Gelato is the order of the day. Tender coconut cheesecake now wins favour over the ubiquitous tender coconut pudding. How about a rum and vanilla crème brûlée instead of plain old caramel custard? Mango panacotta, chocolate truffle, green-tea macaroons, lemon tart, raspberry sorbet, mille-feuille, panacotta, pecan pie, baked yoghurt…the sweet truth is that rounding off a meal with desserts has become infinitely more pleasurable for foodies in the city, given the sheer variety of decadent desserts now on offer at fine dining restaurants. Desserts have become an all-day, any day treat for those with the sweet tooth.
Several of the restaurants now have dessert counters that are as diverse and extensive as the buffets. That’s apart from entire sections of a la carte menus devoted to desserts that you struggle to pronounce correctly and trolleys piled high with the Indian and Continental desserts of the day that wind their way to each table, not to mention ‘interactive’ dessert stations for crepes, churros, waffles and sopaipillas, to name a few.
“Foodies have become more adventurous and want something other than old favourites such as caramel custard, fruit trifle and bread and butter pudding. They are ready to experiment and try out a variety of new flavours and combinations of ingredients,” observes Vijayan Parakkal, executive chef, The Leela, Kovalam. Jose Thomas, executive chef, Vivanta by Taj, Thycaud, agrees and adds: “Ever since we introduced them to diners in the city, our panacottas and baked yoghurt, along with crème caramel, have been so popular and so much in demand that we are forced to keep them on the regular buffet menu day in and day out! That’s almost sacrilege in the high end restaurant business. Then, the only thing we can do to them is tweak the combinations and flavours.”
No wonder pastry chefs in the city are experimenting like never before, creating innovative confections, which combine Indian and Western dessert traditions, the classic with the contemporary, the sweet with the savoury; desserts which highlight local ingredients, and the likes. Pastry chef Karumari Appan at Hilton Garden Inn, for example, is one of those who likes to experiment, especially with chocolate; experiments which can often be found on the dessert counter of the hotel’s buffet. His piece de resistance is ‘Chocolate Chettinad’ – chocolate mixed with 18 spices, the flavours which just explode in the throat.
“Foodies in the city seem to have a fondness for anything chocolate. Chocolate is something that goes well with sweet and savoury ingredients and liqueurs, which allows me to experiment a lot,” he says. Another of his masterpieces is German stollen with a desi twist, where he uses ghee instead of clarified butter in the recipe. “The whole idea,” explains Chef Vijayan, “is to create a combination that works out well and at the same time is unusual in terms of taste and character.” Indeed, the Leela’s dessert menu, both buffet and a la carte, is particularly renowned for interesting flavour profiles such as green tea crème brûlée, green cardamom and red banana trifle, wasabi cheesecake, salted caramel corn, pumpkin pudding, jackfruit crumble and so on.
Of course, in addition to experimenting with tastes and textures, presentation also goes a long way in attracting diners to desserts, satiating curiosity as well as the sweet tooth. “It’s 50 per cent taste, 50 per cent looks,” says Shine Sreevisakhan, executive chef, Villa Maya. “Keep it clean and simple but add a dash of drama with chocolate tuilles, fancy run outs, a flourish of whipped cream, fruit garnishes, or flambé a dish at the table. Dessert trolleys/trays almost always nudge the diner to tuck into a sweet treat even if they don’t want to,” he adds.
Even as the desserts grow richer in variety, pastry chefs say that the demand for healthy dessert options is also rising – and smaller portions too. As such, many of the restaurants also now have bite-size low calorie desserts too on the menus. The Taj’s buffet, for example, always has, at least, two sugar-free desserts and one eggless option.
“Most Indian sweets such as gulab jamuns and gajar ka halwa are overly sweet and heavy, which may put off diners after a heavy main course. Diners are aware of their health and often request for low calorie desserts, especially if they are lactose intolerant or want gluten free dishes. It’s challenging for us too and we try to be more inventive with such desserts, substituting soya milk for dairy, making flourless chocolate cakes, using fresh cream instead of unhealthy butter cream icing, and so on,” says Chef Shine.
Chef Vijayan chips in: “We use a lot of sugar alternatives in the dessert such as honey, jaggery, Splenda and so on for those who worry too much about having white sugar. Fresh fruit purees are also being used in desserts in order to reduce the amount of sugar or to avoid using sugar altogether. A few of the most popular ones are berry mousse, tender coconut and jaggery fool, basil and pineapple soufflé.”
Indulge.
