Though a lot of eateries serve Med cuisine, not everyone justifies it as nicely as this new place. Neeti Nigam savours some of the chef’s signature dishes and realises that ambience adds beauty to an entire brunch
Chef Nuria Rodriguez takes pride in calling herself crazy. And why notIJ She has brought her quirky style to the menu and decoration of Imperfecto, a newly opened restaurant in posh south Delhi’s Hauz Khas village. While Penelope Cruz found that food was a metaphor for life in Woman on Top (2000), Nuria finds it a way to exchange ideas, cuisine and display artwork from junk items.
Born and brought up in Spain, chef Nuria came in India during 2011 with her journalist husband. While shopping she met Sharad Madan who was planning to venture into the restaurant business. Madan’s fluent Spanish and love for food made them friends.
“Since I keep travelling to Spain, I developed a taste for the cuisine. With Nuria as chef, I know we can’t go wrong with the food’s authenticity,” says he.
As the name suggest, Imperfecto means imperfect. The unevenly painted walls, colonial era phones and watches, clumsily done wooden chairs and tables perfectly justify the name.
“Nobody is perfect in this world. Hence the name Imperfecto,” Madan shares.
To make the décor imperfect and as she calls it, “crazy”, Nuria visited old Delhi stores for antique paintings, lamps and chairs. Junk markets provided scooters and cycles.
She also sourced old photos of Bollywood actors like Sanjeev Kumar, Rajender Kumar, Sharmila Tagore and celebrities from a shop in Jodhpur. The décor is as wild as one would expect.
A big scooter adorns the exterior wall of the narrow stairs. The roof too has a bicycle hung over with a fan. The three-storey restaurant is bombarded with humorous stuff.
While biting a chirozo calzone, I ask the 33-year-old chef to what extent Spanish cuisine is inspired by its Italian neighbour. “The ingredients are similar, but preparation is different.
We wrap pizza ingredients inside the bread, giving it a different texture,” says chef.
Indeed the taste is similar, but the way its made has given it a unique flavour.
I take a bite of Santa Fe (salad), mushroom madrid, risotto piano, sea and land spaghetti and salmon grill. The grill is healthy. The risotto is delicious, the salad was nice, the spaghetti was a delight. “Most Spanish food is grilled or prepared in an oven. Using olive oil makes it healthy. French too have begun using olive oil over butter in kitchens,” she brightens while informing us.
Nuria tells us that eating bheja fry in Old Delhi shocked her. “I did not know which part I was eating. When they told me it was the brain, I nearly fainted. But it was one of the best dishes I ever had,” says she, ruing the fact that the richness of Indian food has made her 20 kg overweight in two years. While most cafes play English numbers, Imperfecto has old and contemporary Spanish music which adds to the flavour of their Mediterranean theme.
With 65 restaurants in the same market, Imperfecto has a tough competition ahead.
But give their out-of-box ideas, hopefully they’ll have an edge over others.