Chennai.
How times change! I remember, as a young copywriter, whacking my brains over a campaign for the Taj Coromandel to get Chennaiites to overcome their resistance to eating out (ie any place fancier than Woodlands). And now here’s this joint serving things like scallops with caviar and Barolo wine at prices that can easily top Rs 10,000 per couple.
Oh well, that’s post-Nehruvian economics at work, I suppose. Prego is the brainchild of chefs Hemant Oberoi and Nabhojit Ghosh, who spent three weeks in Italy researching the concept. The result is probably one of the best Italian restaurants in India today.
The menu left us befuddled. With such a spread, what should we order? They solved our problem by offering us a nine-course tasting menu that started with pan-seared foie gras with raspberry puree and wended its way through things like steamed sea bass with tarragon and green peppercorn, to culminate in a perfect chocolate mousse with green chilli. It’s expensive, but then they don’t stint on anything: the lamb comes from New Zealand, the duck from France, the asparagus from Peru. Heck, even the lemons and the sea-salt are imported from Italy.
