Spaghetti Kitchen Dinner with Bill Marchetti

A few days ago i had the chance to dine with Italian chef and all round enfant terrible Bill Marchetti, now of the Spaghetti Kitchen. Bill is actually a half German, half Italian who grew up in Australia and has worked around the world. Before Spaghetti Kitchen he also ran Westview for the ITC group in Delhi.

First thing i noticed about Bill was that he likes his drinks and he likes to talk, which means he is great dinner company. Add to that one of my fav people in the world is also someone he happens to know and like very much and you have the makings of a stellar evening (we were joined by Salonee and Aatish Nath)

Started off with a glass of Yellow Tail Chardonnay, i am not averse to new world wines and this one went down swimmingly well.

The Caprese is a classic, as mentioend before, its one of my fav salads and its all i ate for breakfast during my time in Italy-Greece. Not complicated to do but the whole thing lives and dies by freshness. They get their Mozzarella from North India because of buffalo milk and also because sourcing it locally keeps it fresh.

This one was a bit of a shocker, paneer skewers dont seem like they belong on the Spaghetti Kitchen menu. I would put this down to Bill's time in Delhi, i certainly would never have the audacity to order them. However they were brilliant, succulent, tasty and there was some pineapple in the middle which i absolutely loved.

When it comes to Bruschetta, i like mine the traditional way, however i am always open to trying new things. The mushrooms was okay, the sun dried tomato was great, Bill insisted i try his fav the Spinach, unfortunately i did not share his enthusiasm for it.

The little quinoa side salad was interesting, not bad but nothing spectacular, im not a fan of quinoa (or Dukkah)

The Smoked Walnut & Cheese Ravioli was creamy, cheese stuffed and not bad, light to taste, again its not something i am a fan of, i prefer heavier flavours but it was certainly not bad.

The grilled veggies were nice, cept not sure how much i like corn here.

The spaghetti with mushrooms, was perfectly lovely. Nice, light flavour, accentuated by a little helping of Parmesan.

The Zuppa Inglese was god-damned good. Spot on. Next time I am going to go for th colourful ones.

The tiramisu was interesting, a little twist on the traditional but still pretty good.

The chocolate hazlenut creme brulee was again, pretty different but still good.

Overall, it was a lovely evening, good food, good company and great conversation.The food was good, Spaghetti Kitchen is miles ahead of its sister restaurants Noodle Bar & Bombay Blue.

Its also nice to see a chef who comes to a foreign land and focuses on getting the best possible ingredients and suppliers possible locally rather than importing and freezing. However Bill Marchetti does not seem so foreign, he has been in India for a while and like most people who come to this country, he too has become one of us.