The true essence of Italy

The Italian restaurant ‘Alba’ at JW Marriott offers a variety of culinary delights. Just like the menu that it has, which speaks of chef Bruno Ferrari’s passion for cooking, the ambience of the hotel is also something which prepares the customer to delve into each dish.

Chef Bruno says that most of the customers who come to Alba come with the notion that Italian food is all about pizza and pasta. “I try and dedicate my time to each customer. As soon as they walk in, I try to know more about their tastes and interests so that I can suggest new dishes to them,” he states. He says the restaurant sees almost 35 to 40 customers every night although it opened only a few months ago.

“My kind of Italian food is regional, and I like to dish out specialities from different regions in Italy, be it Perimonte or Rome,” says the chef, who hails from Rome.

In the Antipasti section, there are veggie options like Insalata Nizzarda (seasonal greens, sun-dried tomato and olives), Burrata (fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and extra virgin oil), Polpette Cacio E Uova (parmesan cheese dumplings, tomato sauce, basil), and Minestrone Di Verdure (Tuscan style vegetable soup), where Bruno presents something for every vegetarian’s taste and texture interests.

The other dishes in the Antipasti include Tartara Di Tonno (grade one Japanese tuna tartare, poached quail egg, fennel orange salad), Carpaccio Di Manzo Con Rucola (tenderloin, rocket and parmesan), and Vitello Tonato (slow-cooked veal, tuna sauce, caramelised capers). The ambience of the restaurant, which is designed like a amphitheatre, adds to the experience of each dish.

The grand meal can end with special desserts like Tiramisu, Bunet Piemontese (Amaretto chocolate pudding), Panacotta (mixed wild berry) and a special delight ‘Pizza Nutella’, which isn’t listed on the menu. “Nutella is a typical Alba item, and thus I thought that it would be a perfect item to add to the culinary experience,” states Bruno.

He says the restaurant sees a lot of customers and the idea they have of Italian food is that it is a classy genre of food but their knowledge is often limited. “Sometimes, people don’t know how many different types of pastas or combinations are there, and it’s fun educating and making them experience the same,” he says.

“I’d rather cook regional dishes than just cook international dishes, as that is when one can get the essence of Italy,” he states. Most often what happens is that people visit certain places like Venice or Rome, and they think that Italian food is limited to what is found in those places. “To understand the essence of a place, often one needs to go into old small restaurants, and that’s where the true taste of certain items can be found. Just like that, if one names a region to me, I would be more than happy to dish out something specific from there. The parmesan cheese dumplings that I introduced are something from a certain region in Rome,” he elaborates.

Bruno, who is well-versed in churning out Italian food, be it traditional or creative, says that he’s trying to add white truffle to the menu, but it is a risky affair since he’s not sure if there will be enough customers for this costly delight.

“It’s hard to find someone who would be able to supply something constant like that, and we’re taking our time to decide about this new addition,” he wraps up.