A sea of dishes

The 10-day seafood festival called ‘Seafood Symphony’ at Hotel Crowne Plaza’s Chao Bella was all about creative preparation. Organised by executive chef Saurabh Singh Chandel and his team, the festival offered a Pan Asian or Italian a la carte menu – a dining in which customers choose individual dishes from a menu, rather than ordering a set meal or prix fixe (fixed price) menu.

As one entered Chao Bella, one was struck by the elegant ambience of the restaurant. It was adorned with sumptuous furnishings, fine linens, and dim lights that cast a warm glow over the space. A number of visitors, mostly foreigners, sat and enjoyed the evening.

The staff was more eager than usual to give the best experience. Sous chef Pankaj Singh Rana was particularly lively and chatted about everything food – from his experiences with various recipes to the requests of the customers.

The place served everything from fish to crabs, scallops to squids, and oysters to prawns. The menu featured a variety of dishes including calamari rings served with garlic aioli, Thai green curry with prawn, spaghetti aragosta (spaghetti served with lobster), prawn Szhechuan chilli fried rice, pizza seafood marinara, stir-fried mixed seafood, and assorted mix seafood grilled platter.

Although the festival offered a unique experience of seafood with both national and international dishes, Singh shares that it has not been well-received as many people found it difficult to come to Hotel Crowne Plaza – located in Greater Noida, which is far from Delhi.

However, the expo mart happening in Greater Noida helped draw the audience from foreign countries. They loved the food.

“The reason that we decided to organise this food festival was because we wanted people living in Delhi NCR to explore more about seafood and what it has to offer. However, the response has not been as good as we expected. Of course, we will keep this in mind whenever we organise another such festival. We did our best and offered a unique experience, but could not draw many visitors to, I would say, the location of the Hotel,” Rana says.

In drinks, one could check the menu of Bella Chao which offers from relatively cheaper wine such as Sula Brut to more expensive drinks like The Broken Fishplate by d’Arenberg, a respected winery in Australia.