Italian beyond pizza-pasta

Chef Christian Huber is a little indignant, and you can sense he's also a little baffled. The Chef de Cuisine at Pune's Marriott Hotel has been in India since November last year and still seems to be getting used to the fact that here, Italian food spells only pizza and pasta. “It's much more than that, they're not thinking of cold cuts, cheese…”, he says, adding later on in the conversation that “back home”, the pasta is eaten for itself, just some oil and parmesan would do — “here the pasta's the topping!”

The chef, who was in Chennai to launch the new menu at Rhapsody, the Italian restaurant at Courtyard by Marriott, says he's made an effort to give diners more authentic cuisine from Italy. The pizza and the pasta are there, but so are some interesting antipasti and entrees. I try a selection of the antipasti — mozzarella di bufala con pomodori e basilico , aglio marinato — yes, that's a mouthful, but so is the actual morsel: a spongy, super-soft lump of mozzarella that blew me away with its clean, uncomplicated plainness. There are breaded croquettes you can sink your teeth into for a taste of melting caprino, a goat's milk cheese, with only the stirrings of a pungency that our Indian palates will well tolerate. The Gorgonzola, blue and other strong cheeses have been kept away — one has to be eased into the real thing, after all! There's also warm green asparagus with salmoriglio sauce, a combination of olive oil, lemon and fresh oregano, which didn't wow me as much as the other two did.

The salmone grigliato — grilled salmon with just a little salt and some steamed vegetables — is plain simplicity. Perhaps a little too plain for Indian palates. The “beetroot sabayon and vanilla bean oil spinach with parmesan butter” that go with it, as stated on the menu, are missing — I imagine the fish would be more interesting with them. Chef Huber also recommends the filetto di dentice , red snapper with grilled vegetables, shallot confit and salsa verde .

“Spicy's not the issue, we're here to make a guest happy, it's not like we can ask a European to eat curry straightaway,” says the chef, in the course of our conversation about how Indians consume Italian food. “I have nothing against penne with white sauce with lots of vegetables, but it's not really traditional Italian.” Huber, who has a post-graduate degree in pastry, hails from Italy's Alto Adige region, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire till World War I. The cuisine here, one learns, is influenced by Venetian and German traditions. In Italy, traditionally meals begin with salami, cheese, go on to pasta/ravioli/risotto and then main course, which is meat or fish. Home cooking is very basic. On an ordinary day, what you'd get is pasta. Perhaps a salad, and fruit would have to do for dessert. “In India, even at home, you'd get at least six items. In Italy, you'd be lucky if you get one,” he jokes. And in many restaurants in Italy, one would get strange looks if they asked for a pizza — those are served in a pizzeria, and it's mainly eaten as a quick snack, or after a game, with friends, or for dinner. “It's eaten with a fork and knife, and never served sliced!”

Other authentic Italian dishes Chef Huber recommends are the ravioli with mozzarella in light tomato and pecorino sauce — pecorino is another sharp cheese — and the risotto with mushrooms and truffle oil. For dessert, there are just four choices, including tiramisu. I, however, am served the torta di cioccolato fondente — warm, molten chocolate fondant cake with a scoop of vanilla on the side. Ask about wine pairing and the chef says that while he's happy to advise diners who are interested, he doesn't push it because it's an expensive proposition in India.

The chef has tried to work the menu around the ingredients available all year round and locally because “it doesn't make sense to let produce travel”. Some of it, like the truffle oil and some cheeses, have to be imported, but that wonderful, velvety buffalo mozzarella I began my lunch with is local. Now, if only the chef would reveal where it came from!