CLASSICAL ITALIAN WITH FLAVOURS OF MOROCCO.

THE RADISSON'S best-kept secret is an appetising walk away from the lobby, which may explain why The Med did not have many occupied tables when we trooped in with a hunger level that matched our sense of anticipation.

The restaurant's deserted look can come as a bit of a downer but you can blame neither the food, nor the service for it. If The Med doesn't have the buzz, it must be because of poor marketing by the hotel, for here's one property it has jolly good reasons to be proud of. Delhi's citizens aren't known to give a good food destination a miss. And I don't think neighbouring distractions such as Zest at the Emporio mall in Vasant Kunj and Spectra at the Leela Kempinski in Gurgaon are responsible for The Med being the most uncelebrated new restaurant in the city. We had gone on the chef's off day, which is the best time to test a restaurant.

If it has its systems in place, it can keep dishing out good food even when its star chef is on leave. As they say in the hospitality business, a star chef is as good as his weakest member of his team. A star chef, therefore, is also a great team builder, and on the night we spent at The Med we figured out that must be an important quality of Giovanni Leopardi, a familiar face in the city going back to the time when Casa Medici atop the Taj Mahal Hotel used to be an Italian restaurant.

Leopardi, an Italian from Torino, was running his own restaurant, Carpaccio in New Hampshire, USA, when he got a call from old friend Ronnie Lobo, who was his general manager when he was with Casa Medici and is now a senior executive with Carlson Hospitality, the US chain that manages The Radisson. Lobo was certain that the capital had matured-enough taste buds for Leopardi's cooking style, and the chef's global soul was yearning for some movement. The timing couldn't have been more fortuitous.

The Med, as the name suggests, brings to the table a number of Mediterranean influences, though its base is Italian. And you know the medley works the moment you have the smoked aubergine dip that comes with the bread basket. It may seem like a small thing but memories such as the one of the dip tend to get embedded in the mind. Just as we had polished off the dip for the second time and were going for the third round, our waiter, a young Kashmiri with a warm smile -- it didn't desert him even when our two little ones were excelling the art of being brats -- brought our first orders: fresh water prawns wrapped in potato threads and served with frisee (a

curly lettuce with long tender leaves) with a balsamic drizzle (Rs 495); fresh seared foie gras served over caramelised pineapple and oranges with balsamic vinegar (Rs 795); and winter burrata salad with roasted tomato and basil dressing (Rs 345). It was a nifty idea to serve prawns quilted in potato threads -- the softness of the prawns balanced the crunchiness of the threads. The foie gras didn't require much work -- it simply melted in the mouth, though the caramelised fruit made the experience a tad too sweet for our comfort.

And the burrata salad (burrata, by the way, is the creamy version of mozzarella) just came alive because of the roasted tomato -- it was the kind of relief we needed from the standard-issue insalata caprese (the mozzarella-tomatobasil salad) that we find everywhere in the city. NEXT ON our list was the minimalist but definitely not minimally flavourful prawn ravioli with a drizzle of Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, dried lemon peel, cracked pepper and lemon juice (Rs 850). It's just the kind of food that will encourage the little devils to zip up their motor mouths. The smoked swordfish prosciutto (Rs 695) -- I like the way the Italian word for ham has been used in the context of fish -- had us making strange orgasmic sounds to express our happiness with life.

The best, naturally, had to come at the end. I had my heart set on the seafood tagine (Rs 895) and my better half chose the fish that has become the new flavour of the season -- harissa basa with tabouleh and field greens (Rs 895). The tagine, which is a slow-cooked Moroccan stew that's best with lamb, was so good that I paid a heavy price for it -- the little devils pounced on it with greedy spoons, leaving me with very little at the end of their attack. As for the Basa, I had imagined that a fish so soft and naturally flavourful would be murdered twice over by the Moroccan red hot sauce. I was wrong. All it needed was a restrained hand and it got one.

After a soul-satisfying meal, dessert seems a little redundant, especially if you don't have a sweet tooth. One more time, I was proved wrong by the maple syrup mascarpone cheese cake (Rs 300). The tiramisu (Rs 300) was too inviting to be ignored. When you go to The Med, skip lunch. Or you'll regret not being able to eat more. Here's one restaurant that'll make you want to return.

sourish.bhattacharyya@ mailtoday.in

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