Italian food festival short on imaginative culinary creations
JAKARTA (JP): Italian cuisine brings to mind a cornucopia of sun-drenched, zesty, succulent food -- olives, lashings of olive oil, twists, curls, and ribbons of al dente pasta, ricotta, mozzarella, and other exotic cheeses, ripe tomatoes and peppers, melt-in-the-mouth meats, desserts flavored with marsala wine ... Italian food enjoys immense popularity and is a perennial favorite among gourmands. Thus a specialist Italian buffet, Trattoria style, at the Grand Cafe, Grand Hyatt, sounded very promising and worth checking out.
Sadly, it proved to be tasty, but quite unremarkable.
Soup of the day was a beef consomme. The Antipasti selection, though, offered some interesting choices. It included favorites like Verdure alla griglia marinate, an assortment of grilled vegetables marinated in olive oil, garlic and herbs, and a selection of Italian cold cuts like Prosciutto di Parma, Milano salami, and Beef carpaccio. Parmigiana di melanzane fredda, explained Ruffinazzi Massimo, a member of the Italian team headed by Chef Angelo Minochio, was a special dish from the south; it is made with the best eggplant, zucchini and other ingredients that grow in southern Italy. A similar combination of ingredients was rolled into little crepes, rather surprisingly labeled as Swiss salad, and looking more like Swiss rolls.
At the salad bar there was a modest choice of vegetables including a bowl of crisp, mixed lettuce, with toppings and dressings to make up one's own individual salad. Extras, Italian style, were artichokes in olive oil and sweet and sour onions. Offerings from the sea were smoked salmon and Insalata ai frutti di mare, a seafood salad.
The hot dishes that comprised the entrees were rather disappointing; the veal, for instance, was rather tough and stringy. However, Crespelle ossolane gratinate, a crepe dish with cheese, mushrooms and ham, hailing from the Italian village of Ossolana was quite delicious, as was the chicken in a pink peppery sauce. There was a pasta station where pasta was cooked on the spot; one could pick from a limited, fairly standard and rather uninspired choice of pastas and sauces. Risotto was another hot cooked-on-the-spot option. It was made with white wine and cheeses, then placed hot on the most enormous slab of Parmesan to allow the distinctive flavor to infuse into it. The wagon offered hot roasts, turkey and beef. Pizzas were conspicuous by their absence.
In the dessert section however there was a generous selection; one table offered a choice of puddings and cakes.Zabaglione with marsala wine,Zucchotto with mixed fruit and peel embedded in the chocolate and the Grappa Savarin topped with caramelized brandy snaps were tasty, if the Tirami su was not exceptional and the Ricotta cheese cake too dry. Another table offered a choice of gelati in special Italian flavors like Tirami su, chocolate nougat, and a tangy, refreshing, lime sorbet. The toppings and sauces on offer were both fruity and chocolaty.
The selection of Italian cheeses in the cheese platter were specially brought all the way from Italy. There was a range of creamy, light, pungent and smoked cheeses like Taleggio, Pecorino, Scamorza, Provolone, Fontina and Gorgonzola. Incidentally, the Parmesan was authentically Italian too and tasted quite different than the plastic commercial Parmesan available in supermarkets.
Undoubtedly, the ingredients were fresh and the food flavorful. But it cannot be denied that, while the fare was tasty, it was hardly different or exceptional in a city that boasts of many specialist Italian restaurants. Thus the casual 'buffet eater' in search of good food will more than satisfy his hunger, but a cognoscente of Italian food seeking something really special to appease his appetite is bound for to be disappointment. Un peccato.
The Italian Food Festival is on for lunch and dinner until May 19 at Grand Cafe, Grand Hyatt Jakarta at Rp 48,000.
-- Parvathi Nayar Narayan