La Compagnia - A dinner with strangers

It's a strange feeling to go for a dinner without knowing anyone on the table and coming back with a few friends in your kitty. Skeeter experienced the same at La Compagnia: A dinner with strangers.

The concept

A dinner at a pre-determined venue with a specially curated menu will be held each month in various cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and more... There are no +1s allowed. You have to be a solo diner. You'd be joined by other such diners and would gradually get to know each other over perfectly timed courses that give you ample time to befriend and network with others on the table. The table could have people who are new to the city, people who are looking for work-related opportunities, or just a cool bunch to dine out with and explore a new cuisine, perhaps.

Dinner with strangers is a concept popular in the West, which people sometimes organise at their homes. Yes, they open their homes to complete strangers and sometimes even throw in a new cuisine for everyone to sample. The possibilities are endless. It maybe a potluck, or a cookoff, it only gets as fancy as your mind.

The venue for the debut La Compgania table in Delhi was Guppy by Ai at Lodhi Road. We arrived to a neatly laid table with fresh flowers, sparkling cutlery and our respective name tags. As all diners arrived we took our seats and began the introductions. The table was a good mix of entrepreneurs, start-up funders, start-up owners, journalists and writers. We all happened to share the table with Marryam Reshii, a respected food writer/critic, one Skeeter personally adores. Conversations, food, and alcohol did rounds, not necessarily in any order. Sometimes, the experience precedes the food and this was one such event. For the uninitiated, Guppy is Skeeter's comfort food place, where she'd hop in for some Rock Corn Tempura or a Udon noodles and mushroom bowl. They do some great cocktails too!  

The meal included Amuse Bouche, appetizers, cocktails, main course and a dessert platter. 

Damages:  Rs 1850 per head.

P.S.: This was one of the better organised events that Skeets has been to in a long, long time! 

The Gaggan experience

One of Skeeter's most admired chefs is in India, has spoken to her and has fed her. She's still euphoric and has a hangover of the experience, the Gaggan experience. Meet the highest rated chef of Indian origin, Gaggan Anand. He needs no introduction, but for the uninitiated, he has worked with culinary greats like Ferran Adria and set up a very successful restaurant that goes by his own name Gaggan in Bangkok where he serves progressive Indian food.

Gaggan and his team are like percussionists who have every rythm in order and show exemplary control over everything around. Not one thing goes astray. Perfection is their passion and it is manifested in their culinary actions. That would actually some up the Gaggan experience for Reeta Skeeter.
Ahead of the most wonderfully organised, timed and structured culinary demo, Gaggan took pride in introducing his team which consists of wine specialists, research experts and more. He playfully names them Nut, Nacho and so on. Like most modern chefs, he snaps at the mention of 'molecular gastronomy' and says what he and his team make is progressive Indian or modern Indian food. Gaggan Anand does not shy away from saying that the kind of food he serves should be had once in a while for the sheer magical experience.

At the culinary demo, Skeeter sampled chef Gaggan's spherical papri chaat yoghurt. By dropping a spoonful of spiced up yoghurt into a solution of sodium alginate the spherification happens and the result is a wobbly egg-like yoghurt ball that is fun to pop in the mouth and before you know, it explodes on your tongue reminiscent of the tang of your favourite street-food vendor's papdi chaat. Though Gaggan and team demonstrated his techniques at ITC Marya, he actually serves this yoghurt in various innovative ways. Over papdis with some chutney foam, over some jhoori bhaja where it looks like a bird's nest (do look up the web for this one) and so on. Creativity is infinite for this chef extraordinaire.

Dhokla with chutney foam, coconut snow and fried green chilli was showcased next. The usual dhokla batter is powered up by a nitrogen bullet, microwaved for 30 seconds and Voila! There is dhokla. It is easier said than done. One can achieve such results only when you know your root cuisine well and you have experimented with your version over and over. Gaggan surely has!

There was a mind blowing Phirni ice cream made from the very fragrant Thai jasmine infused with kesar and served with a pistachio based gel, silver varq and caramelized chikki-like almonds. Skeeter wonders what results this dessert would yield with the Bengali rice Gobindo Bhog. Food for thought?

