Insia is a F&B Consultant for restaurants and events, runs ‘Bombay Local’ and brings together communities of food lovers. Now she joins Team MissMalini on the pursuit of yum 🙂
Japanese cuisine is slowly seeping into Mumbai’s restaurant scene, with sushi typically leading the charge. However, specialty restaurants focused on Asian cuisine are diving deeper into this fad, and focusing on other Japanese cooking techniques such as Teppanyaki, which literally translates into ‘iron plate’. Every preparation in this style of cooking is dished out on an iron griddle.
Pan Asian, the highly acclaimed Asian restaurant at ITC Maratha, is hosting a 10 day special with Chef Jerry Bernasol who is originally from the Philippines and has been working with the ITC hotel in Calcutta. We recently made a trip to the dimly lit, multi kitchen restaurant to check it out. Perched on our bar stools at the Teppanyaki counter, we were all set to watch what Chef Jerry had in store for us.
Chef Jerry is a happy-go-lucky man who not only has intricate knife skills but also a flare for presentation. He is expressive and his favorite prop is his toque, which is no less than a magician’s hat. From tossing eggs to shrimp ends, you’ll be surprised at all that you can find in there by the end of your meal. It’s not simply the food that mesmerizes, but also the beauty of its creation.
We watched as he prepared every dish in front of us, from chopping vegetables to flaming meat. We patiently sipped our wines and indulged in the chef’s theatrics. Every act makes you hungrier. The gimmicks of the knife and griddle along with the complete performance of egg balancing, tossing, cracking and yolk drizzling was met with applause. As he stirred up Teppanyaki egg fried rice, we sipped on a bowl of piping hot miso soup with tofu and shrimp. This was followed by chicken and leek on a stick, also known as Leguma. More meats were flambéed as he worked the grill, and we walloped every preparation as and when it was served. I’d recommend the succulent pieces of steak accompanied with shitake and asparagus.
The meal is lengthy as every dish is prepared from scratch. I’d suggest you take a date along as its more fun watching this act together than by yourself.
Chef Jerry will be at Pan Asian until 14th July as he is training resident Chef Sandeep who will be taking over Teppanyaki at Pan Asian.