“After one taste of French food … I was hooked. I’d never eaten like that before, I didn’t know such food existed. The wonderful attention paid to each detail of the meal was incredible to me. I’d never really drunk good wine before, and knew nothing at all about it. It was simply a whole new life experience.”
Julia Child
A few days ago we had the pleasure of attending an exclusive gourmet evening with celebrated French Michelin Star Chef Baptiste. As part of a joint initiative of the ITC Maurya and Four Seasons Wines, 30 year old Chef Batiste delighted patrons in Delhi pairing modern French cuisine with a selection of award winning wines from Bouvet-Ladubay & Four Seasons.
It was an invitation only, formal sit down dinner hosted at the beautiful roof top West View at the ITC Maurya located in the heart of New Delhi. A pleasantly beautiful early winter evening, an open air antipasti bar, soulful live music and good company as always ... a promise of good times.
Michelin Star Chef Baptiste Fournier has been voted one of the top 6 young chefs in France by the famed Gault Millau guide. Baptiste took over as the Executive Chef of his family owned restaurant, La Tour, at the young age of 29 and received his Michellin Star in 2011. He has traveled the world over discovering new cuisines and flavours. The use of fresh ingredients on his menu is characteristic.
Photo courtesy Rekha @ http://mytastycurry.com/
The evening opened under the capitals night sky with a nice, chilled bubbly from Bouvet-Ladubay. It was a nice cozy group. Delhi food bloggers Ruchira, Rekha,Sangeeta and me chatted non stop enjoying the charming good company of ITC Maurya GM, Media Relations, Richa Sharma.
It was a matter of time before Sabyjoinedour incessantly talkative group. Saby {or Chef Sabyasachi Gorai} was just back from an award winning spree in New York where he won the “Best Chef of India” award @ the Varli awards in NYC. Needless to say, the rest of the evening went in animated conversation amidst peels of laughter! {quick clicks by the cel phone!}
We moved indoors for a sit down five course dinner. I opted for non-vegetarian, enjoyed the eggplant caviar with French clams, yet one course down, rapidly changed to vegetarian. The culprit was a sensational Beetroot, orange and goat cheese mousse that vowed one and all. It was the star of the show!
Next came an artichoke risotto with black truffle which I loved. It had an edgy sourness to it and I loved the neat, small portions. The risotto did evoke mixed reactions as not everyone enjoyed it. I certainly did, right down to the last ‘scraping’ morsel! Nice!! Wine pairing was again the Four Seasons Sauvignon Blanc.
Fourth down was a white bean and tomato ragout in basil pesto which was meh. We heard from Abhay Kewadhkar, Director Four Seasons, that the lamb served in the non vegetarian course was one of the best he had ever had! Talk about mixed fortunes and the constant movement from vegetarian to non vegetarian menus. Sometimes I wish we could pick and choose from both!! Wine pairing … excellent Four Seasons Barrique Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
The downside was the delay between courses served, and as the time lag grew, one could see many guests choosing to leave early. Dessert made an appearance around 11pm, close to the Cinderella hour. Since the headcount was quite low by now, I guess they decided to serve both the listed desserts! The pineapple ravioli served with a basil sorbet, with a little passion fruit coulis was awesome. Really refreshing and pleasing to the palette.
Well past 11pm and the the second dessert made its way. Well worth the wait!! A Hazelnut and white chocolate, ice and crispy cappuccino. WOW! That paired with some beautifully chilled just right Bouvet Rose Excellence ended the meal beautifully. It was one of the most outstanding and well balanced desserts I have enjoyed in a while. The dessert plates were scraped clean!
Hardly any photographs of the food served as the event was formal. We did grab a few between delayed courses though. As we left, we were gifted pretty boxes of French macarons, which I thought tied up the French theme quite well. That the macarons were fresh was debatable though. Most shells were brittle and broken. Not quite sure what the problem was here {…my macaron obsession continues!}
