli. His
appointment has been a casting coup for the
restaurant's charismatic owner, AD Singh.

Moving fast, Sujan changed gears and went on to be the opening chef of the Automat American Brasserie on Dover Street, Mayfair, whose popular menu is as famous for its macaroni and cheese with truffle as for its chicken liver and foie gras mousse served with plum chutney. From Automat, Sujan also ran the affairs of the private members' club, Almada, which opened beneath the brasserie and attracted the likes of George Clooney because of its classic decor, good food and discreet setting.

Alex Marks is the other debutant from London who is opening his innings at the Orient Express with a dinner on Tuesday, November 12. He's replacing D.N. Sarma, the Taj veteran who learnt his craft from the legendary Arvind Saraswat and became synonymous with OE. Well, OE needed more than just Sarma's reassuring presence to shore up its jaded reputation and Marks, who earned his spurs at Gordon Ramsay's Maze at the Marriott on Grosvenor Square, may just be the oxygen that the chic restaurant badly needs.

Marks got noticed because he did a pretty competent job of stepping into Ramsay's star protégé Jason Atherton's shoes at Maze -- a gushing review of the restaurant had lauded it for its "attention to infinitesimal details and a commitment to exactingly high standards". He was previously the head chef at the Michelin-starred Foliage, the Modern British restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge that has been replaced by Heston Blumenthal's Dinner.

With such talented chefs with impeccable track records arriving in the city (apart from of course the incredible Rahul Akerkar), we seem to have a great gastronomic season ahead. I can't wait to see how it unfolds.

DINING OUT AT UZURI: A Terrace to Die For and A Menu With Winners

This restaurant review first appeared in the 08/11/2013 edition of Mail Today. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers.

To set the original, follow this link:
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/mailanartical.aspx?parentid=87186&boxid=133052203&issuedate=8112013

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHERE: Uzuri Deck & Dining, M-40, M-Block Market, GK-II. It's on the Chungwa lane on top of Market Cafe.

WHEN: Lunch and Dinner. High Tea to start soon.

DIAL: 011-41623623 / 25

AVE MEAL FOR TWO: Rs 3,500+++

The restaurant doesn't have a liquor licence. But you can buy a day licence and have a party on the terrace.

STAR RATING: ***1/2 out of 5

Animal prints and African artifacts are all
over Uzuri's fine dining section to reinforce
the restaurant's positioning as the purveyor
of European fine dining suffused with
 uniquely African flavours.

I DROPPED in at Uzuri Deck & Dining almost on an impulse at an unsually sleepy Greater Kailash-II, M-Block Market (post-Diwali fatigue, I guess!), with my good friend and man-about-town, Shaun Lobo, whose father Ronnie is a much-revered name among hoteliers. Shaun's mother Fatima is one of the three owners of Tres, which has become a must-go-to fine dining destination, thanks to the combined talents of her chef-partners Julia Carmen De Sa and Jatin Mallick.

I was therefore in good company -- and I was particularly keen on meeting Guy Clark, the Masterchef South Africa finalist who had guests at the wedding of Max India Chairman Analjit Singh's daughter (it was the wedding where Lionel Ritchie sang) eating out of his hands. Clark is one of the two chefs steering Uzuri, which bills itself as a European-African restaurant (the name itself comes from the Swahili word for 'goodness'), but he was vacationing in Rajasthan.

That gave me an opportunity to meet the restaurant's young executive head chef, Rishim Sachdeva, who has moved back from London, where he went when he was 16, after studying hospitality management at Oxford Brookes University and working at Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's celebrated Michelin three-star restaurant at Bray, Berkshire. I was particularly impressed by the last bit of the young chef's biography.
Rishim has actually worked for two years and half with the god of molecular gastronomy and was promoted to sous chef at Fat Duck, where most youngsters consider themselves lucky to be able to work as unpaid interns, just to be able to flash the name on their CVs. On the Uzuri menu, Blumenthal shows up with his invention, chocolate soil, on which rests the restaurant's must-have dessert with semi-frozen truffles, caramelised nuts, pickled grapes and butter caramel ice-cream. A silent tribute from a proud student.
I chose the two-storey restaurant's tastefully turned-out terrace, which was a delight on a nippy evening, and I could see it becoming the city's favourite party zone when the place gets its liquor licence only after the assembly elections. This hiatus may hurt the restaurant in the short run -- and it is showing in its uneven occupancy -- because its food is made for wine and long conversations. Frankly, I didn't say 'wow' after each dish, but the meal left me with a sense of satisfaction and a desire to return soon.

