Sunday, April 26, 2009

London's Atul Kochhar at Rang Mahal

A Chili Pepper from the Buffet

The World Gourmet Summit people have been shoving spam into my inbox for a while now, most of which I have been ignoring. But one item caught my eye: an Indian Michelin-starred chef was going to be a guest at Rang Mahal. And it was perfect timing too, as a client of mine from India happened to be in town. We came down here a few days ago when they were serving a buffet lunch, which included four of the chef's signature dishes like tandoori quail. I liked it enough to want to come back here again for a proper service. So we scrambled back here tonight to catch the last day that his team was going to be in town.

Aubergine Terrine with Red Pepper Ragout

The tasting menu ended up being a bit more Westernized than the buffet, with items like cured salmon and a chocolate brownie seeming a bit out of place for an Indian meal. But I liked nearly everything that appeared on both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus, particularly a potato and goat cheese cake with a deep cumin flavor, as well as a paneer vol-au-vent whose mildly sweet tomato sauce was delicate enough to convert even this paneer and sweet food hater. The only thing difficult to swallow was the S$75-95 (US$50-63) for a vegetarian meal, but hey - it was of high quality, served on fine linens, and of course was cheaper than flying all the way to London.

1 comment:

Pete said...

How does Atul Kochhar's Michelin-starred Indian food compare with Rang Mahal & Song of India's?