Karachista: 7Up adds some fizz to winter with Chef’s Bonanza

25-day, three-city festival celebrates international cuisine.

KARACHI:

Foodies in Pakistan have been enjoying a treat this winter. The soft drink brand 7Up has sponsored a nationwide food festival called the 7Up Chef’s Bonanza — flying in international chefs to cook at restaurants across Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. None of the chefs participating in the event are run of the mill or mere line cooks — they are executive and head chefs with global experience in managing and establishing restaurants. During this 25-day celebration of global cuisine, they are taking over some of Pakistan’s best restaurants. Places like Fuschia in Karachi and The Polo Lounge in Lahore are hosting evenings, where these experienced international chefs offer a unique, gastronomic experience.

Chef Giuliano is an executive chef from Emilia Romagna in Italy. He is in charge of 45 chefs involved in fine dining and catering services by La Scuola di Serra restaurant in Italy. He’s no stranger to the subcontinent either; he was a corporate executive chef for Olive restaurants in India and travelled extensively across the country to set them up and provide catering on their behalf.

Chef Fadi prepping the cold mezzeh

Chef Giuliano cooked in Islamabad and Lahore at Tiramisu and Chameleon, respectively, before coming to Karachi to cook at Koel Café and the relatively new Monte Cristo. He is full of praise for Karachi and said that it was a more youthful and energetic city in comparison with Lahore or Islamabad, and his favourite of the three. He was pleasantly surprised by Pakistan in general.

“I expected Pakistan to be pretty much the same as India, based on their shared history. However, Pakistan has its own unique charm. It is cleaner and better organised than India. The cuisine is also very different.”

Chef Giuliano sampled some authentic Pakistani food at the Andaz restaurant near Cuckoos in the old city in Lahore. He particularly praised the biryani, butter chicken and spinach and cheese samosas. Best of all were the tandoori naan, which he said are wonderful even by themselves.

Maheen Khan & Rasikh at Koel Café, Mercedes Hernandez Orta at Café Aylanto

He was very appreciative of Pakistan and its restaurants, praising the cities he has visited as well as the food there. However, he was not so fond of the kitchens he has worked in over here, saying, “The equipment is 15 to 20 years behind times. Appliances you would automatically expect in a modern professional kitchen, such as a vacuum-packing machine, are simply not available. Accordingly, one is forced to cook using old-fashioned methods.”

Nevertheless, he was full of praise for the staff in kitchens where he has worked. He went to local markets with owners of the restaurants to buy ingredients, checking for quality and freshness. In general, he said pretty much everything he wanted was available, although he felt there were too many ‘fake’ ingredients.



“Not every Parmesan-like cheese is Parmesan. Parmegiano Reggiano is a registered trademark and there are several farms that produce certified Halal Parmegiano Reggiano. It would be better if such things were available here instead of inferior quality cheese that is passed off as Parmesan.”

As far as the quality of the ingredients was concerned, he felt that beef was not what it could be and the tomatoes were not juicy enough. He conceded that the problem with tomatoes was probably seasonal and added that our fish was top-notch. He went on to explain that for the simple pure style of cooking that Italians prefer, the quality of ingredients is paramount.

Another chef, Fazil Shahreen Bin Ahmad from Malaysia, presented Asian cuisine that featured Thai, Korean and Malaysian influences. The menu he created for Fuschia in Karachi included seafood rice paper rolls and salmon laksa.



The third chef, Fadi El-Reweissati is the executive chef at Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, and has worked all over the Gulf. He was impressed by the kitchen at Café Aylanto and said that it was well laid out and organized. He also lauded the kitchen staff, saying that they were knowledgeable and understood how to work in a kitchen. He said that the ingredient quality was not quite right, but that it was acceptable.

Imran Merchant, owner of Café Aylanto, said that sourcing the ingredients for Chef Fadi’s menu was problematic at times, as some items were not locally available and had to be flown in from Dubai. His staff also had a tough time learning a new menu and the style of cuisine in just two days, but rose to the challenge and succeeded in meeting Chef Fadi’s high standards.

The food served at Aylanto that night was certainly good. The salads and hot mezze were excellent. The mutabal and baba ghanoush were delicious although the hummus and carrot mutabal could have been better. Of the main courses, the chicken, fish and lamb were all very good although the rice served with the lamb was a little over-spiced with cinnamon. The desserts were delectable, not over-sweet like most Lebanese desserts, especially the knafeh, which was a new dessert for many diners.

The evening included entertainment in the form of Malaysian illusionist Rosen Roy, who went around the tables performing magic tricks. Mercedes Hernandes Orta from Cuba was also present, hand-rolling cigars using five different types of tobacco leaf. Both added an element of fun to the proceedings.

Many Pakistani evenings out focus on food — whether it is fine dining, buffets, Cafés or dhabas. Food lovers around the country enjoyed being able to sample the cuisine of skilled international chefs at 7Up Chef’s Bonanza. For the participating restaurants, it is a chance for the staff to learn some new techniques and recipes. As a teetotal country, Pakistan is a major market for soft drink companies. It’s refreshing to see some part of their advertising budgets being spent in a way that is so positive for Pakistani fine dining.

Oxford-grad Salima Feerasta is a social commentator and lover of style in any form or fashion. She blogs at karachista.com and tweets
@karachista

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2013.

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