Chef Martin Rozario’s experience in world cuisine is best reflected at this new outlet in CP. Neeti Nigam reports
Getting through to Quote, a new happening place in Connaught Place, is a little bit of hassle as you drive your way through a coffee shop bustling at the ground floor, before moving up to the second floor. But the place greets you warmly with great ambience.
The interiors are done nicely with wooden furniture. There are some funky quotes that adorn a huge beer mural, like ‘trust me you can dance — vodka.’ A sufi evening is being played out but since there is a party at the bar section upstairs, the music is limited to Bollywood hits.
We sit close to live kitchen and order some beer and chef’s special signature wasabi chicken and shrimp poppers with Asian salsa dip. “You need to taste achaari paneer tikka as well, I have given a little twist to this,” says chef Martin Rozario sitting next to us and placing his chef cap on the mahogany table. The wasabi chicken is crispy fried chicken with a subtle hint of wasabi and corn flakes
The achaari paneer tikka is aromatic and succulent. He has used grounded masala to give a home-like flavour to the dish. “Nowadays people eat out so much that you can’t serve regular stuff and therefore you have to play around with the traditional favourites giving a twist of your own. I have not marinated tikka with regular achaar masala but prepared masala of my own,” says Rozario who has an experience of over 35 years in the industry.
The chef has worked at Oberoi Hotels in Iraq during wartime in the 90s. He tells us how for three days there was no power supply and his team struggled with the situation. “I love Baghdad. It is such a hospitable city that I never felt like an outsider.
The palate, weather, soil et al are similar to India,” he says while ordering more dishes for me. Rozario happily talks of days when Saddam Hussain was the President and was in love with India. “He used to call Indira Gandhi his sister and admired our culture. If an Indian comes to the Iraq airport, the airport authority will greet warmly by applying tika,” says he while asking his staff to bring penne cooked in smoked chicken in creamy cheese sauce, chicken Chettinad with lemon rice and chicken shiitake and asparagus in oyster sauce.
The menu offers a mix of Continental, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, north and south Indian. At a time, when cuisine-based cafes are mushrooming in the city, why has Quote gone for an extensive menuIJ Chef replies, “We want to please everybody. Our target customers are young crowd who wish to taste everything on one platter. We don’t want to limit horizon.”
The white sauce pasta is delicious, the chicken Chettinad is full of aroma and flavours while shiitake in oyster sauce is average. Fudge brownie with ice cream ends the meal on a good note. While we are impressed with food and ambience, staff can perform much better.