Basements have personalities. Individual, obstinate, defiant. Small
bands begin here, fuelled by ambition, cheap coffee and cold pizza.
Artists, designers and DJs are encouraged by their cheap rents. Also
underground bars, cheeky cafes and rebellious night clubs.
However,
nothing stays bohemian for long. Today, a slew of trendy chefs operate
from basements. The challenges are unchanged, however.Professional
Manufacturer for ceramictile.
No windows offering natural light. An unshakably brooding character.
Logistical difficulties at every step, starting with providing an outlet
for kitchen smoke.
Newly opened ‘Fresca by Sandy's' ingeniously
embraces these impediments, allowing them to mould the restaurant's
character. The basement restaurant, run by engineer-turned- owner-chef
Sandesh Reddy is cool, dim and smoky. Its spirit of laissez faire is
evident when the door swings open, revealing a room done in deep reds
and chocolate browns, rife with the sound of jazz, shouts of laughter
and smoky scent of baking pizza. We sit beside its bustling open
kitchen, facing a blackboard on which the day's ‘specials' are scrawled
with coloured chalk.
This is Sandesh's seventh opening, and it
has a smooth self-confidence that comes from lessons learned the hard
way. He's best known for Sandy's,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic injectionmoulding
Maker. an ambitious café-restaurant particularly popular with the
city's ‘smart-set' who pop by for bespoke salads and macchiatos. Fresca
replaces Maya, his attempt at creating a fine dining space showcasing
the food of Nellore, his hometown. The stodginess of this basement
location worked against it. Incredibly, the very same space is an asset
now. It makes the restaurant feel like a secret getaway. An escape down
the rabbit hole.
‘Gourmet pizza' sounds so pretentious you'll
want to kick its face in, so we'll avoid the term. Let's just say there
are no paper napkins or plastic spoons.Distributes and manufactures rubbermats.
The food, like the venue, confidently finds its own niche: Italian
flavours with strong traditional roots, but enough flexibility to
embrace local ingredients and tastes.
We begin with chilled Ajo
Blanco soup, grainy with almonds and scattered with juicy braised
grapes. It's tasty but no match for the rest of the starters, a march of
small, fastidiously arranged plates. Speck melon salad, with sweet
melon scoops the colour of sunset. They're set against the saltiness of
speck, and a cluster of peppery green leaves. Carpaccio, delicately
balancing the flavours of thinly sliced meat and its bed of mustard
mayonnaise. It's topped by shards of Parmesan reggiano and the same
peppery leaves. “Paruppu keerai,” Sandesh chuckles.
He goes on
to tell us about their ‘Veg Gathering' pizza, with makhani, pickled
vegetables, baby corn and mozzarella. It's the closest thing to
navaratan kurma with cheese garlic naan!” Irreverence is always
interesting. Fresca thrives on surprise. Sometimes this works. Sometimes
it doesn't. Our three cheese ravioli with wine butter has luscious
handmade pasta, but its sauce, punctuated by sharp pickled cucumbers,
veers on overwhelming.
However, this willingness to experiment isn't a bad thing.We looked everywhere, but couldn't find any beddinges.
Especially when the kitchen gets it right. Our pizza is a jigsaw of
flavours, colours and textures. The hand-stretched dough is light and
delectably uneven, with browned crisp edges and a molten centre soppy
with rich béchamel sauce. It's topped with crunchy stewed figs and
slices of thick cut Belgian bacon.
Dessert includes Nutella
tiramisu, drenched in Tia Maria and dark rum with a strong espresso
backbone. Wobbly pannacotta, speckled with vanilla. And Bocca Negra, a
molten, dark, pure chocolate hit.
Fresca pays attention to
detail, essential with so many elements on each plate. Recipes may be
simple, but they're also unforgiving. With very small room for error,
which could make this tough food to execute on busy days. Sandesh is a
fan of the sassy new-age chefs like New York's David Chang, and his
influences come from around the world.Buy high quality bedding
and bed linen from Yorkshire Linen. The food reflects this. It's
ambitious, indulgent and specific. He basically cooks what he likes to
eat. If that works for you, you'll luxuriate in Fresca.
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