JW Marriott: Vicky comes to town

  Executive Chef JW Marriott Naveen Handa with
Chef Vicky Ratnani

Cooking with spices is nothing short of alchemy, says chef Vicky Ratnani. You need to know the exact quantity to add for that perfect flavour, just a pinch can make all the difference. The synonym of alchemy is chemistry. It’s also magic and enchantment and that’s what the chef brings to his food. The tricity can savour a bit of it at 35 BREWHOUSE, JW Marriott, Chandigarh, where the chef is presenting A Curated Experience.

On the menu:  According to the chef, “The global gourmet menu which we will be serving through this curated dinner is an expression of mine and the hotel's global culinary prowess blended with our love for our roots.”  Diners can look forward to Lobster Mac and Cheese where the desi addition is Amul cheese and green chillies or then The Brew pani-puri which are golgappas filled with a potent mix of imli chutney and beer. There’s also the cheesy Wood fired Mini Cazlone, filled with the all-time favourite, yes, you guessed it: butter chicken. The green version has a filling of charred broccoli. There’s also Mera desi roast served with jeera potatoes and a sparkling pepper sauce. The Smoky Tandoori Bowl has vegetables served with a quinoa pilaf, creamed spinach and kachumbhar. It’s peppy progressive cuisine, hearty and hot from the hearth. 

About the hotel: “Since I like to keep a keen eye on the culinary landscape of our country, I have been aware of the amazing work being done by JW Marriott Chandigarh in the F&B space. From launching 35 BREWHOUSE to hosting culinary fares like Road to London or Flavours of Asia, the range is incredible,” says the chef.

Where and When: At 35 BREWHOUSE, the first microbrewery at a five-star property in the region.

On August 30 and 31, 7.30 pm onwards   

JW Marriott food festival: Spicing it with Black Pepper

Angaya Podi 

Ingredients used include pipli and aswagandha

Once upon a time in southern India, black pepper was the only spice used in cooking. “That was between 300 BC and 300 AD, a period when cuisine of the Deccan was in its purest form, without any foreign influence,” says food historian and chef Shri Bala who has passionately researched the era’s Sangam Literature, a valued document of ancient Tamil history, and culled all it has to say on cuisine of those times. “The literature, which uniquely is a set of poems, speaks about the Tamizhagam region which includes areas of all present-day southern states. As far as food is concerned Sangam does not talk about recipes, rather it tells us about ingredients used in cooking. It intrigued me and I set about creating dishes using the mentioned items,” she says. It’s some of these preparations that she is laying out for the 10-day Black Pepper Festival at JW Marriott, Chandigarh. 

Chef Shri Bala with Exec Chef JW Marriott, Chandigarh,
 Naveen Handa at the opening of the Black Pepper Food Festival

Sangam literature divides Tamizhagam into five geographical landscapes—coastal, forest, mountains, cropland and dry wasteland—and describes how these influenced food habits. There is something to savour from every region at the festival which presents an epicurean feast of ancient, medieval and contemporary dishes that go far beyond the ubiquitous Deccan fare. 

The culinary expedition begins on a sweet note with the Madurai butter bun, a modern-day street food, which is a soft bun layered with butter and jaggery that gets tantalizingly caramelised on heating. “In our system of eating we always start with something sweet, as it increases hunger pangs and also aids in digestion,” says Shri Bala.  Moving on, the ancient section tempts equally with meen varuval, fish subtly flavoured with curry leaves and black pepper, as it does with the protein-packed thavalai vada made with four lentils and rice. There’s also the delicate Kovil dosa, which is fit to be served to the gods as it’s an unfermented black urad lentil preparation. The dessert section has the excellent khus khus payasam paired with adhirasam or small, thick crepes of rice flour and palm jaggery.  

The Medieval spread stands out for its vegetable dishes such as ash gourd pal kuttu and urundai kuzhumbu or lentil dumplings in gravy. From all three eras, there’s a selection of mutton (Dindigul biryani), lamb (Ambur biryani), fish (meen gassi) and chicken (Guntur chilly chicken). 

