CaLDRON February 2014 - Valentine's Day Special | Page 12

REVIEWS - DELHI

zerruco by zilli

ELEGANT SIMPLICITY

T

Given the cliched Italian doing the rounds all over the country,
Zerruco by Zilli comes as a breath of fresh air. A visit is highly
recommended.

he Italian food I’ve tasted
in this country has in most
cases, been timid and cast from
the same mould that churned out a
thousand menus across the nation.
The overuse of cheese, an abundance of pizza-sachet-class spices
used in every possible place, from
the pizza sauce to the glutinous, red
liquid used to drown good pasta and
the same tired ‘extra’ dishes every
restaurant uses in an attempt to
create a difference; to illustrate that
they too, are capable of going beyond the red/white pasta and pizzas
that constitute I talian food in India.
Zerruco by Zilli, an Italian restaurant that drawns on Chef Aldo Zilli’s
decades of experience and penchant
for well rounded flavors. My lunch
there, at a time when the restaurant
was still being set up (I don’t think
I liked the decor; confused), was a
wonderful surprise. I ate the most
delightful, vegetarian Minestrone
ever, with the secret being, the underlying vegetable stock, which most
kitchens tend to overlook. “Herbs”,
was Chef Zilli’s answer, when asked
how he managed to bring such
flavors into a vegetable stock, which
are notoriously hard to make. Let’s
give the man his due, not grudge
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him his secrets; slurping his soups
ought to be reward enough.

Another memorable dish was the
Sea Bass Carpaccio, with mushrooms, rocket, olive oil, truffles and
Melanzane alla Parmigiana – litpepper, a linear dish with multiple
tle medallions of aubergine, batter
flavor profiles. I tend to assign a
fried, stacked with mozzarella, with mental picture of a place, where I’d
a dollop of chunky tomato sauce
best enjoy a dish, the previous pasta
over, my next, was served with crisp for example, in a dimly lit room,
rocket leaves sprinkled with grated sitting in front of a roaring fire, with
Parmesan cheese; too little cheese, I the muffled sounds of a winter gale
thought, for its name to be included raging without. The only place I can
in the title. A lovely starter nonedeem right for this dish is, despite its
theless, followed by a bowl of Con- fine dining appearance and heritage,
chiglie pasta with Lamb Ragu. This, in a shorts and t-shirt, legs outmy friend, was the dish that left me stretched, under a shaded canopy of
a verandah, looking out at the sea,
while breathing in the salty breezEvery dish is flavorful es and watching people walking
and utterly delicious. along a wooden pier. Okay, so I’m a
dreamer.
looking blank; a look that stopped
my lunch companion mid-sentence,
as it was obvious I’d stopped listening to anything from this material
world, choosing instead to concentrate on the divine, homely and
subtle flavors of the pasta, pausing
only to chew on the juicy pieces of
lamb scattered throughout. Anyone
can create a passable dish, given a
hundred components to work with.
A handful however, is a different
story; a tale Chef Zilli transformed
into an epic.

I cannot speak for the quality of
food in the absence of Chef Zilli. What I ate when he was there
however, was incomparable and the
work of a master. ■
Sid Khullar
Rating: 4 out of 5
Price: INR 3500++ (meal for two)
Address: The Ashok, 50-B, Kautilya
Marg, Diplomatic Enclave, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
Phones: [phone]/53
CaLDRON February 2014