The Chaine des Rotisseurs is the oldest gourmet group in the world, dating
back to 1248, so that’s a lot of dinners and several hogsheads of wine since
then! The local chapter of this famous organization held its first Chaine
Dinner under the presidency of Ranjith Chandrasiri, at Bruno’s Restaurant
and Wine Bar last weekend, with a full house of expectant diners.
Hugh
Millar and Ranjith Chandrasiri standing either side of the Chaine des
Rotisseurs banner.
As a Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner is a forum for better chefs to present
their creations to a very discriminating group, this particular event had
generated even more interest than usual, since the chef was Claudio Forti,
the Italian ‘Chef in Residence’ at Bruno’s Restaurant until the end of
August. Claudio had come from the renowned Ristoranti della Tavolozza in
Sardinia.
One of the aims in a Chaine dinner is to present excellent food, prepared
correctly, and provide wines to complement that food. Since Claudio Forti is
a passionate Italian chef, it stood to reason that the cuisine he would
present would be Italian, and even more, that the wines chosen would also be
Italian, with some being from the Piedmont region, Claudio’s heritage.
With Chaine dinners being a gustatory ‘adventure’, the local Chaine des
Rotisseurs has Hugh Millar (Symphony restaurant), the ‘Charge de Mission’,
to explain some of the finer points of both the food and the wines, though
Hugh himself did admit that he was murdering the names of the Italian wines.
When you are confronted with a “Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio DOC
Mastroberardino 2005” you can see Hugh’s predicament! The above white wine
was teamed with the opening item, a Chilean snowfish carapccio with dill
sauce, breaded prawn and bluefin tuna in pistachio crust. It was a great
start to the evening.
Mrs
Dorli Pillar perusing the menu.
Claudio is an exponent of flans and incorporated a Parmesan flan in the Cepe
mushroom soup. An interesting variation I had not tried before. This was
followed by a quail ragout in spinach and saffron lasagna. (Just how Italian
can you get?)
Another interesting item was the sorbet, the traditional ‘breather’ about
half way through the six course dinner (some pundits will claim that sorbet
is itself a ‘course’, but I do not). This was a citrus sorbet with Campari,
and the Campari lovers were seen catching the last drops!
The roast (and all Chaine dinners must incorporate a roast - “Rotisseur”
being a “roaster”) was a very tender Australian Angus beef tenderloin, with
black truffled dumplings and vegetable ‘millefoglie’, which was complemented
by a very good red, a Rubizzo Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG Rocca Delle Macie
2003 (and now you can really see why Hugh Millar was having problems getting
his tongue around that!). However, none of the diners had any problem
getting their tongues around the wine itself.
The next course was a knockout, being a Gorgonzola fondue, deep-fried celery
croquette and walnut bread. I do not believe there is any wine made that
could overcome a gorgonzola cheese, this side of undiluted Amaretto liqueur!
The Toar Veronese, Masi 2000 tried, but the gorgonzola was the clear winner,
but top marks for trying, Chef Claudio.
The final wine of the evening was another very interesting one, being a
Moscato D’Asti DOCG Prunotto 2005, to be drunk with the hazelnut and
Zabaglione parfait, Piedmont cake, chocolate and Amaretto sauce. This
dessert wine was served very chilled, releasing many small effervescent
bubbles on the tongue, and again very surprisingly, Ranjith Chandrasiri, our
resident wine expert, explained that the Moscato grape wine only had an
alcohol content of 5.5 percent.
The next Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner is on October 21 and will be held at
Casa Pascal. If you would like to know more about the Chaine des Rotisseurs,
you can contact the Bailli (President) Ranjith Chandrasiri on email
[email protected]. If you enjoy good food and wine, it is worthwhile!
However, if you would like to sample other creations from Chef Claudio
Forti, you only have from now until August 31, at Bruno’s Restaurant and
Wine Bar, 306/63 Chateau Dale Plaza, Thappraya Road, Pattaya, tel. 038 364
600-1, email brunos@ loxinfo.co.th, www.brunos-pattaya.com. Open seven days,
lunch noon until 2.30 p.m., dinner 6 p.m. until late. Secure parking
outside.
Fried and Braised Eggplant (Aubergine)
This is a Japanese recipe, but it is applicable anywhere,
especially European food. The Japanese serve this as one course, while with
other cuisines it is thought of as an accompaniment.
Cooking Method:
Rinse the eggplants, slice lengthways then cut into 1 cm slices.
In the wok, heat 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle in a few drops of chilli
oil. Add around three slices of eggplant and fry on both sides, for a total
of around 6 minutes. Remove from the wok and drain. Continue frying with
more eggplant until all are fried.
Add chicken stock to the wok and bring to the boil. Add sake (or sherry),
sugar and soy sauce. Add the eggplant slices, cover the wok and simmer for
10 minutes.
After this remove the cover and simmer for another 5 minutes, allowing the
liquid to reduce.
For Japanese cooking, serve the eggplant slices in separate bowls and pour a
little of the hot liquid over them.
For European cooking, place the eggplant on the side with a small amount of
hot liquid poured over them. Goes well with steak.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Eggplant
2 large (or 4 small)
Sunflower oil
5 tbspns
Chilli oil
1 tspn
Chicken stock
450 ml
Sugar
3 tbspns
Japanese dark soy sauce 4 tbspns
Sake (or dry sherry)
1 tbspn
