Wasabi, the Japanese restaurant at The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, one
of the most damaged restaurants in the 26/11 terror attacks has re-opened its doors to the city.
It unveiled itself to a packed crowd on December 30 and last night, the city’s glitterati made its way there, with all the 72-cover eatery booked through the night, informs executive chef Hemant Oberoi of the Taj.
One of the first authentic Japanese eateries in the city, Wasabi, has now been shifted to the Rooftop Rendezvous of the Taj. For Oberoi and his team, reviving the restaurant again was a mammoth task, fuelled by the desire to send out a strong answer to the people.
“After all the intense grief that we felt, we also realised that the immediate thing to so was to move ahead. With Wasabi being a crowd favourite, we wanted to make the place ready before the New Year started. And now to see the place so packed warms our hearts,” he says with a smile.
The transition involved the physical relocation of the two-levelled eatery to the 21st floor. “We had about a week to get things moving and the first thing to do was get a small kitchen in place. That done, we began to reproduce the menu,” explains Oberoi.
Food lovers may miss the brown drapery and jute décor of the Tatami Room - Wasabi’s special alcove dining section - but there is solace in the fact that the sushi bar is at the new Wasabi too.
“We have also maintained the interactive counter with the vegetarian and non-vegetarian grills,” he adds. Much of the old menu is handcrafted by Michelin star chef Masaharu Morimoto (known abroad as the Iron Chef). The menu includes a Newspaper Vegetable Begga’s Purse’ (asparagus and shiitake mushrooms) and ‘Ishi Yaki Vegetable Bop’ (vegetable on rice prepared at your table in hot river stone bowls).
“As has been the practice, we’ve started to fly down the seafood from around the world for those dishes, like Kumamoto Oysters and Kobe beef from Tsukuji market, Tokyo,” reveals Oberoi.
On a visit to India earlier Morimoto once mentioned his formula for his Wasabi restaurants. “I don’t cook with any limits, the idea is to get creative,” he had hinted. Morimoto was also keen on an Indo-Japanese fusion then. “I hope to twist Indian food like a Rubik cube,” he mentioned. Maybe that’s another ingredient that will bring the crowd back in 2009.
