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All the way from Sicily for food... .
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Hyatt Regency's La Piazza restaurant offers the best of Sicilian food. Check out this festival of expensive but exclusive food, suggests SUMITRA SENAPATY... .
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WE FOLLOW the imaginary wafts of garlic and spices that hint at the Italian treats inside Hyatt Regency's La Piazza and discover some good bites here. Specialities include ravioli de patate --potato ravioli with rocket greens and special cheeses -- antipasti platter, vegetable lasagna topped with Gorgonzola, deep fried seafood with lemon dressing and a variety of Italian breads. Although it is difficult to measure heavenly things by earthly standards, this seems to be edible perfume. Moving inside the restaurant, lots of spiralling white columns, stone tiles and wooden louvers create the mood during meal-time conversations.
Pasta may be the Italian national dish, but it's not a monolith: In adapting it to suit local tastes and ingredients, the just-arrived-in-Delhi, Chef de Cuisine Giuseppe Sgroi has produced an infinite variety of forms and preparation methods. While many of these dishes are quickly made, there are also special occasions that beg something more, and then the idea of combining cooked pasta and other ingredients to produce a sort of casserole that can be heated through in the oven becomes quite obvious. The best known of these dishes is of course lasagna. The Italian chef puts in a whole lot of zucchini, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant and spinach, to make it quite a refreshing dish for summer. Moreover, it is good to go vegetarian once in a while.
La Piazza has a variety of pizzas to choose from, but the best of the best is the pepperoni pizza, the signature pizza of the restaurant. Seafood is yet another popular option at this Italian restaurant. Focaccia means many things in bread language -- Sometimes referred to as a cousin of pizza, it is a dish of dough baked untopped. It emerges crisp and puffy, and is topped with things that don't require heat, say fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and bacon. In short, refined combinations that delight both eye and palate. A heavenly snack, and after the first bite I am sorely tempted to tell the waiter to forget about the other delicacies I'd ordered and bring me more. But doesn't Italian cuisine have a reputation of being, well, garlicky? No point in denying it and a great many of the Italian recipes call for the Noble Bulb in industrial quantities. But what's the situation on the La Piazza front? We are surprised to discover it's nowhere near as pungent, with the Bulb being kept firmly in check throughout the menu.
Giuseppe Sgroi is a chef from Sicily, who got into the profession of creating food, because he wanted to `get out of Sicily'. The chef hasn't stopped since -- and has worked in many countries across the world -- China, Greece, England, Jamaica, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, Middle East and now India! He clearly enjoys the various cultures he has experienced and is fond of learning about people and their traditions. Chef Giuseppe informs us that making a good meal is all about understanding what the customer wants. "If the ingredients are available and in stock, I can specially prepare the food, that a particular guest wants.'' But it would be a good idea to inform the chef in advance, for he is a busy man, with all hundred and four covers being sold out on most days. So much so, that the people waiting for the new chef's food spill out into the Hyatt lobby on many an occasion.
Giuseppe is not sitting on his laurels after introducing the new menu. He is moving forward with Sicilian Sensations, a food festival all about tuna, anchovies and sardines prepared very simply, but with bold, bright flavours like capers, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and an abundant use of fresh herbs. Sicilian food, we are told, is the Mediterranean diet. During the festival try the tuna with capers, fresh tomatoes and mint or the fresh sardines rolled with raisins, pine nuts and olive oil, herb crumbed and baked. Pan-fried steak with Marsala red wine sauce served with asparagus and vegetables is another interesting creation. And vegetarians can choose between the spaghetti with fresh tomato, basil, garlic, oregano, fresh mozzarella and ricotta or the fusilli with cauliflower tomato cubes, saffron.
Sicilian food is extremely healthy, so one need not feel too guilty while checking it out. To sum it up, La Piazza is all about fine dining. Expensive no doubt but truly exclusive. The Sicilian food festival is on at the Hyatt in New Delhi till May 26.
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