In the evening when the breeze cools, plates at Asvah 24 are warm from lamb tajine. Bubbles rise up from glasses of rose wine seltzers and the sound of waves from the beach anoint the emerging night.
Chef Andrea Rubio, former executive sous chef of Israeli-British food writer and chef Yotam Ottolenghi, is in Chennai to imbibe a breath of fresh Italian air to Asvah’s menu. Ottolenghi is one of the most celebrated chefs in the world. At the beginning of his career, Andrea was working at a Korean restaurant in London called Hurwundeki. During his time here, Andrea’s Sicilian couscous salad got him noticed by Ottolenghi’s then head chef. Very soon Andrea was making salads at Nopi, a restaurant in London.
“In the first few month of my time in Ottolenghi’s kitchen I was only cutting salad. Nothing else,” says Andrea. “What I learnt from the seven months I spent there were some new cooking techniques and how to blend new ingredients together. For example, the burrata cuor di latte e pesca on Asvah’s menu is inspired from those techniques,” he adds.