It was the mustard lamb shoulder, cooked for 48 hours and served on a bed of wild spinach with hazelnut salsa verde, that made me silently pray for this restaurant's long life. I had it with the herbed quinoa salad, bush-style smoked vegetables and truffle-scented pesto, whose charming simplicity won my heart, and the trio of beetroot and goat cheese mousse, toasted pumpkin seeds and warm bread. I just loved the bread, though I couldn't decide whether I loved the accompanying beetroot jam more (even the butter trio -- paprika, garlic and pesto -- accompanying the bread basket will make you consume a lot of carbs)!

The opening was heart-warming, but then came two jarring notes -- the Cape Malay fish cakes made me wonder why I was having aloo tikki in a restaurant that otherwise takes its food seriously and the pressed pork belly resting on an apple cider mash was left half-eaten. Before we could start complaining, though, we were blown away by the palate cleanser -- an unbeatable lemon souffle -- followed by the African-spiced leg of lamb with mint puree, onions carmelised for 48 hours, confit garlic and caper jus. I just loved the interplay of textures and tastes and how well they sat on my palate, and the twice-based cheese souffle served with braised edamame, sun-dried cherry tomatoes and balsamic fondue can give the grand-daddy in this department, Orient Express, a good run for its money. This is one restaurant that'll see more of me.

Aurelio Montes & Brindo to Unveil Chile’s Priciest Wine at Orient Express Dinner

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

TAITA, Chile’s most expensive wine from the South American country’s iconic producer, Montes, will be unveiled in New Delhi at a dinner at the Orient Express on October 3, sending out the message loud and clear to the wine world that the Indian market is still not a lost cause. The dinner is being co-presented by the wine’s importer, Brindco International, and the Taj Palace, and will be attended by the Delhi Gourmet Club.

The Chilean wine company’s co-owner and chief winemaker Aurelio Montes had described Taita as a “super icon” during its release in June this year at Vinexpo Bordeaux. Priced around $300 in the U.S. market, it is one of North America’s most expensive wines. Taita, incidentally, is a word commonly used in South America to denote ‘wisdom’ or ‘father’. Its tagline, expectedly, is ‘Wisdom in Wine’ and its elegantly crafted bottle has a pewter figurine of Montes’s signature winged angel holding a goblet in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.

At Vinexpo, the wine world’s most prestigious trade show held alternately in Bordeaux and Hong Kong (and also in Tokyo and Beijing), Montes launched Taita’s inaugural vintage, 2007, of which all of 3,000 bottles have been produced. In the coming years, only the ones that Montes and the wine’s co-creator, Pedro Parra, consider to be exceptional, will see subsequent editions of this collector’s wine. Those attending the October 3 dinner therefore will be in a privileged minority to taste a wine that’s got rave reviews everywhere.

Montes is held in high esteem for its benchmark red wine, Montes Alpha M (Cabernet Sauvignon, 80%; Merlot, 10%; Cabernet Franc, 5%; Petit Verdot, 5%). Its wine portfolio, which was being imported into India by Mumbai-based Sonarys Co Brands, has now moved into the hands of Brindco International, India’s most successful wine import company created by its founder-CEO Aman Dhall. Taita, according to Montes, has been made primarily for the Asian market.

Reporting the wine's launch at Vinexpo, The Drinks Business (http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/06/montes-releases-super-icon-wine/) had noted that the grapes for the 15.7% abv (alcohol by volume) wine are grown at a six-hectare plot within a 700-hectare farm at the Marchigue vineyards of the Colchagua Valley (Central Chile) and spends two years in 100% new French oak and a further three in barrel. (In the exceptionally high alcohol content you can see the fallout of global warming!) The grapes were dry farmed because Montes, as he explained to The Drinks Business, wanted to “touch hell” and see how far he could push things without resorting to irrigation to produce a luscious full-bodied wine. Well, it seems a full-bodied treat awaits a fortunate few on October 3.