Capital Kitchen's Menu has a Comforting Feel

WHEN KAFE Fontana, at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, shut down on May 2, 2016 for a refurb and rebranding, we all wondered what the new product would be like. BW Hotelier did see an inkling of what the new restaurant would be like when we visited the newly refurbished Shamiana at Taj Mahal Mumbai. The modern design elements, the new simplified menu and of course the lower price points all pointed at a push towards the comfort food elements in the restaurant.

Capital Kitchen, Kafe Fontana’s new avatar opened on November 10, 2016 with a bang. The shiny new restaurant, with an indoor and outdoor seating set-up (86 inside and 58 outside) had a brand new two page card menu (a departure from the earlier encyclopaedic menu at Kafe Fontana) and a tilt towards a more homely and Delhi-centric experience. That’s what we got while speaking to Chef Amit Rana, the Head Chef in charge of the restaurant, during an exclusive interview with BW Hotelier.

Rana began by telling us that plans for a renovation were in place more than a year ago, but work on the new project started probably around nine or ten months ago (around February, 2016).

“Starting with comfort food, we want to give our guests, both local as well as residents, a touch of Delhi cuisine. Delhi food has so much diversity, from Paranthewali galli to Purani Dilli to Lajpat Nagar, we really needed to pick and choose the best. We have taken dishes which makes us feel nostalgic, how we all have grown up,” the born and bred Delhiwalla told us.

“Our research was done over four months to conceptualise the menu. We have chosen dishes which a Delhi local would consider almost ordinary, like rajma chawal and chhole bature,” Rana added saying it gave visitors and locals a taste of the real city. Though there were many challenges when it came to benchmarking the dishes. The menu is simple, but the job of the chef is a difficult one, trying to interpret a dish which has myriad variations and with almost every local customer having their own favourite.

“We did multiple visits to the famous places. I, for instance, went to Gaylords more than four times, to understand what makes their channa bature so unique and why people come there to have only that one dish,” he told us.

Rana said that as a kitchen team, they knew what people wanted to have. The fact that there was a huge number of local regulars and members of the kitchen team who had decades of experience, it was all about trying and testing dishes and adding them to the menu. “Good food is available everywhere. It is about giving a consistent product which you have to keep delivering,” he added.

One of the other challenges that the team faced was how much of the older menu to retain. “It was very difficult to choose dishes from Kafe Fontana. More than the food, it’s the mind-set. Every person who works in a restaurant, whether it’s a chef or front of the house, should be proud of each and every dish. He will only be confident when he knows that his product is the best,” Rana said. There is a specific section of the menu, which reflects the heritage of the café, called simply the Taj Signature dishes, with items from Taj hotels across the world.

“Having balance in the menu is very important in an all-day dining restaurant. When it comes to a 24x7 restaurant, the comfort food element plays a big role, even more than local Delhi dishes, sometimes,” he said in conclusion.