A delegation came calling from the Luxembourg embassy, headed by the ambassador, and the honorary consul representing the grand duchy in Calcutta, Rajat Dalmia, hosted a dinner in its honour, with the country’s local business associates, like Boson Energy, Amer-Sel Ketex, Rotarex and Ceratizit, in attendance.
The venue was Avartana, the southern Indian speciality restaurant at ITC Royal Bengal. And each of the nine courses in Bela, one of the five signature menus offered at the restaurant, embodied a re-imagination of flavours and ingredients from down south.
After Rasam, served in martini glasses, whetted the appetite as the attendees got introduced to each other, the dinner started with Stir Fried Chicken, spiced with Guntoor chilli from Andhra Pradesh and topped with buttermilk mousse. To add a bit of crunchiness, it was accompanied by batter-fried curry leaf tempura. The Cauliflower Crunch came on a bed of coconut yoghurt, pomegranate pearls and mint. Underneath the next course of steamed Shrimp and Coriander Dumpling was chilli and lentil powder, known in the south as gun powder or podi masala.
The dessert, served after three main courses and a sorbet, involved such drama of presentation that it could easily lend itself to an Instagram Reel. The Fennel Pancotta looked like a dainty egg laid in a bird’s next. The outer shell was made of cocoa butter and white chocolate, which the waiter cracked for each guest on the serving plate itself. That led to the “egg yolk” flowing out. “That is vegetarian, made of mango and ginger puree,” he assured those at the table who had opted for a vegetarian menu. The unkempt hairy strands typical of a bird’s nest were achieved with caramelised sugar.
Ambassador Peggy Frantzen was on her second trip to Calcutta. “The first was a year and half ago. After Delhi, this is the first big city I had visited,” she told t2. “I love the diversity of India. Every city here evokes different things.”
But the most significant trip for her in India was the inauguration of a refrigerator-manufacturing facility in Gujarat in early 2022. “A Luxembourg company opened it. After the Covid period, that was my first journey out of Delhi. Refrigerators were needed to store vaccines in India and this company was already present with offices in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai,” she recalled.
Another highlight has been the double listing of green bonds at both Bombay Stock Exchange and Luxembourg Stock Exchange. “We were the second country after the US to adopt legislation on green finance and green bonds after COP 21 (the global climate change conference) in Paris. I hope we can motivate more companies to seek green listings and go for green bonds. I hope to make that better known during my time in India,” she said.
The ambassador had opted for the vegetarian selection and picked out Spiced Aubergine as her favourite. “The whole menu was quite exceptional,” she said of the dinner. “We wanted the ambassador and the delegates to taste something different. So we chose a nice sit-down setting with style and grandeur like Avartana, serving south Indian fusion food,” said Dalmia.
(L-R) The Luxembourg delegation with local business associates; Steve Hoscheit, counsellor at the embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
(Clockwise from left) Fennel Pancotta, Cauliflower Crunch, Stir-fried Chicken with buttermilk mousse and curry leaf tempura; Spiced Aubergine