There's been a change of guard at Prego, Westin and Chef Guiseppe Lioce is the man-in-charge now. To introduce Chef to the beautiful people of Pune, Westin invited the PuneFoodiez to interact with him and sample some of his signature dishes many of which are influenced by the cooking style of Bari, Southern Italy, where he hails from. Much like some European countries like Italy and France have different wine regions that produce different varietals of wines with clearly distinguishable characteristics, they also have food regions where the cuisine varies depending on weather conditions and availability of fresh produce. So while the cuisine of the considerably colder northern Italy is comparatively heavier with generous usage of butter and cream, sunny southern Italy is all about light dishes and fresh flavours. During his introduction, Chef stressed on minimal usage of ingredients {three to five maximum}, using fresh produce and the best available ingredients and keeping it simple to bring out optimum flavours in the dish.
The meal started off with an antipasti platter and radicchio with scamorza cheese. The platter had cured beef, roasted eggplant with tomato sauce and Chef's take on melon and parma ham. While the eggplant had a nice flavour going, I missed the crunch of sweet melons along with the ham. The radicchio is quite bitter to eat by itself but the cheese offset the bitterness quite well and was a unique dish. Vegetarians were not impressed by the eggplant being served on the same platter as the meats and I too believe that this is something that needs attention.
Slivers of angus beef with a sweet lavender dressing were quite nice with the trufle croutons in the beef carpaccio, but I'm not too sure if dicing and mixing the foie gras with pancetta was a good idea because the flavours got mixed up a bit. Scallops with parma ham and pumpkin puree was a good play on sweet and salty and I enjoyed the dish.
The fresh artichokes salad and the eggplant and mascarpone ravioli with cherry tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella followed and while they were not bad, it didn't have us reaching out for seconds either. The best dish of the evening was a simple handmade pasta with Roman pecorino and black pepper sauce. Sublime, is the only word I can think to describe the dish.
Tomato-based sauces were predominant in the lobster pasta, baked sea bass {beautifully cooked fish} and chicken fillet and I wish the Chef had experimented with more flavours. Even though the chicken breast was well cooked and not as dry and stringy as it normally is, it didn't go well with the steamed polenta and was the most disappointing dish of the lot.
The New Zealand lamb shank, slow cooked in Nero D'Avola {a varietal of Italian red wine} was another winner with well cooked soft meat and mash to accompany it. I also loved the gorgonzola cheese and porcini mushrooms risotto, a dish bursting with strong flavours from the cheese and mushrooms with perfect al dente rice. Warm puff pastry with strawberry custard and homemade vanilla ice-cream provided a good, refreshing end to the meal.
Now I'm quite averse to heavily spiced / flavoured food but even I thought that some of the dishes lacked the punch and so will a lot of other folks who like their food bursting with flavour and spices. We brought up this point with the Chef who assured us that he had a number of spicy options available on the menu but is always happy to convert those willing to trust him and his style of cooking. Another point that had us pondering was if people would be willing to pay 5 star rates for what is necessarily simple, home-style cooking?
I'd recommend Prego to those willing to submit to Chef Guiseppe's philosophy towards food and of course, deep pockets.
The meal started off with an antipasti platter and radicchio with scamorza cheese. The platter had cured beef, roasted eggplant with tomato sauce and Chef's take on melon and parma ham. While the eggplant had a nice flavour going, I missed the crunch of sweet melons along with the ham. The radicchio is quite bitter to eat by itself but the cheese offset the bitterness quite well and was a unique dish. Vegetarians were not impressed by the eggplant being served on the same platter as the meats and I too believe that this is something that needs attention.
Slivers of angus beef with a sweet lavender dressing were quite nice with the trufle croutons in the beef carpaccio, but I'm not too sure if dicing and mixing the foie gras with pancetta was a good idea because the flavours got mixed up a bit. Scallops with parma ham and pumpkin puree was a good play on sweet and salty and I enjoyed the dish.
The fresh artichokes salad and the eggplant and mascarpone ravioli with cherry tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella followed and while they were not bad, it didn't have us reaching out for seconds either. The best dish of the evening was a simple handmade pasta with Roman pecorino and black pepper sauce. Sublime, is the only word I can think to describe the dish.
Tomato-based sauces were predominant in the lobster pasta, baked sea bass {beautifully cooked fish} and chicken fillet and I wish the Chef had experimented with more flavours. Even though the chicken breast was well cooked and not as dry and stringy as it normally is, it didn't go well with the steamed polenta and was the most disappointing dish of the lot.
The New Zealand lamb shank, slow cooked in Nero D'Avola {a varietal of Italian red wine} was another winner with well cooked soft meat and mash to accompany it. I also loved the gorgonzola cheese and porcini mushrooms risotto, a dish bursting with strong flavours from the cheese and mushrooms with perfect al dente rice. Warm puff pastry with strawberry custard and homemade vanilla ice-cream provided a good, refreshing end to the meal.
Now I'm quite averse to heavily spiced / flavoured food but even I thought that some of the dishes lacked the punch and so will a lot of other folks who like their food bursting with flavour and spices. We brought up this point with the Chef who assured us that he had a number of spicy options available on the menu but is always happy to convert those willing to trust him and his style of cooking. Another point that had us pondering was if people would be willing to pay 5 star rates for what is necessarily simple, home-style cooking?
I'd recommend Prego to those willing to submit to Chef Guiseppe's philosophy towards food and of course, deep pockets.
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