What floored Skeeter was yet to come. A Mascarpone matcha tea cake sandwich with a brush of wasabi and a sprinkle of Vanilla salt. He may be known for his Indian progressive cuisine but the mascarpone match tea cake sandwich was a culinary revelation. Desserts in many a restaurant would have the mascarpone element. But Wasabi? Vanilla salt? Matcha tea? Skeeter loves a good Matcha tea ice cream. A perfectly frozen and well-composed matcha tea ice cream can be savoured bit by bit just like you sip tea and ponder. But with Gaggan's mascarpone match tea cake sandwich one can only become well, plain greedy. Gaggan uses liquid nitrogen as a base for iced-teppan to work with mascarpone cream cheese and a bit of sugar till it attains a cookie-like texture. He then uses a Shark fin grater to grate fresh wasabi and brushes the mascarpone cookies with it. A sprinkle of vanilla salt and matcha tea finishes this cookie, which is then placed on top of a matcha tea cake (the tea has been picked personally by Gaggan from Japan a week ago and is packed with freshness). This dessert is a tribute to his love for tea, his love for Japan and to his own gastronomical adventures.

The culinary demo was a sampler of the Gaggan experience for Skeeter. Gaggan spoke and shared a lot, he packed a lot into a very limited time whereas he could've easily got away by showcasing a lot less. This speaks volumes for the stellar kitchen performer that chef Gaggan is. He will prod you to read up about the gadgets he uses, freely share his ideas and recipes and most importantly give you back everything you paid in currency in the form of a culinary souvenir: The Gaggan experience.

And this experience was enhanced by a brilliant support team in India: Mangal Dalal and Nachiket Shetye of Cellar Door Kitchen. Cellar Door Kitchen is a platform for pop up restaurant events founded by culinary consultants, Mangal and Nachiket. Gaggan's unique pop up initiative is designed to delight food lovers with a degustation of progressive cuisine from Restaurant Gaggan at ITC Maurya in New Delhi from September 4th to 7th 2014 and later in Mumbai. For the first time Chef Gaggan re-creates his 11-course for tasting menu of progressive Indian cuisine with innovative cooking techniques in a pop-up in India open to all. Mangal and Nachiket are food lovers extraordinaire and part gnomes who have worked hard to change the Indian dining experience and deserve another blogpost altogether (read coming soon).

The Gaggan experience, a cooking demonstration by Chef Gaggan Anand was presented by American Express, Cellar Door Kitchen and hosted by ITC. 

Le Bistro Du Parc: A french bistro sits pretty in Delhi

The French concept of Terroir is embedded in every brick of the kitchen of Le Bistro Du Parc, a quaint bistro that sits pretty overlooking a park in Defence Colony. Skeeter has struck off another 'to go' place on her list by dining at this gem of a bistro. In Paris, everyone has their own favourite bistros where they hop in at ease, select from a limited menu, eat, talk, ponder, proceed. Repeat. The menu changes often and the chefs bank on the availability of fresh, seasonal produce. The basics of a bistro are home-style food, simple drinks like wine, tea and coffee and affordable prices. 

At Le Bistro Du Parc Skeets started her meal with the Organic leak and potato soup (Rs 350 ) with a blob goat cheese and few sprigs of dill. It was picture perfect, temperature perfect and tasted well, perfect! As against an Indian dish where a host of spices come together to lift the main ingredient to another level, in French food, you can get a taste of each ingredient individually.

Moving on to Skeeter's main course and dessert together, she could not decide which of these stole the show for her. The Vegetable Tagliatelle with carrot mash and basil oil was part of a very pleasant surprise, for it was no pasta, but farm fresh, seasonal, organic, vegetables like carrot, yellow and green zucchini, peeled into strips and plated wonderfully to mimic Tagliatelle, cooked/steamed very lightly to leave the texture crunchy enough for one to bite in. The sweet scented basil oil peeped from between the vegetables to reveal itself and lend flavour to the dish.  Skeeter has never had a healthier dish at a restaurant. The portion size and the quality of this Vegetable Tagliatelle with carrot mash and basil justifies the price tag (Rs 500) absolutely. Skeeter will go back for only this one, on and on. That said, Chef Alexis Gielbaum at Le Bistro Du Parc told Skeeter that they change their menu frequently. So one is likely to go back at Le Bistro Du Parc for a fresh menu and more surprises. It is also commendable to note they have compensated vegetarians (for a limited number of dishes in the already small menu) beautifully by creating star dishes such as the one Skeets mentioned.

The Valrhona chocolate rocher (Rs 350) ended Skeeter's meal, oh-so-lusciously that she can stay off chocolate for the next six months just thinking of this one. Go grab a bite!

Meal for two: Approx Rs. 1800.

Address: A 57, 58, 59, Moolchand Market, Defence Colony, New Delhi