William Girard, Executive Chef of Royal Palm Beachcomber Luxury in Grand Baie, Mauritius, came to India for the first time to showcase a one-of-its-kind gastronomical experience. The internationally acclaimed chef has managed kitchens of some of the most prestigious hotels and restaurants in the world, and now, has brought that experience to Bengaluru. The special menu at Le Cirque in The Leela Palace Bengaluru was something we couldn’t afford to miss out on. So, we went ahead and checked it out.
Before we started off with the dinner, we had a brief interaction with the chef. Excerpts from the interview:
Can you tell us about the preparations you had to do for today's dinner?
This is French cuisine but with Mauritian flavours. We use this type of cuisine in our hotel in Mauritius. So, the dishes are a blend of French and Mauritian flavours with Indian spices.
What are some of the dishes that diners can look forward to?
My personal favourite is the beetroot tartar and the roasted cauliflower. The latter has more of a sweet taste and it has been part of the menu in our hotel in Mauritius since the past one year.
Tell us about your journey of becoming a chef.
It all started when I was 13 years old...we used to cook a lot of pork and lamb at our place. When I had to decide what I wanted to do in life, I decided to try my hand at cooking and I haven’t looked back since.
Is this your first visit to India?
Yes, I arrived in Delhi last week. I have been to other Asian countries before like Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Dubai. So, I have an idea about the taste palette of Indians.
Our experience:
Our dinner started off with the tuna and beetroot tartar, green apple, wasabi, and oscietra caviar. The dish had diced beetroot, over which there was a slice of tuna. The dish was topped off with oscietra caviar, which added a mild buttery flavour to the dish. This was followed up by crab wih vegetables. A thin turnip slice, topped with capelin caviar, was kept over the round crab meat. The dish was flavourful and a bit sweet.
Next came a dish which we looked forward to because it was the chef’s favourite. Roasted cauliflower with Indian spices, turmeric, greek yoghurt and coriander. As the chef had mentioned before, the dish was more on the sweeter side but we liked how the smoky flavour of the roasted cauliflower went well with the sweetness. This was followed by the steamed Chilean sea bass with seaweed butter and salsa verde sauce. The dish had a cube of sea bass, which was topped off with culinary foam. The salsa verde sauce was made out of various herbs.
The penultimate dish was the lamb fillet in black garlic crust (zucchini-flavoured) with ginger and curry leaves sauce. This was our personal favourite, because the lamb was rich and juicy and paired very well with the sauce. This was followed by the dessert, The Mango, which was in the shape of the fruit. We were surprised to find caramel filled inside the dessert.
All in all, the dinner was worth it as the chef brought out his years of experience and played well with the Indian spices.
₹5,500 onwards. At Le Cirque, Old Airport Road
Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @al_ben_so
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