Truffle dinner at the Navu Salon with #blahdiningsociety

 

When I started doing these special dinners for 10-12 people, the idea was to encourage chefs to do the things that inspire them, to have magical meals and create unforgettable memories… all in the company of people who seek wonder, intimacy, connection and discovery. 

I’ve had some very special meals in the first four meals I’ve done with Chef Tam, Saapad Raman, Chef Sean and Chef Kavan. But in some ways this meal was the best example of everything I hoped for and dreamed of when I began these dinners. It was a meal the likes of which Bangalore has never seen, that can almost never happen in a commercial or restaurant set up and which people would hesitate to do even as a popup because it just seems so out there.

It all started when I told Chef Kanishka at one of these aforementioned dinners that I wish I could do a really luxe dinner at Navu.. oysters and mountains of truffle and great drinks and flowing conversation. Of course it seemed like a semi-impossible idea, because truffles are almost impossible to get and even if you do, you end up with a Rs. 20,000 a head meal. And that’s besides the fact that very few people in India know how to cook with truffles. 

In some strange stroke of luck, Kanishka called me last month saying that her friend and fellow Navu fan Joshua Rajkumar had just started getting truffles down from his wife’s farm in Croatia and from their friends and neighbours. Joshua was as excited at the idea of this dinner as us and so we ended up with one of the most special evenings we’ve seen in the city and certainly the most luxurious dinner I can imagine anyone having in Bangalore.

We started with truffle margaritas made with Pistola agave as soon as we reached. While we waited for everyone to arrive, we were served some pork crackling sprinkled with caper dust as well as sweet and sour olives marinated in garlic, herbs and olive oil along with a jammy, addictive paste that they refused to share the ingredients of! 

Once we were seated, we began with two kinds of Mangalore oysters, served fresh and with a Juniper mignonette with Navu Cherry vinegar. These were fresher and juicier than I ever knew Indian oysters could be. Being in the decadent mood that we were, everyone had gin martinis with their oysters because hey, if you’re being decadent you may as well go all the way! 

This was followed by blinis and vodka shots (because why not?!). The blinis were magical and transportive, made with potato and egg butter, and topped with pillowy, air-like truffle scrambled eggs, tobiko, chives and truffle Brie. I’ve eaten blinis across the world, including in some legendary restaurants, but I have never eaten blinis like this. On any other night these would have been by far the best dish of the night but here it set a benchmark that Pallavi and Kanishka hit again and again. 

We then moved to a more subtle truffle course where the truffles were in the form of a vinaigrette that accompanied our beef carpaccio. That along with the capers and green pepper brine would have made the dish fantastic already, but the touch of genius was the addition of sardines. 

Next up was the actual dish of the night, an umami eclair that amped the umami up to level hundred. It was one of those rare times when I got to taste a truly original dish, an eclair with Navu beef bresaola, brined black truffle, pioppino duxelle, mushroom garum and passionfruit glaze. And to complement the umami intensity, we drank negronis for some sort of elevated sensory intensity experience.

The pasta course (served with truffle Manhattans to drink) was a fettuccini. A duck yolk pasta with duck yolk sauce, a beef Demi glaze, aged Parmesan and brined white truffles. Again great pasta work and super intense flavour from the Parmesan, the duck yolk and the beef Demi glaze.

The final savoury course was a plum tart with beef suey and arugula by which time I think Kanishka and Pallavi were just showing off with their wizardry and enjoying our ecstatic reactions. 

And finally.. dessert. A porcini and hazelnut cake with olive oil ganache that was complex in its balance of sweetness and savoury, and much more interesting than using salted caramel which is the go-to contrast element for lazy chefs across the country. And a champagne and chocolate truffle that was faintly reminiscent of Gresham Fernandes’ legendary and much mourned porcini dusted truffles at St. Jude’s Project. 

This meal was really something else. It was the kind of elevated dining experience that wouldn’t have been out of place at Per Se or Sketch, but in a setting that was much more intimate and special. It’s hard to imagine another meal of this quality being served anywhere in Bangalore this year and I can only urge Kanishka and Pallavi to do a version of this for their supporters that’s commercially available. The guests at my Blah Dining Society were grateful and privileged to be a part of such a unique evening… but I do think that this was a menu and an experience that the world deserves to experience. 

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