Cooking in Style with Chef Saby | Blogger Workshop with Blogadda

Foodies, Bloggers and many Food Bloggers...... This was the guest list of Olive Kitchen on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon for a day full of food, food art, chitter chatter and lots of fun !!  - A food workshop organised and hosted by Blogadda, Olive Kitchens-n-Bar and Jubberfam-n-Mittal.

Blogadda has organised such workshops earlier in other parts of the country however this was their first in Delhi. BlogAdda.com is the largest community of bloggers in India, that provides a platform to showcase Indian bloggers and help them promote to a large audience.

It was a pleasure meeting the Blogadda team - Harish Krishnan and Sagarika Chakraborty.

Besides live cooking, food tasting and recipe demos the surprise element was Food Art. The Master Chef (read Chef Saby) himself created some vibrant pieces of Art.

Food Art - Food that looks beautiful, it touches you first visually and art which is delicious! Art on plate is a form of expression of a Modern Day Food Artist who is also a chef!!

Chef Sabyasachi Gorai, popularly known as Chef Saby comes from a family of artists so that explains his artistic bent of mind and hence his creativity in his cooking. He's also the winner of the 'Chef of the Year Award', awarded by the President of India.

I had heard so much about Chef Saby and his Olive Kitchen but never really had a chance to meet either till Saturday. Calling Chef Saby generous would be an understatement. He along with Chef Astha and Chef Saurabh were the perfects hosts to this beautiful afternoon, making sure our glasses were never empty and our plates always full. 

The quaint old world charm of Olive Kitchen mesmerises you the moment you walk in. I'm told it is set in a 250 year old Mogul Mansion. A place where outdoors seemed to spill over into the inner spaces riding on silvery beams of slanted sunlight ..... creating  myriad patterns with windblown curtains and strawed blinds ....a perfect fusion of style, art, music and fashion create an unforgettable Mediterranean mosaic. Here elegance spells warmth, with its beautiful pastel interiors. A place so tranquil, The Conde Nast Traveler rated this multi-award winning restaurant as one of the world's best new restaurants.

One of the secrets to a good dish is fresh good quality ingredients. For any chef that plays a very important role in his creations. At Olive we had an opportunity to taste gourmet ingredients from Juberfam and Mittal, who bring superior quality products for the food industry as well the individual consumer. My personal favourites besides ofcourse the infused olive oils were the exotic fruit pulp vinegars and tuna in olive oil. They were very generous to gift us goodie bags that included a can of smoked paprika, olives, non alcoholic wines and ofcourse a bottle of extra vigin olive oil, all, at the end of a fruitful happy day. :-)

My take from the workshop:

I learnt a new technique.....simple but very cool.... How to Poach eggs and keep their shape:
1. Boil water in a pan
2. Take a small bowl. Keep a small sheet of cling wrap say about 6inches by 6inches on it. Break an egg and tie the client wrap like a little pouch making sure the egg doesn't leak out.
3. Leave these egg pouches in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove carefully and you have a lovely  poached egg !!



Take two:

Its all about simplicity and clarity of ingredients. Simple cooking can be so refreshingly delicious.
Chef Saby created the most amazing simple Pasta with just 4 ingredients. Tomato puree, garlic infused olive oil, olives and penne pasta !! 

The top, top two, top three  dishes in my mind; oh goodness gracious what should I leave out.....

The Exotic Mushroom Risotto

Pao with Tomato Dip

Paper Thin Hand Tossed Pizza