To tide over tough times, an Italian restaurant has brought together five of Mumbais hottest chefs to combine their culinary chops for a new pizza venture
Fernandes's vegetarian pizza
It's coming to a point where it's the survival of the biggest. The dine-in restaurant industry is in such dire straits that many small- and medium-sized ventures are biting the dust, while even the topmost names are gasping for air. They are putting their thinking caps on to keep customers engaged, and collaborating with each other for innovative solutions. Take the example of CinCin Pizza Club that launches tomorrow. The Italian eatery in BKC has joined forces with five of the city's hottest chefs to curate a new menu for the long-term venture. Each of them has conjured a pizza that reflects their roots and forte, with the exception of Gresham Fernandes of Impresario, who has abandoned his meaty reputation, pun intended, for an uncharacteristic vegetarian pizza that stars roasted kale.
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The others on the list include Prateek Sadhu of Masque, Hussain Shahzad of O Pedro, Thomas Zacharias of The Bombay Canteen and dessert wiz Prateek Bakhtiani, apart from CinCin's Daya Singh. These are names that pop up in conversations about the city's F&B industry just like Led Zeppelin would pop up in a discussion on rock 'n' roll music. CinCin founder Karyna Bajaj tells us, "One thing we like doing is collaborating, and since we haven't done that in so long, we thought why not look back at the people we have loved working with, and also the restaurants that we have loved going to, whether it's Salt Water Cafe or The Bombay Canteen."
Karyna Bajaj
The result is a six-pizza menu where each dish stands out from the rest. Shahzad focuses on Goan chorizo to reflect O Pedro's signature cuisine. Sadhu has dug into his Kashmiri roots. Zacharias has taken a curry leaf out of The Bombay Canteen's books, while Singh has stuck to CinCin's authentic Italian foundations to such an extent that you might go 'Mamma mia' upon tasting his creation.
Bakhtiani has thrown in a dessert pizza to the mix, but it's Fernandes who has thrown a curveball. The chef himself admits that his cooking is as synonymous with meat as the town of Pisa is with its leaning tower. But he adds, "See, with the stuff we do at Salt Water Cafe, we don't dwell on being authentic. But these guys [CinCin] keep it super simple, so I didn't want to mess with the approach of the brand, and I went with a no-nonsense vegetarian option."
Prateek Sadhu of Masque, Thomas Zacharias of The Bombay Canteen and Gresham Fernandes
It's a decision that is in the right spirit of collaboration, at a time when the survival of even the biggest restaurants is in question. But hey, as consumers, we are essentially getting a six-in-one deal with CinCin Pizza Club. So, we might as well look at it as a silver lining.
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Burrata pizza recipe
Serves: 2
Preparation: 20 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes
For the pizza base
Ingredients:
1 kg All purpose flour
600 ml Water
20 gm Salt
125 gm Fior di Latte cheese
125 gm Buratta cheese
1 tsp Yeast
Method
Take a bowl of warm water and add it to the salt and yeast. Mix this well until the yeast completely dissolves in the water. Add this mixture to the flour, little by little, and mix for two minutes until it becomes a dough. Knead the dough for another five minutes, until it is fluffy and elastic. Store the dough in a cool place overnight. The next day, take a handful of dough, add a pinch of flour and stretch it gently with your hands, flipping it occasionally to ensure it doesn't stick to make the pizza base.
For the sauce
Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
4 Peeled tomatoes
1 tsp Oregano
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
Method
Blend the above ingredients to make the tomato sauce.
For the pizza
Preheat the oven for 10 minutes to 300 degree C. Evenly spread the sauce over the pizza base. Add a lot of Fior di Latte cheese on top. Bake the pizza for 10 minutes. Once the pizza is out of the oven, add the strips of the burrata cheese and drizzle some olive oil on top. You can also garnish the pizza with some fresh basil leaves.
By Daya Singh of CinCin
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