[EVENT] Italian Connection Gastro Arts at The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place

December 09, 2016

[EVENT] Italian Connection Gastro Arts at The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place

December 7th, 2016. It's been a busy month. And I thought, I need some vacation. So, I prepared myself for a day at home before I went to God's Island. Dec 5th, I got invitation to attend an event. Not long after I got the invitation, my hubby told me that on Wednesday, there will be a new movie. So, it's all about coincidence. I said to him, "Let's watch the movie. I will be around Pacific Place." So yeah, I said yes to the invitation. The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place.

The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place proudly presents Italian Connection. It's a monumental evening of wine dinner celebrating the unique authenticity of Italian wine and dine culture. The hotel proudly welcomes back Sergio Zingarelli, the president of Italy's oldest wine consortium, Chianti Classico Wine Consortium and owner of the renowned Chianti winery Rocca Delle Macie, and will feature Nicola Russo, Chef de cuisine Il Ristorante at Bulgari Resort Bali on Wednesday, December 14th, 2016, at the Pacific Restaurant and Lounge. Too bad, he couldn't join us at the time, so we met him only through skype. So, there were only Chef Sean Macdougall, Mr. David Troiano from Mosto Asia and Mr. Samit Ganguly, Director of Sales & Marketing at Ritz Carlton Jakarta.

Welcome Drink

Delicious combination between lychee fruit and dragon fruit. Sweet and fresh.

Exclusively prepared to treat the guests as they usher in the end of the year, this event will also be marked as the last wine dinner event in 2016 held by The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place. Bringing the theme of Italian culture to the table, the hotel made a little different this time. For an event like this, they prepared the food first, then collab with the wine. This time, they prepared the wine first, then choose the food.

Guest can indulge in the fine dining choices from:

Asparagi (“Into the Asparagus field”: raw & cooked asparagus, lemon goat cheese, crispy kale, porcini mushroom soil) - pairing with Orvieto Classico

Go green! Well, it was a lovely presentation. It's like a beautiful garden. Combination of crunchy asparagus with crispy kale, porcini mushroom soil and lemon goat cheese. Perfectly fresh and healthy. And we saw the chef made this dish through skype. LOL.

Orivieto Classico: Pale straw in color with green reflections. Intense and very fruity on the nose; very elegant. Dry and fresh on the palate, with a slight hint of almonds in the aftertaste. This wine is well suited to fish and white meat dishes.

Polpo (Octopus, chick peas, lemon, fermented black garlic) - pairing with Chianti Classico Riserva

Agnolotti (Beef agnolotti, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese) - pairing with Gran Selezione Sergio Zingarelli

It looked like dumpling. But it's a pasta. The filling was very moist. It's like paste. Tasted so good, very well-seasoned. The cheese was enhanced the flavour of the pasta. It was delicate and delightful.

Gran Selezione Sergio Zingarelli: This leans toward the oak, with ample spice and resin flavors shading the cherry and plum fruit. Balanced, with fine grip on the finish and an aftertaste of black currant and spice.

Agnolotti is a type of pasta typical of the Piedmont region of Italy, made with small pieces of flattened pasta dough, folded over filling of roasted meat or vegetables. Agnolotti is the plural form of the Italian word agnolotto.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Parmesan cheese, is a hard, granular cheese. The name "Parmesan" is often used generically for various simulations of this cheese, although this is prohibited in trading in the European Economic Area under European law.

Manzo (Chargrilled Wagyu beef sirloin, artichokes, truffle potato croquette) - pairing with PietraPura Cotis

Cioccolato (Valrhona chocolate semifreddo, hazelnuts, fleur de sel, olive oil ice cream) - pairing with PietraPura Dolceluna

It's not finger-licking good. It's plate-licking good. It was dabomb! It's like a marriage. The valrhona chocolate semifreddo wedded beautifully with hazelnuts, fleur de sel and olive oil ice cream. Not too sweet, with delicate and fluffy texture. I cannot explain it with words. Too beautiful to be told.

PietraPura Dolceluna: Semi-sweet, spices, forest berries, drupes, fig.

Fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in French; French pronunciation: [flœʁ də sɛl]) or flor de sal (also "flower of salt" in Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan) is a salt that forms as a thin, delicate crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates.