Agnimitra Sharma’s Focus On Italy At Azure

Sometimes being spoiled for choice is a great thing but sometimes it can get in the way of a great meal but with Chef Agnimitra Sharma’s focus on Italy, choosing what to eat is easy.

His new menu at Azure, the contemporary dining restaurant at Vivanta By Taj - Yeshwantpur, does away with its previous Mediterranean focus and narrows it all down to Italy.

"The aim was to showcase the main Italian dishes from regions like Rome, Florence, Parma etc.," Chef Agnimitra told Explocity. "To provide the diner with a complete Italian food experience."

Clearly, a lot of pondering and planning went into the menu, to curate it rather than have it result in an ad hoc medley of dishes that so many less experienced chefs are guilty of.

Here’s how the meal played out.

Starting off with the antipasti, there were four options each for the vegetarians and non vegetarians, two hot and two cold. Popular among them are the Insalata Caprese - with tomato, bocconcini and basil - and the Frito Miso, deep fried squid, octopus, prawn and fish in a tartare sauce. "You should sample some traditional Minestrone soup, or try the Chicken consommé with handmade tortellini," Sharma said.

Italian food is nothing without pizza, pastas and risotto. The pizzas were handmade (with no rolling involved) and there were four non-vegetarian and four vegetarian pizzas to choose from. One of their most popular pizzas is the Ortolana Pizza which comes with a choice of grilled vegetables like mushroom and zucchini among other, as toppings.

The Mushroom Risotto is pretty much the go-to risotto for anyone, those willing to be a bit adventurous can try the lamb ragu risotto that comes flavoured with saffron sauce.

The pasta section was divided into two: one section features the regular store-bought pasta with a wide selection of sauces enough to satisfy even the most picky eater. The other section, if you care to be more discerning, features handcrafted pasta like gnocchi, ravioli, linguine and tortellini, that the chef will make for you.

The exhaustive (and exhausting if your job is to sample all these things in one sitting) menu included Chilean Sea Bass as well as the Indian sea bass, salmon, tiger prawn, lobster. You also have two types of chicken, tenderloin, lamb as well as duck breast and pork tenderloin to choose from. And all this comes with grilled vegetables and sauces.

And finally with the dessert section, the ubiquitous chocolate brownie doesn't make an appearance. Instead we had Tiramisu, Panacotta with berries, Chocolate Fallen cake chocolate, Ricotta cheesecake and Apricot tart.

Whew.