Popup at the Prego - Westin Mindspace Hyderabad

Very recently i had posted a top 4-5 listings of my own, something that i had done for the first time and i guess i got a lot of positive feedback from it. It was among the top 3 most read blogs i have ever written this year.

It isnt something new that i had done, Zomato already has something like this but more on the lines of most searched places rather than how the food is ( atleast i believe so )

Since Rocky and Mayur were in town and #FoodDrifters were showing them around, i thought why not make a list of my own. I’ve had people asking me for recommendations so i thought why not make a list of the best places I’ve dined at in the past year or so that I’ve been in Hyderabad.

FoodDrifters - Neidhi, Ashis and the rest with Rocky and Mayur

That blog also happened to be seen by some folks at the Westin Hotel or the PR agency handling the Westin account and i was contacted on fb - unfortunately that message landed in others folder and i could only see it next day.

Afsha from the PR agency linopinion from mumbai was co-ordinating this activity and informed me about the arrival of a new chef at the Westin who would be the chef de cusine at Prego – Westins signature Italian restaurant with an invite for being part of the chefs table.

I thought this to be another of those chefs’ tables which would eventually turn out into a curated meal but I was grossly mistaken. This was one of those “One off” events with majority of the dishes either not on the menu or would soon be.

The date was fixed, the time was set but thanks to the vehicular congestion on the roads leading to Mindspace, I was 45 mins late. Some of the guests had already arrived and were in a conversation with Bhavna Misra – the Communications manager at Westin.

We were seated pool side in anticipation of the other guests to arrive, and in the meantime had my first glass of sparkling wine – like in ever. I am not a big fan of spirits and fine wines so this was a little hard to digest.

Once the conversation was moved inside, we were seated at the biggest table in the house and Soumik Khan, the venue Manager at Prego introduced Chef Maitreya Sen to the diners.

I was accompanied by Dr Maitreya and his wife , Mr Prashant & Kendra , Aarti David , Afreen, Chef Steffan, Bhavna on the table.

Chef Maitreya Sens biography can be found here. you tube vdo from La cucina Kol

The chef introduced himself as an Indian with a passion for italian food. A Michelin trained chef ( trained under Chef Davide of Il Sole di Ranco , Italy) is not to be taken lightly anywhere. They are at the helm because of their craft and should be respected no matter what. He was also instrumental in making La Cucina – the italian restaurant at Hyatt Kolkatta one of the top stops for Italian food in his previous assignment. Chef Sen guided us through the menu for the night and headed to his station to start , what turned out to be a pretty insightful night for me

The table ware, the wine glasses and the guests were set and the food was what was being looked forward to.

The general Italian meal structure is Aperitivo, Antipasto, Promo, Secondo, Contomo, Insalata,Doce ,Caffé and Digestivo

The popup at Westin was a 4 course meal with Antipasti, Zuppa, Portata Principale and Dolce

The Antipasti is as slightly heavier starter. We had choice of Sea food crepe or a vegetarian crepe. It was paired with a Prosecco , PITARS FRIZZANTE, ITALY 2011 Vintage ( white wine )

The names of the dishes can be found in the menu attached.

The sea food crepe was a mix of prawn, fish and calamari(probably ) with a side of fennel sauce. The crepe was an instant hit. I liked the dish but would have preferred a little more pungent flavor. Something like pickled gherkin or a side of jalapeno sauce perhaps ? I generally like a dynamic dish and I did not find that happening with the crepe. However that is my personal opinion. Next time I am here, I will try to add a little balsamic vinegar to the dish .

The next course was the Zuppa or the soup. We had a rather unusual soup on the menu – Cauliflower and vanilla bean. The chef highlighted that fact that the soup was prepared by slow cooking the cauliflower in milk for over 4 hours. The soup was pretty creamy and thick. The subtle hints of vanilla only added in making it more enjoyable. It would rather qualify as one of those quintessential comfort food if it was any easier to make.

The food here is probably suitable for the European palate, but for a kid grown among the spiciest of spices in India, we need to add a little touch of Indianess to the soup – probably cracked pepper. I did try to add a little parmesan cheese to the soup but it did not give the taste I was looking for. The soup however is pretty heavy so tread with caution.

The soup was paired with “PINOT GRIGIO, PITARS FRIULI, ITALY, 2011” . This is a white wine with hints of lemon and pear.

For main course or the Portata Principale, we had Chicken Parmagiana or New Zealand lamb chops or a Tortellini pomodori (which no one ordered ). Me not being a big fan of red meat opted for the Chicken parmagiana with a side of caponata on a bed of mashed potato.

Now the good thing about the dish was the chicken was panfried and not deep fried . I generally detest deep fried food and this was just getting better. The chicken was nice and tender. The caponata was amazing. It provided all the dynamism I look for in a dish.

The mashed potato was probably the best ive had in Hyderabad in over a year and the melted parmesan cheese on the chicken was just about sufficient to clean up the entire dish. The red wine it was paired with, PINOT NERO, PITARS FRIULI, ITALY, 2011 was doing a phenomenal job of washing down the chicken and sorta cleaning my palate may be ? Perhaps I felt so. The red wine was described as having hits of black pepper, nutmeg, wildberry, white cherry, violet and raspberry – more like a fruit wine.

If I had to do something different with the parmagiana, ide want to try a mix of cheese between the chicken and then pan fry it perhaps ?

The last course of the meal was the dolce. I generally look for a very light dessert, something on lines of a very well made panacotta or may be a pavlova but the ricotta cheese cake that was on the menu was pretty filling. The dish looks deceptive but it does ram into your stomach wall pretty hard.

The ricotta cheese cake was pretty decent, clearly not my favorite dish of the night.

I was seated with the Exec Chef of Westin Mindspace – Steffan Dawson and my interaction with him has completely changed the way I look at service issues. Some reasons I agree with some I don’t agree with but my interaction with him has been a very very insightful one and I will look forward to having a chat with him again.

While this was an invite from the Westin Mindspace, to showcase the capability of Chef De Cuisine Maitreya Sen, a paid meal with wine paring will cost you anywhere about 2500 and above per person , depending on the wine that you choose.

In my last visit, I was looked after well by Pradeep and I made it a point to let Chef Dawson know about it. Bhavna, Soumik and team were great hosts as well. With a parting memory of an awesome night, I signed off – with a new perspective about 5 star service, 5 star pricing and how Hyderabad may not be able to compete with other cities on the culinary front….