French cuisine never fails to impress and so while many opine that it is a safe bet for any chef, they often fail to realise that it is also one of the most complicated cuisines to crack, precariously always balancing on nuance and subtlety. It was therefore very interesting when chef Owais Ahmed from Lapis at The Oberoi, Bengaluru, decided to invite us over for The French Evolution — a menu inspired and embodying the French Republic and what it stood for.
In the august company of many French diplomatic emissaries and several other food experts, we began the evening with the amuse bouche Fan for Life, a slow cooked artichoke with paprika, which set the mood for the evening — delicate plating meets delicious flavours! Next up, we moved to the aperitif and we chose The Classic Couture, stewed king oyster, glazed onion and truffled morels. A heady play on textures, this dish was the perfect precursor to the fromage or cheese course, that featured Who Moved My Cheese, baked camembert, spiced pear, kalamata olive crumble and a red wine glaze. With camembert you can’t go wrong and the chef’s hand at a subtle pear and olive only proved that this was his playground and he was here to impress.
We then took a break for a sorbet and while the grapefruit sorbet paired very well with a chilli honeycomb crisp, we could swear we tasted ripe guava. Almost immediately, our entree for the evening reached our table and The Sea Scape — a sous-vide sea bass with endives, butter tossed snow peas and glazed rainbow carrots in a garlic champagne sauce — was stunning. Quite literally, the star of the show, we polished our plate clean and were doubly convinced that the French are indeed the kings of seafood. We wrapped up our meal with Life’s Peachy, our Instagram worthy dessert with a cinnamon cremeux, peach compote and a brown butter and pecan ice-cream, where we indulged in the nutty and chunky goodness of the cold treat before ending our meal with a vanilla and almond petit four.
The meal is paired with French and Italian wines and the limited menu is available only on two days.
INR 3,750 onwards. Only for dinner. 7.30 pm. March 1 & 3. At Lapis, The Oberoi, Bengaluru, MG Road.
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