Half the battle is won when the food you’ve made is served with love. The rest is really a matter of personal preference but its the former that is the starting point of a promising experience. And once the tone is set, it is easy to follow the wave of sensorial food adventurers. It’s with thins that Chef Jordi Guillem from Barcelona, Spain, is visiting Sevilla, Claridges Hotel, New Delhi, assuring to keep the excitement up with his special selection of dishes from back home.
He is troubled by nervousness but he doesn’t show it. He struggles with English but not his food. His tall stature sets a tall order for the food that he will be cooking till the end of this month.
Many of his dishes make use of olive oil, some more than the other. The Olive Oil Candle with Vegetable Sausage ‘Sobrasada’ is a subtle creating that comes with olive oil encased in sourdough bread with a burning candle wick in the centre held by beeswax. Flavours are simple and this makes for a great warm tapas dish, to begin with. Point to note, the chef has got his own olive oil from Spain.
As a Spaniard, he’s grown to understand the value of things such as good quality garlic, seafood and not to mention ham. Ham, especially, or Jamón as the Spanish call it, is one of the chef’s best ingredients to play with. Its simplicity keeps it tasteful. The Bread Airbags with Tomato Puree that he wraps with Ham beings the essence of what he believes about the ingredient beautifully together. “If you were in Spain you would see how much people enjoy this dish, or variations of it. I would have a plateful of these for dinner,” he says smiling.
The menu has put together a considerable amount of vegetarian dishes that mirrors the growing demand for it in Spain. There is Fried Steamed Bread with Leek and Mushrooms, Puree of Root Vegetables, Pumpkin Risotto with White Manchego Cheese and others such. “Increasingly vegetarianism is catching on the world over and we in Spain have a clear preference for. And because restaurants are revamping their menus to accommodate vegetarian options, the trend is growing” says Guillem.
Whichever end of the dietary spectrum you may be, the chef’s new menu throws up something to appease all senses. Buen provecho to that.