My name is Giovanni - Grappino Amari Watergate

John LINDGREN November 2007

Grappino Amari Watergate - My name is Giovanni…

Do you remember the SIAM LODGE hotel group? A hundred years ago! Siam Lodge is what the the Amari Hotel Group was known as before it became Amari Hotel Group. The strategic, conceptual re branding by took place in 1996. And the flagship property of the group was named Amari Watergate Rong Raeem Amari Pratunam located between the old chronically crowded Prathunam whole & retail market and the towering, glowing Central World and Paragon mega mall lifestyle superstructures.

The ten year old Amari Grappino Italian restaurant is the only Italian high-end eatery in the eternally busy Prathunam district.

The Grappino shares the 5th floor with Amari Watergate's sophisticated Cantonese Restarant Heichinrou. Upon entering the recently re-designed Grappino we are greeted by a spacious dining room with large tables and open casual, minimalist decor in black and orange with the window tables offering a panoramic vista of Metropolitan Bangkok.

On the wall a collection of poster size black & white grainy Italian retro 50s and 60s photographs.

The name Grappino is taken from the the fiery grappa the Italian 'firewater', collection said to be one of the most extensive in the city.

Our chef for the evening is Giovanni. "My name is Giovanni" says the lanky Chef Ranaudo who hails from from the spa city of Term Catteri town in Toscany. After completing a 5 year culinary education Chef Giovanni sailed the seven seas on Princess Cruises for three and a half years. 'We prepared 12.000 meals a day ! High pressure, high volume non-stop cooking' .

The Holiday Time Christmas and New Year tasting (degustation) dinner starts with a zuppe , the ubiquitous Minestrone soup, so simple; veggies finely chopped, pesto and spinach hot and delectable. A minestrone for all seasons.

The vino to accompany is Italian, of course, a 100 % Chardonnay the Est Est Est !!! Monte Fiascona 2004. Dry, fruity and zesty.

The next dish on the Christmas Eve menu: Tiger Prawns with warm lentil salad, crispy potatoes with black squid ink and balsamic vinegar. The big juicy al dente prawns with the warm lentil salad and black shoestring thin crispy potatoes. Is this the new lean Italian cuisine?
Nuvella cuccina Italiano.

More of the new light Italian cuisine. Lobster Lasagna with zuccini, saffron sauce and caviar. The word Lasagna is first recorded in English in 1760. It derives from the Vulgar Latin lasania for a cooking pot, but the Italian etymologists prefer to find an origin in the classical Greek lagana, a type of unleavened flat bread not unlike pasta).

Chef Gianno's lasagna is di-vi-ne. Da ultimo ! Al dente-melt-in-the-mouth-culinary-experience. Phuk-kket lobster, caviar, and the saffron (the most precious and most expensive spice in the world extracted from the saffron flower,Crocus Sativus Linneaus ).

With Chef's recommendation we switched to red vino a Castaldo Chianti from Central Tuscany. In the glass dark orange-garnet red with a jammy aroma and dry tannins and a tad oak. It's a medium-bodied style with strawberry and plum fruit, hints of liquorice and tar and reasonable acidity. Made to go with pasta or lasagna rather than for drinking on its own.

"This is a modern lasagna – a modern seafood lasagna" says Chef Giovanni. I would say international Italian-Thai fusion.

The last main course on our deputation menu: The larded monkfish, medallions with spinach on green asparagus, complimented by a spicy tomato and garlic sauce. The presentation a beige paper parcel. When opened it sends a delectable aroma from the fish and the spices and all the herbs. The tad salty monk fish perfectly balanced the simple Italian ingredients; spinach, green asparagus, and the spicy imported Italian tomatoes and the garlic sauce, of course. Washed down with the medium-full bodied, mouth filling 13.5 percent Castaldo. It's good to the last bite and the last drop.

And the grande finale: the Dolce Degustationo on a long white plate with the classics side by side. Tiramisu, the Venetian Ti-ra-mi-su. In English pick-me-up. Served in a twisted bone white coffee cup. Perfect, dolce but not "make-loose-your-fillings-sweet" and the creamy vanilla ice-cream, the dark hot 'lava hot melted' chocolate mousse and the healthy yoghurt mousse with fresh berries. Followed by Illy freshly brewed potent Arabica with a Chardonnay Grappa in a miniature wine glass. "Fire in the hole" Grappa with looong after taste.

A perfect end to a 'Fantastico Italiano Gegustazione X-mas & New Years dinner. A smiling Chef Ra-naudo bids his farewells standing tall in his white toque. We say "Mille Grazia" He smiles "my name is Giovanni… Please come back".


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