Italian Connection

Rashmi Uday Singh’s

Good Food Guide

I have become a full-time animated and hyper-caffeinated Italophile. Having slow-sipped and devoured that luscious country, I land at the Sahar airport and find Italy in Santa Cruz, in the sprawling, new Grand Hyatt hotel. Come walk with me into the endless gleaming miles of yellow granite lobby with creative guru Rajiv Sethi’s art-works and if you are a pasta lover you will be glad you did. In Celini, you will find pasta-paradise (also pizza paradise). Here, Chef Franco Sommariva’s pasta fresca, (freshly made with flour and eggs) (carbonara parpadelle (Rs 350) tagliatelle with mushroom, bacon in creamy sauce (Rs 360)) are to kill for. Even the pastascuitto (the dry one made of flour and water) is great, be it spaghetti aglio olio or the rigatoni arabiatta (Rs 340). I hate our Indian version of pizzas, but love this almost airy, light, wafer thin, wood-fired oven version, Margherita (Rs 320). Decent Italian wine, exquisite desserts, be it tiramisu, panacotta wild berry compote or chocolate cake (Rs 160 to 220), separate menu for vegetarians make this place worth coming back to. A word of caution; it’s not the smoothest ride driving into this hotel and you’re sure to feel a bit disconcerted with the open plan of the restaurant plonked at the end of the lobby with its lack of defining character here. But as the charming Puja Vir of the Grand Hyatt points out, you can request to be seated at the bankettes and feel the change. Not the greatest of anti-pasti (tomato cheese frittata, beans potato salad etc) and soup here but the pastas, pizzas, desserts and coffee more than make up for it and I vow to come back here as often as I can. As the Italians say ‘A tavola non si invecchia’ ( at the table one does not age). Is that why I feel perpetually young here?