Mediterranean Temptations has brought alive the kitchen at DoubleTree by Hilton, thanks to Lebanese chef Ammar Molki under whose guidance the starred hotel is offering some of the best Mediterranean cuisine to its guests and walk-in diners.
Mediterranean Temptations, the Lebanese food festival, which has been on since November 28 at the DoubleTree on the Kadamba Plateau, near Panjim, will culminate on December 10. It begins at 7 pm daily.
Lebanese food is among the healthiest in the world, given that it is cooked in pure olive oil. And Molki, executive chef of Maffei Kitchen in Bangalore, swears by Mediterranean food when it comes to the variety and health benefits it offers.
“Do a Google search and you will find Lebanese cuisine in the list of healthy foods because we use a wide variety of vegetables mixed with pure olive oil,” he claimed.
Baba ganoush, muttabal, labneh with garlic mint, betroot salad, tabouleh salad, aragula salad and jaj tarator are some of the Lebanese recipes one can try at the Comida all-day dining restaurant of DoubleTree.
This is the first time Molki was at the DoubleTree by Hilton and though he has left for Bangalore, where he is based, the legacy of the Lebanese food he has left behind will stick around with those who have closely watched the chef while at work.
If there is anything common between Goa and Lebanon, it is the sea. While Goa harvests its seafood from the Arabian Sea, for Lebanon the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea hold the bounty of abundant marine life.
“We use a lot of fish found in the Mediterranean Sea in our cooking like the Goans do. But unlike Goa, our food is not spicy because we don’t use chillies and also colour. Besides being healthy, Lebanese food is also very light,” Molki said.
If fish recheado is dear to Goans, ask any Lebanese about fish harra and sayadieh, a Middle Eastern rice and fish dish.
Lebanese food can be made anywhere and everywhere because the ingredients are easily available. Molki said most of the spices that are used in Lebanese food come from India, barring some exceptional ones.
DoubleTree staff were excited to have Molki and are doubly excited to see the response to the food festival all these days, and for Molki the real joy comes from the joy he sees on people’s faces after tasting his food.
Molki runs Maffei Kitchen in Bangalore’s Koramangala where the chef has put to use his 25 years of experience to churn out a very innovative menu offering the finest of Lebanese cuisine.
Though Molki has left for Bangalore, he has managed to impart his culinary skills to some of the kitchen staff at DoubleTree who are happy to have learned a great deal about Lebanese food from the guest chef.
Executive chef at DoubleTree Bhushan Ganorkar said Molki’s visit to the hotel was a great opportunity for his kitchen brigade to learn about authentic Lebanese food, which means if there is a requirement in future for such food they will be ready.
“There is a lot of similarity in some of the Lebanese and Indian delicacies, except for the fact that the former is lighter and the latter is spicy. Lebanese food is rich in proteins and it maintains the original flavour of the food,” Ganorkar observed.
Lebanon might be more than 4000 kilometres apart from Goa, but for those who want to savour the taste of this Eastern Mediterranean country, DoubleTree by Hilton is just five kilometres away from Panjim.