Monday, January 14, 2013

Everyone knows about salt on food, but what about food on salt ?

Gaze into the deep ferrite light of a massive block of Himalayan salt, and glimpse the unfathomed history of our planet. Pink salt was formed in the Precambrian era, about 600 million years ago, as a great inland sea evaporated. Volcanic and other geological activity then sealed the salt in a hermetic vault where, over eons, it was subjected to the intense pressure and heat of the deep earth.


It is ancient, even in cosmological terms, comes from a savage wilderness, glows with brooding intensity, lends itself to as many creative uses as any salt on the planet; and lets loose its unique spicy hot pungency with all the subtlety of a medieval army – and twice the ingenuity.

The rough salt rocks are then hand cut by local masons into a variety of shapes, providing the foundation for extraordinary new ways to prepare and serve food. The salt’s crystal lattice has a fairly high specific energy (energy per unit of mass), so it will tend to hold any temperature you bring it to for a good while. Also, due to its lack of porosity or moisture, the salt plates can be safely heated or chilled to virtually any extreme.

At Vivanta By Taj, Whitefield, the salt slabs are frozen to 0° C to serve cold or chilled foods such as sashimi of watermelon or a Carpaccio. They are also slow heated to around 300°C to grill meats or fish or just serve a hot grill on the stone. In fact once heated for a few hours the heat within is retained for enough time to have a stir fry counter without a heat source. The scope for innovations is tremendous.

At Latitude, a sample menu for the salt grill serves salt grilled scallops with fennel foam, supreme of tuna with truffle poached sunny side up, a beetroot sorbet with parsley jelly, bloody mary infused rib eye steaks and a flaming grilled chocolate brownie.

Sunday, February 21, 2010


Olive Oil Ice Cream

1 1/3 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cup heavy cream

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup fruity olive oil


Combine the milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until warm and sugar is dissolved.In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks. While continuing to whisk, gradually add the warm milk mixture to the egg yolks. Once it's all combined, return the entire mixture to the saucepan.Stir it over medium heat, making sure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Let it thicken enough so that it coats the spoon.Pour the cream into another bowl and place a strainer over the top of the bowl. Pour the milk and egg mixture through the strainer into the cream. Whisk together and then add the olive oil, continuing to whisk until all combined. Place over an ice bath and continue to stir until the mixture has cooled. churn in an ice cream maker

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Accolades for Il Camino



Il camino, wins the Times Food Guide Award for the best Italian Restaurant – Goa for the year 2010.


The most talked about section of menu which is talked by all is the signature chefs dishes such as

Spaghetti Bolognaise…
… the perfect combination

As you might expect from a classic of the Italian kitchen, this involves no special equipment, just a long, slow simmer to allow the flavours to combine. Each batch of bolognaise is made by combining over 30 ingredients to precision.

Pollo Arrosto …
… Simply the best

At Il camino each broiler that is to be converted to roast chicken is carefully selected. The key to our signature dish is it is carefully brined and the low- temperature cooking that helps in retaining maximum moisture to end up with a deliciously succulent bird. Our unique simple recipe does not use any marination or seasonings

Thursday, November 26, 2009

some write ups...




World Pasta Day















It should come as no surprise to discover that this special day promotes the consumption of pasta around the world. It seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of pasta

At world level the collective promotion in favour of pasta received a powerful impulsion thanks to the outcome of the World Pasta Congress held in Rome on 25th October 1995.

World Pasta Day 2009’s focus was “Pasta Meals on Every Family Table.”



Here Chef Lynn Clemente held various activities to promote the event.The evening started with a Pasta demo by Chef Lynn called Combine & Blend. A lot of guests actively took part questioning and seeking chefs tips to prepare pasta at home. The demo was followed with an pasta shape quiz called “Pastabilities”.



An exclusive pasta promotion menu with over 32 types of pasta and 25 sauces to give over 600 combinations. Pasta shapes as Bucatini, Ditaloni, Orecchiette, Sardinian gnocchetti, Capellini, Home made Squid ink spaghetti and cavatelli amongst various raviolis featured on the menu. Sunday dinner was very busy with over 100 pax promoting pasta. All families and groups were given a packet of pasta to take home and cook at leisure as the theme goes “Pasta Meals on Every Family Table.”



Steaks & Stilettos


The saying that Italians live to eat, while the rest of the world eats to live still rings true today.

Premium steaks from across the globe prepared with the finest Italian ingredients were served by Chef Lynn Clemente. The menu boasted of premium meats from Australia to the Pink Salmon from the Atlantic. Crispy duck breast paired with spiced berry gnocchi and orange sambucca glaze. All steaks were complimented with a glass of “Francis Coppola Cabernet Sauvignon”

All ladies wearing stilettos were given unlimited wine. The stilettos were put to good use with the presence of a dance instructor training the guests to some Italian dance forms.

The restaurant had a very lively ambience with Italian music.

The most talked about steak was the Angus rib eye, a 350 gram juicy meat steak served with celery caponata and country grain mustard potato wedges.

Even thought the promotion has ended the repeat guest still request the chef for the premium steaks.

Guess we shall see the food promotion return very soon…
For all the food aficionados, this is something that could not be missed!