Kovil dosa 

Ambur Biryani 

Across the menu, though black pepper is the dominant spice the preparations are extremely flavoursome owing to the use of miscellaneous ancient ingredients and cooking methods. “As a case in point, we are serving Druva Grass Smoked Mutton wherein druva grass is used to smoke and cook the mutton. While the dish is spiced solely with black pepper, the smoke of the druva grass lends the mutton a distinctive spicy flavour, comparable to today’s garam masala,” explains Chef Naveen Handa, Executive Chef, JW Marriott. Chandigarh, who along with his team has worked in tandem with Shri Bala to put up this culinary time travel. 

The Rasam counter offers quite a mélange that should not be missed by those with a discerning palate. A must-try here is prawn coconut soup as well as steamed millet with angaya podi, a roasted-spice powder which has ingredients like pipli, neem flower, pea berry, night shade and of course pepper. In the accompaniments,  Inji puli pickle is a delicious mix of textures. 

At the Black Pepper Festival what shines through is the subtlety of flavours, combinations of ingredients, diverse cooking techniques and above all Shri Bala’s passion for research, hunger to excel and share her knowledge. 

The festival is on till February 24.        

Alfresco by the Food Truck

Food Truck at JW  Marriott, Chandigarh 

Crumbed fried sole, french fries, beer cheese dip

There's a new dining space at JW Marriott, Chandigarh. The theme is alfresco and all foodie action happens aboard the recent entrant, the Food Truck parked adjacent to The Lounge. 

The ambience is casual-chic and setting the tone is cutlery wrapped in denim napkin, artistic crockery, rattan and wood furniture. For the compact menu executive chef Naveen Handa and his team have picked a selection of all-time favourite comfort foods from Indian, Italian, Oriental and English cuisines, given a slight twist to taste, and upped the experience with customised serving ware. 

     Executive chef Naveen Handa  

Tandoori soya chaap slider,
French fries, house salad 

There is a range of tandoori tikkas, stuffed kulchas, sliders, dimsums and pizzas from the wood fired oven. In keeping with a lounge atmosphere, on offer is an option of convenient meals in a bowl such as the Mongolian chicken and egg scallion or its vegetarian counterpart the mix vegetable dumpling in soya chili sauce, both served with fried rice. The classic fish n' chips typically wrapped in paper and accompanied with beer cheese dip comes in a small wooden barrel; forget plates and cutlery, you can relax and eat straight out of  it.   

Anda, Boti-Keema-Kaleji, Aloo Kulcha,
chitta makhan, tadka pyaz

A winning combination is boti-keema-kaleji topped with an egg and served alongside aloo kulcha, chitta makhan and tadka pyaz. Irresistible! The 'open palm' crusty shell is a culinary tribute to the city's Open Hand and has a choice of delectable fillings. Besides the set menu, the chef promises dish of the day and seasonal delights. 

Wood fired oven thin crust pizzas

The fare is perfect for a pairing with mocktail, malt or microbrewery specials of your choice from The Lounge.

There is ample outdoor seating and for those who like it cooler a row of attractive air-conditioned cabanas are quite a draw. 

Rice cup spicy Thai corn salad

The Food Truck ups its shutters at 3 pm and the last order can be placed till 11.30 pm.

Meal for two with cocktails should be around Rs 2,500/- 

JW Marriott, Chandigarh: On a culinary expedition

On the wheels: Road to London... A Gourmet Journey

When a group of adventurous Indians was planning to travel from Delhi to London they thought why bother with flights let’s just take the road. That’s precisely what they did and zipped through spectacular trans-continental terrain — IndoChina, Central Asia, Europe — logging miles and jotting experiences on the wonders of wander. These figures tell their story: 19,500 km, 55 days, 18 countries and 13 SUVs. 

