La Piazza, Hyatt Regency's New Menu: Going Back To The Roots

La Piazza, the Italian restaurant at Hyatt Regency New Delhi has come out with a new menu. A menu that focuses on going back to the roots and using simple ingredients that the chefs, Ivan Chieregatti and Alessandro Sandrolini, have been grown up eating back at home back in Italy, is doing a brilliant job with keeping the cooking genuine and not going fancy through the roof, and attaining what every restaurant should attain- excellent food that takes us back to our roots. The two chefs come from different parts of Italy- one from South and one from North, so both of them bring something very different from each other to the table, And as told by them, Italy is as diverse as India when it comes to the food. Something the people in the southern part of Italy may have as a staple will be completely different from what the northern part would eat. So the menu is a good mix of both North and South Italy.

With the growing advent of restaurants now realising the importance of going back to our kins' recipes and using basic ingredients homegrown and more superior in quality than what they pay shit loads of money for and still are unable to achieve that flavour, it's a great thing to see Italian chefs going back to their roots too, and introducing to us how their childhood and the cooking in their country feels like. 

The menu does everything from salads, appetizers, pasta, risotto, to main course and dessert. The Salad I tasted was a Warm Mushroom Salad with cherry tomatoes and croutons. A warm salad- quite different right? But so comforting in taste! Delicately flavoured mushrooms and the lovely strong goat cheese in it, sprinkled with some micro greens with a little broth-like mushroom flavoured gravy underneath. I don't like tomatoes so didn't touch the cherry tomatoes in it. The other salad was the one I liked more, because of fresh raw greens in it and I think it also has more to do with the concept of salad in my head. This was a beautiful Roasted Chicken Salad with Bergamot Dressing. Chicken, oranges, spring onion, lettuce leaves, almond, apricot, and all this tossed in that light lovely bergamot dressing. A very healthy salad, with the dressing having close to no calories.

Something you must must try in this new menu is the Spinach and Ricotta Croquettes with Pear Dressing. Crisp croquettes with a yummy as hell stuffing, and that pear dressing deserves all the praises it can get! What a balance of the dressing and the croquettes!

They're doing two new pizzas- a Porcini, Parmesan, Mozzarella Pizza and the other a Shrimp, Mushroom, Tomato, Mozzarella Pizza with rocket leaves. It's very difficult to choose a favourite, and normally I would have chosen the tomato mozarella one because that's how a classic pizza is for me, plus it has shrimps too!! But the porcini parmesan pizza was so different and so full of richness. The cheese combination in this one was just terrific! And the porcini mushrooms created magic (coming from someone who borderline loathed mushrooms before this) with the truffle oil drizzled on top. Both the pizzas are amazing, but the porcini pizza gets my vote only and only if I have to make a choice. If not, I'd take a half n half of both :)

 

An Artichoke and Chive Roasted Scallop Risotto is just what you need as a comfort food item. It's beyond my mind how something so delicate can have that effect on your palate that even heavily spiced and fancy dishes fail to have at times. The risotto has a marvelous flavor of chive! A must try in this menu.

The main course covers a lot of stuff- fish, chicken, lamb, prawn, calamari, so you have something for everyone. Prawn stuffed Calamari with lemon scented mashed potato wasn't as pleasing as the rest of the menu for me, but the lemon scented mash was like something I have never had before. I could have that mash for all meals of the day. The calamari was a little hard for me but. The Pan Seared Seabass with Black Olive Tapnade was a beautiful dish with the freshwater fish that was lightly cooked so the juices of the fish were retained, and the skin of the fish looked stunning because of that cooking! A very well-balanced sauce binding the dish, it came with asparagus on the side with a few cherry tomatoes.

The Roasted Tenderloin in Green Peppercorn Sauce failed to impress. Found the meat too bland and the sauce too unable to balance the blandness of the meat. Chestnut leek stuffed "fagotelle" shrimp with porcini mushroom- what a mind-blowing dish! Pasta stuffed with shrimp, made perfectly with the thin sheet of pasta and the porcini mushroom tossed with parsley in a beautifully flavourful mix, and shavings of parmesan on top. Simply adored this one!

The dessert was prepared with so much effort, with so many things going on in it, but I don't know if I liked it or not. I couldn't finish it, maybe because it was too sweet for me, but the dessert was very very different from any dessert I've had before. Grilled Cake, Raisins, Custard, Grand Marnier- A soft grilled cake, some raisins and its flavor in the sauce underneath, custard (which was my favorite ingredient to go with the cake), and Grand Marnier (which is an orange flavoured liqueur). Maybe I have an aversion to anything too orangy in my desserts. But the custard brought the balance to the dessert that it needed and nullified the sweetness of the raisins. Do give it a try if you're inquisitive- this was chef's favorite dessert when growing up. 

My favorite picks from the new menu: Porcini pizza with truffle oil, Roasted Chicken Salad, Spinach and Ricotta Croquettes, Artichoke and Chive Risotto, and Chestnut leek stuffed shrimp

The menu and its ingredients are everything that the Italians would consume at home, in their everyday meals and with their local produce. Recipes that belong to the family for generations, ideas and cooking that has been prevalent for ages, tips and tricks that come in handy for them-all of this has been applied in the new menu at La Piazza and the food is as delicious as ever!

Contact: 01126791234, 01166771338

Timings: 12 Noon to 2:30 PM, 7 PM to 11 PM
Address: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Bhikaji Cama Place
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Disclaimer: The review was done on an invitation from the restaurant. All views expressed are unbiased in nature but readers are advised to exercise their own discretion.