Italian Feast at Bene, Sheraton. Amazing food and beautiful desserts!
I am huge fan of Italian food. In international food, right at the top for me is “South East Asian” and then comes right behind Italian. So its not surprising that, when I got a mail for the preview of the Italian Festival at Bene, Sheraton with visiting Chef Fabio Colace from Rome, Italy, I was excited. The event’s theme is “Traditional Italian Reinterpreted” and is running from 21st to 30th June.
Chef Fabio Colace , Picture Credit Nitin
We started the evening with breads, dips and herb infused butter. So typical to any Italian meal along with a great white wine. The bread I loved, the texture was good and the flavours great, the herbed parsley was well-balanced too but the tomato and basil based dip didn’t really appeal to me. For me, it was as if I don’t know why it was kept there.
And with that, we moved on the first course “Il Fungo Porcino” which was basically potato filled with porcini mushrooms and served with parsley sauce. That parsley sauce was bloody brilliant. By the end of the course, I had wiped the plate off of every single drop of the sauce. The mushrooms were well seasoned, the only complain if any I had from the dish was that the potato was a little under cooked for my liking but then if the chef cooked it any more he wouldn’t have been able to fill in the mushroom in the tunnel. May be a little bake, post filling would have solved it and oh ya a little bit more of salt may be. But that parsley sauce. Oh yum!
The next course was “La Lasanga Bene” basically a take on lasagne with onions, roasted cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, eggplant and parmigiano cheese cream. The minute it landed on the table there were deep sighs around. It looked so pretty and the eggplant tasted nothing like one usually gets in the Italian places in the city. It was beautiful. This was one dish I wouldn’t mind eating meal after meal for a week, may be.
After the brilliant lasagne, we moved on to the meat for the day with “L’Angello” – lam loin with aromatic herbs, balsamic sauce and potatoes rosti and let the messy balsamic not fool you here. Because, the lamb was perfectly cooked medium rare, for some it might be underc ooked specially in India where most people like to eat the meat well done (might as well kill it, sigh). I was surprised that they didn’t ask whether we want it well done or medium rare. And that roasted garlic with a sprig of rosemary, I shamelessly finished all of it even if it was only a garnish.
And as a fitting end to the lovely meal, came the gorgeous looking dessert served in a red plate (yay I don’t get the cream based desserts served in white plates, washed out the whole picture I say) and I would leave you with saying the dessert tasted as good as it looked if not better. The apple in the pastry was outstanding and the frozen cream and the prosecco sauce just came together as a dream.
During the duration of the festival, they also have some interesting things happening like guess the herbs (which are grown in their garden, I believe) contest and a trivia quiz about Italy. If you get the questions right, you can win things ranging from a dessert serving to 10% of the current bill or a spa treatment. They also have a section where they have breads, cold cuts and cheese on sale and from what I could see that day, both the prices and the variety looked great.
Picture Credit Nitin again
Address: Bene, Sheraton Bangalore at Brigade Gateway
Phone: +91-80-42521000
Cuisine: Italian, Fine Dining
Cards Accepted: Yes
Meal for Two: Rs 3000 /- plus plus
Parking: Valet
Hrishi says
I would definitely want to know more about the cold cuts, the trivia section would have me in glee.
The food loks wonderful. True, most indians like their meet well done. I have been trying in vain to get my self a steak medium rare or even rare, just to try it out.
The lasagna looks like an exotic bug from the jungle landed down on a scoop of pasta.. It looks amazing . The delicate work that must have gone in making it…
Swati Raman Garg says
iam glad i didnt go and sad that i missed… it all looks awesome and especially the dessert…