A sip and a bite of Italian food in a 5 course meal by Chef Mauro Ferrari
A 5 course Italian meal paired with wine at La Cucina
20 Jul, 2018 by Anindya Sundar Basu
Kolkata loves Chef Mauro Ferrari and the feeling is mutual. With his base at Hyatt Regency Chennai, he makes it a point to travel across the country. Last time he was at La Cucina, the award-winning restaurant of Hyatt Regency Kolkata, he took us to a taste of Lombardy. It was nostalgia for him as he is from Milan, the capital of Lombardy. This time around he comes up with a 5-course meal paired with wine for a specially curated Vineyard dinner.
The meal is strictly to be had course wise and is split into Amouse Bouche, Appetizer, Pasta, Main course and dessert. When you enter for a dining experience like this, it is better to surrender yourself with blind faith to the Chef's skilled hands and tighten the seat belts.
The experience and recommendations
The surprise starts at Amouse Bouche only. Parmesan creme brulee comes in a small white jar with roasted crostini on top. This redefines the entire concept of creme brulee being associated with a dessert with sugar being caramelised and hardened on top of the custard and here the sugar is caramelised but beneath it lies the salty Parmesan. This is paired up with Chenin Blanc, Gran Cuvee Brut - the first sparkling wine from Fratelli.
Jump cut to Appetizer. As a non-vegetarian, you can have the option of a Slow cooked chicken breast with grilled potato and salsa but the vegetarian option is a great one. Yellow bell pepper mouse with tomato jus poured in and two balls of fried cherry mozzarella. Between yellow bell pepper mouse and tomato jus, it's a contrasting effect and both when had with the fried cherry mozzarella, the cycle gets completed. This part of the dinner gets paired with Sauvignon Blanc.
Any Italian dinner is incomplete without Pasta and chef here has offered homemade pasta with his own twist. It's no longer a secret that Chef loves his scallops and in this take on the classic spaghetti with Carbonara, he replaces bacon with scallops. The secret of the strong and flavourful aroma in the pasta came from the scallops cooked in a seafood bisque. As per chef, half a spoon of the bisque is enough for the magic. When a glass of Sette arrives with this, it contradicts the popular belief of white wine with white sauce. The blue elegant oaky note of this wine is a perfect partner in crime to this carbonara pasta.
While after having this, one can feel to opt out of the main course, the lamb rack in Villeroy sauce with soft shallot potato and hazelnut spinach will take you back in a journey to the past. Villeroy is a sauce which was used by Italian dukes from the 17th century with mushrooms and truffle oil. This is paired with Fratelli Sangiovese.
Save the last smile for the desserts as it's a dream on the plate. Mango mint parfait adorned with two mint leaves happily nestled in a chocolate cake is a perfect script of love at first sight. Don't miss out on the teardrop-shaped globules of dark rum essence which is a reduction of the in-house cocktail of Rum soda.
The 5-course meal is a stellar experience. It's a glimpse into the great culinary skills of Italy. Priced at INR 3000 plus taxes per person, this grand dinner is on till 22nd July and is definitely a must-attend event in the city.
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Written By
A true blue Kolkata foodie, Anindya loves cooking and eating his Kosha Mangsho. Anindya weaves stories around food as he believes exceptional food is an emotional experience. Previously a restauranter, now a passionate photographer and traveller, he runs a successful blog called Pikturenama and contributes to other publications.
