| Photos By:: Adil Arora
 When serial restaurateur AD Singh first set foot in Delhi around a decade ago, little might he have realized such a bright future lay in store for him. From the highly popular Olive Bar and Kitchen, a casual Mediterranean fine dining restaurant in the shade of the Qutab, his NCR operations have now diversified into multi brand outlets spanning a variety of cuisines.
Being a very savvy operator who realizes the importance of location and ambience for any restaurant, he showed great foresight in tying up restaurant space with a boutique hotel in tony Lutyens Delhi for his Olive Beach Restaurant. Being located in a residential area, there are absolutely no access and parking issues here and on arrival one walks across an immaculate lawn embellished with a mélange of water bodies and verdant greenery on either side.
 Olive Beach truly has one of the most spectacular entrances of restaurants in Delhi which is further enhanced by a trellised outdoor patio – an area with pebbles underfoot, plenty of blazing sigris to keep away the winter chill and a view of the kitchen in operation. All in all, an excellent area for pre- prandial drinks.
And that’s exactly where members of the Delhi Wine Club found themselves on a crisp cold wintery evening last week as they were welcomed by glasses of chilled Yaldara Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2012 at the 222nd wine dinner. Olive Beach had been the venue for a couple of very enjoyable wine dinners in the past and when our Club President Subhash Arora heard that AD had pulled off a minor coup by hiring the Chef of the Year from London, he decided at once that the taste buds of our members should experience the talents of Chef Sujan Sarkar.
 Though he learnt to slice his onions here in India, it was really after stints with legendary chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Chris Galvin in the UK that Sujan came into his own. His creations whilst cooking for the who’s who of the glamour world in London, earned him many sobriquets and awards so it was with great anticipation that we looked forward to this wine dinner as it’s not every day in Delhi that you get to eat from the hands of someone who has successfully worked in Michelin starred restaurants. And when you add to the fact that he is one of the few chefs to have completed the WSET Level 2, you know that the talented chef preparing your food is someone who also understands and appreciates wine.
And we were certainly not disappointed. Right from the word Go there was a procession of delectable finger foods which at once caught the taste buds of the discerning eater. The delicious artichoke mousse embellished with walnuts for crunch and the duck pastillas with its sweet sauce were amongst the outstanding pass-arounds which complimented the excellent Yaldara Sauvignon Blanc.
 This fruity yet crisp wine was equally well appreciated by all and had been a hit when served at our wine dinner last year at Wok-a-Mama and a couple of members who attended that dinner like Nataloni recognized it right away. It had a long lingering finish and was a typical high quality Barossa Valley product. In fact, during dinner, a tad disappointed with the Rose, Subhash Aggarwal was heard asking for a refill of the Sauvignon Blanc but alas there was none. Teach you to be on time for the next wine dinner, Subhash!!
Much as I was getting comfortable basking in the warmth of the blazing sigris and could have spent the rest of the evening there, the sit down part of the dinner beckoned and we moved inside. Thanks to the GM of Olive Beach and Guppy by Ai, Shailesh Jha, we had the luxury of having the whole restaurant to ourselves which is really ideal for our wine dinner model during the course of which members get the benefit of Subhash’s take on the wines they are drinking - making the evening both enjoyable and educative.
The starter of the goat cheese salad with beetroot walnut and rocket had our members in rapturous praise. Each of these add-ons gave the salad some sweetness, crunch and tartness respectively and I have not had this dish prepared so tastily in Delhi before. The starter was paired with the McGuigan Black Label Shiraz-Rose 2012. A decent Rose made from the Shiraz grape, it had aromas and flavours of cherry and strawberry but disappointing in what Amita Aggarwal described as “a rather abrupt finish.”
 Next up, the Pumpkin soup with Parmesan foam was just exquisite and clearly showed the chef’s deft touch in turning an otherwise pedestrian vegetable into a gourmet dish. The John Dory which followed was on a bed of pureed red peppers and sun dried tomatoes and was just fabulous – again the Chef paying attention to getting a bit of zip from the peppers, sweetness from the sundried tomatoes to compliment the flavor of the John Dory. The Rose was no match for this superlative dish and I then moved on to the McGuigan Black Label Merlot 2011. Like a good Barossa Valley Merlot, this one was smooth, fruity and rich with a reasonably strong plummy nose.
 With the Green Apple sorbet doing its function efficiently, we moved onto a trio of main courses. I thought I would try the Tenderloin Wellington and I was impressed with his work at creating a delightful pastry casing. Unfortunately this dish requires meat of high quality and I felt Chef Sarkar was let down by the quality of our Indian tenderloin which in my opinion just doesn’t make the cut for a dish like this one. I switched to a perfectly made wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil which matched pretty well with the Yaldara Estate Shiraz 2011 – a well-rounded fruity wine a slightly spicy finish. The chicken option with Kale and Hazelnut jus was also very well received by those who had it at our table.
Those assuming that we’d seen the range of Chef Sarkar’s talents in the parade of dishes were in for a surprise with the Tiramisu dessert – which in Nataloni’s words “was the best Tiramisu" he has had in Delhi. That coming from an Italian who has learnt to be as frugal with his kudos as Marwaris are with their money, is really like a trumpet call to Delhiites to come and taste the creations of a master chef.
 With plenty of warmth inside us, we stepped out into the cold of the Delhi winter, most of us making a mental promise to return soon. The evening could well be summed up in the words of Lavina Kharkwal who wrote in her comments on the DWC webpage next morning, “The entire meal was a visual and gastronomical delight. Chef Sujan Sarkar is indeed an artist.” Touche !
Arun Batra is a Delhi based food and wine enthusiast and a long-time member of the Delhi Wine Club
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Tags: Olive Beach Restaurant, Chef Sujan Sarkar, Olive Bar and Kitchen |