Dilpreet Bindra (left) and Naveen Handa 

Among the trailblazers who took the road less travelled and accomplished the feat is Dilpreet Singh Bindra, General Manager, JW Marriott, Chandigarh. A passionate explorer, he is overwhelmed by the sheer scale of Road to London 2017, organised by Gurgaon-based Adventures Overland. 
“What an incredible journey this has been. We had planned meticulously for over six months and everything worked to precision. What made it remarkable was the cultural exchange, the thrill of traversing the Silk Route, the magnitude of nature, and the impeccable highways that made driving such a pleasure.” 

After flag-off from Imphal and clearing the customs at Moreh, the Indian border outpost, the self-driven expedition made its way through Myanmar, Thailand, and the rain forests of Laos, before entering China and being dazzled by the state-of-the-art Dragon country. What welcomed them next was the vastness of land and warmth of locals as they drove through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Further on Russia showed its gentle side while Latvia, Lithuania and Poland delighted them with East European generosity and courtesies. It was a breeze here on as the convoy manouvered through Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France to finally cross the English Channel and let out a hurrah in London. 

Bindra wasn’t only at the wheel during the trip as the hotelier in him made sure he peeped into kitchens at restaurants and highway inns, cooked and ate (and even sang) with locals, gathered spices and collected an assortment of recipes. Once back to work in Chandigarh, cuisines were discussed with the F&B section at the hotel. Lead by executive chef Naveen Handa, the team worked for over a month to recreate what Bindra had tasted and the result is Road to London... A Gourmet Journey, a five-day food festival on the culinary trail of 18 countries, that commences today. At the preview on Thursday, I tasted a sample of what’s on offer and all I can say is the palette of flavours pleased the palate enormously.

Auksta zupa

Yall dib

If the deep pink auksta zupa, a chilled beetroot-cucumber soup from Latvia had a perfect blend of flavours, the gaeng kiew wan pak (vegetable green curry) and coconut jasmine rice showed the subtlety Thai cuisine is known for. From Laos, yall dib, which is fresh vegetable juliennes wrapped in paper-thin rice sheets and served cold was stunning in its simplicity. While driving through South East Asia, Bindra had found the cuisine of the region offered impressive vegetarian delicacies, and the selection presented at the food fest stands testimony to that.
  

Chengdu hotpot

Tasting sessions at China have brought in original Sichuan, Xingjiang and Yunnan flavours. The show-stopper on the table was the Chengdu hotpot, a Sichuan whole roasted fish broth flavoured with herbs. From places on the Silk Route, as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, there is the baked somsa, a precursor of our deep-fried samosa, besides robust lamb stews and shashlik, prepared traditionally using minimal spices. In this section, standing in a league of its own is the tandyr nan, the Uzbek flat bread, so perfectly baked, that I enjoyed having it all by itself. Another star for me was cepelinai, Lithuanian poached potato and mushroom dumpling in sour cream. It looked wicked but bowled me over with its delicate texture and a burst of flavours. In the Europe segment there will be a lot more to choose from, as the popular bigos from Poland and bitterballon from The Netherlands. A wide choice of breads and flavousome dips complete the line-up of over 50 dishes which also includes fare from Lucknow, Assam, Bihar and Meghalaya. 

The desserts section is a medley of sweet temptations: cakes, tarts and flaky pastries. One that took me back to my trip to Poland was karpatka. Delicious!  Matterntaart from Belgium, xianhua bing, a Yunnan rose-flower cake, marlenka from Czech Republic, baumkuchen from Germany and klingeris from Latvia were some others in the irresistible club.

That it was a huge learning experience for the chefs was visible in their enthusiasm to explain culinary nuances of what they had laid out. For it’s not every day that a hotel gets to prepare Latvian, Uzbek, Krygyz, Kazhak or Polish dishes. This fest is an absolute must-visit, especially if to you passion means food. 
  
What: Road to London – a gourmet journey 
Where: The Café@JW, JW Marriott, 
            Sector 35, Chandigarh 
When: August 11 to 15, 2017
           Brunch: 12.30 pm to 3.30 pm, 
           Rs 1,550 plus taxes  
           Dinner: 7.30 pm to 11.30 pm, 
           Rs 1,950 plus taxes