This winter chef Shashvat Dhandhania has surpassed himself with a 10-course spread for his patrons. The degustation menu at To Die For, that’s marked by a sense of mystery with just names of ingredients listed one after another, leads to versatility on the plate as the chef has played with flavours and textures of seasonal produce like carrots, pumpkin, strawberry and more. For instance, while we kept guessing what our hors d’oeuvres listed as Corn and Chives meant, the chef presented us with a creamy corn soup in a shot glass and a filling of sour cream and chives in a polenta tart topped with caramalised onion. Pretty impressive we must say and it piqued our interest in the other nine servings of the day.
“The idea of setting up a menu like this was to let the customer know what are the ingredients that he/she will find in a plate. So, I have not given them any name. For instance, in the Carrot and Pumpkin course, there’s carrot nest, roasted carrot, pumpkin puree, confit pumpkin, cumin oil, fresh roasted cumin powder, brie and dill and to top it all underneath is farro. The idea is that all these things work well together so I call it Carrot and Pumpkin. It’s more expressive in terms of the kind of food that we want to serve keeping in mind the ingredients,” said the chef, an alumni of Le Cordon Bleu.The striking feature of the spread is that the chef employed his culinary expertise and presented the ingredients in different forms, breaking the monotony on the plate. So whether it was beetroot, potato or mushroom, all exuded their versatility under the able hands of the chef. Also, expect quintessential Indian spices like mustard, cumin and others to make an appearance in the heavily European bites.
In Beetroot and Chevre, the seasonal veggie was presented in three different forms — slow-roasted, pickled and in jus forms. The goat cheese mousse and mustard tuile add more character to the salad.
Carrots and Pumpkin came together and created this harmony on the plate with different culinary techniques.
Among the desserts, we loved Chocolate and Orange where chocolate creameuz, orange curd, orange cake and cookie crumble assemble for this mouthful of guilty pleasure.
In Tomatoes the chef played with the tartiness of the humble veggie and red wine to present it in different ways, including the frothy topping.
We started our 10-course meal with Corn and Chives that has creamy notes and crunch as well.
In Mushroom and Potatoes we found the everyday veggie in confit, mash and fondant form that paired well with pureed, grilled and pickled mushroom. The emmantal added the much-required crunch to the entree.