A Singing Chef At Bella Cucina, Le Meridien, Gurgaon

It is fairly simple to paint a broad-brush stroke athwart entire Italy when showcasing arguably, one of the most prevalent cuisines in the globe. But when Chef Antonello, who hails from Genoa, Northern Italy brought an Italian Food Promotion to Bella Cucina, he did not give us a chance to miss the medley of delicacies that comprise Italy’s wonderful collage of Liguria dishes, deeply inclined by locale, necessity, and intricacy.

Liguria was the latest food promotion from Antonello, a chef who clearly loves Northern Italian food and knows how to use the bounty of ingredients to make them shine even brighter. He and his team were among Gurgaon’s most beautiful; open kitchen and on the floor, where the servers make wine recommendations and share best pairings without batting an eye. Not to mention the 3 PDR's, which is not the easiest to get tables in town. But even with all that, the food is the real point of interest here.

Antonello clearly excels at classical northern Italian cooking. The Pasqualina-Swiss Chard, Homemade Ricotta, Marjoram, Parmesan, Vegetable Pie here was notably outstanding. The classic pasta dishes like Trofiette, traditional pesto, french beans, potatoes, parmesan and ‘Spaghetti Allo Scoglio’ dressed with clams, cuttlefish, cherries tomatoes, prawns scampi, bottarga, lemon zest were excellent and the Torta Sacripantina, Cabazon Cake filled with vanilla and chocolate buttercream and Sherry wine sauce changed my mind about the dessert, because all I had were the over-sweetened versions. And of course, Chef Antonella is a rock star literally - good food and great music - what else can you ask for? I do hope Chef Amit Tiwari will retain some of the dishes in the regular menu.