It’s not enough if your dessert order says, ‘Pretty please. With a cherry on top.’ Today, you also need to specify you want a ‘cherry from Patagonia.’ The icing on the cake better be whisked with exotic butter and blended with a dash of gold dust. And not just any gold dust, it should be 22-carat gold, from France.
Desserts have come a long way. They aren’t just cakes, puddings and ice creams any more, nor are they a simple amalgamation of all three. Desserts are now an assembly of various flavours, colours, textures and exotic ingredients, all cunningly designed to make one dramatic plate.
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Physics at work
A friend of mine wouldn’t stop raving about the dessert at Jiggs Kalra’s signature restaurant, Masala Library, in Delhi. He and his friends had
The presentation involved two unlike poles of powerful magnets balancing a smaller metal plate on which the artistic dessert was placed. Liquid nitrogen was poured for effect. That’s not all. The lower base revolved at high speed, forcing the upper plate to move as well, albeit at a slower pace. At the table, a waitress even slid a stick between the two magnetic plates to show there was no trickery involved.
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Fusion, molecular gastronomy and edgy pastry chefs have changed desserts over the past few years, taking them into a world of culinary art, featuring spherification, gelification and emulsification, with startlingly beautiful ingredients from all over the world.
At Concu, an exclusive signature dessert nook in Hyderabad, chef Sahil is in a happy place. After working in Harrods for years, Sahil decided to make desserts his mainstay. “We hang out over tea, coffee, lunch and dinner but not dessert. That’s how Concu was conceptualised,” he says, bringing out a colourful shot glass to de-construct.
- Gold lead
- Chocolate feather
- Activated charcoal
- Flowers
- Micro greens
- Molecular desserts
- Canned fruits
- Artificial food colours
The glass, which is about four inches tall, has at least five elements. But the one element that ‘takes the cake’ is the cherry from Patagonia. Sahil explains, “Our desserts are exotic and customers pay a premium for them, so I do not want to compromise on my ingredients.” He adds, “There is chocolate and there is something that looks like chocolate. While chocolate is expensive, ‘something like chocolate’ will be easy on the pocket and best for mass production. Mass production isn’t a good idea.”
Other things Sahil and his team procure for their desserts, include strawberries from the UK and gold leaf from France. (The gold leaf package, worth about ₹40,000, is stored in a locker.)
All in a sketch
A good-looking dessert that is equivalent to a ‘slice of heaven’ is essentially an iteration of at least five components. Neha Mistry, Sahil’s intern, puts it together following a meticulously-done sketch she drew earlier in the day.
It’s obvious from the sketches that hang on the wall of Concu that dessert-making is literally an art here. As Mistry ends by placing a dainty chocolate handle on the dessert, she adds a generous tuft of gold leaf using just a ‘6’ point painting brush.
Nut, fruits and baking trays are so yesterday. Chocolate ribbons, stencils, gelatin, balloons, and sugar dust go into creating desserts that look like pretty table décor.
However, like with fashion, dessert trends change rapidly. Chef Francis Fernandes of ITC Hotels says, “As a pastry chef, I love the art involved in making my desserts look attractive. Last year, I used edible flowers. This season, I’m going for dainty feathers: I make them with white chocolate and a fruit knife. The arch in the feather completes the look.”
As for good old fondant, once the mainstay of fancy cakes? “As long as the demand for theme cakes is on, that never goes out of style,” says Kashmiri Borkotoki, a hobby chef, baker and food consultant.