The signifying feature of all Hyatt restaurant's are that they are in an open space environment with the live kitchen being viewable from the outset. They may all be located in the large mass space but it never intrudes the privacy in any way. Focaccia is defined by lovely wood work and upholstery. The dim lights just about ignites the rightful feel for a quite feel good meal and the pleasant music playing at the background definitely adds to the charm of proceedings. Their large kitchen is stuffed with all need to do Italian ingredients and is well co-ordinated and has a buzz about it. You can even feel the aroma of the ingredients resonating creating an expectation of what to expect.
We were here for a special event titled "The Return of the Drama Chef". The menu was specially curated handpicking a few selective stuff. Story goes that the Italian chef recently happened to go to his hometown of Milan from which he was able to import varieties of chestnuts, truffles, Italian cheese et al which aren't usually easily available in India and hence these items comprising such stuff were specifically part of this concept festival menu.
Coming to the food, it was well and truly one of the finest Italian food rendezvous which I've ever had. The items served were nothing short of spectacular in virtually all angles from the presentation to the flavours to the taste and in a nut shell it was cut out class defined in every way.
The appetizer section had a couple of vegetarian offerings. One of those were the patata al uovo - a pastiche of potato and egg. Potato and egg when combined form a jaw dropping combination and when floated on a bowl filled with pecorino cheese fondue with truffles slathered along eleemosynary, it was divine and totally of the melt in mouth kinds. The other one was the giardino florito - somewhat equivalent to a salad. I don't recollect any kind of food being so appealing just to look at. This was constructed like an exotic garden planted with goodies in abundance. A whole bunch of exquisite veggies with truffles forming the signature fare imported specifically from Milan to get the crunchy effect and smeared with pecorino cheese fondue for that lilt. A work of art literally and foodgasm in it's truest sense.
Surprisingly it was after the starters that we had our tryst with the soup. It was a pumpkin based soup and easily one of the finest I've ever had. Never felt the flavours of a soup to be so inherent and vehement. The aroma slithering in the pumpkin tasted heavenly with chestnuts floated in gregariously and garnished with casera cheese made from semi skimmed milk and made popular in Italy. It was not just some soup, the taste buds have seldom been tantalised like this ever before.
Moving on to the main course section with the pastas and pizza's, we got to try a Leek fondue Risotto, mascarpone ravioli and a gourmet truffle pizza. Risotto is the Italian equivalent of Indian rice cooked in a broth. I've never really been too fond of the Risottos I've tried out but this leak fondue risotto garnished with fresh black truffle was just kick-ass. It was rich in texture by being consistently creamy with just the right bit of stickiness and had a lovely lingering taste to it. The mascarpone ravioli was made with asparagus soup, parmesan cheese and loaded with truffles and was a sheer masterpiece. This one was a temptational tongue twirler. My oh my, the joy of creation of food just shot up another level. A dunk at this and the tongue gets all chiselled up and has no choice but to signal it's intentions to drool. The pizza was no slouch either being resoundingly rich on flavours and the freshness of cheese was so intact. We also had a shot at a spaghetti made with olive oil and garnished with pot holes of truffles which again raised the bar.
In the dessert draw, we tried the chocolate millefuille chestnut mousse which was presented beautifully with a soft cream layer inset a double decor chocolate biscuits part. This was quite crunchy and delightful in taste. But truth be told, it was the chestnut soft cake with a hint of rum which stole our hearts. It was marmalade smooth moist, caressingly creamy and delectably delicious. This one had all the ammunition to melt waftly in the mouth.
On the whole, it was a sterling dinner made riveting right from start to end. Each dish competed with each other for top stakes and our meal only kept getting better and better with hardly any blip noticed. The chef was really engaging and made our overall experience really pleasant. As it was an invite over an 'on the house', I refrain from mentioning about the prices.
Foccacia, no doubt is one of the premier restaurant's serving Italian cuisine and just going by this particular Italian affair, they are just streets ahead of the pack. Without a shadow of a doubt, this outlet serves the most sublime Italian cuisine in the whole of the city of Chennai.
