Taste is in the detail
Ravindra Verma
Trident, Mumbai
At the moment he is obsessed with a Raspberry Chestnut Madagascar. It’s a combination of various flavours of chestnut with raspberry and chocolate and tastes as exotic as it sounds. “We have introduced it at the Frangipani as well as at Gourmet Shoppe; the roaring sales at both the places are proving that guests are liking it,” says Chef Ravindra. Yet, ask him for his personal favourite and you find that it isn’t this exotica. It’s his White Chocolate & Brioche pudding, served with vanilla sauce.
Ravindra says making desserts is technically challenging and artistically demanding. “A lot of detailing is involved in setting standards and ensuring they are maintained,” he says with not a little pride.
So, how does he live up to his high standards? “You have to review where you have gone wrong and start from that end again. At times, it’s irreversible and you can’t do anything but start again. Salvaging a dessert gone wrong can alter the original intent altogether.”
He reveals that his special Valentine’s confection includes champagne, strawberry and chocolate. But that’s all he would let on.
Served with slices of forbidden fruits
Rohit Sangwan
Taj Land’s End, Mumbai
He gets a kick out of watching people eat what they are not supposed to. “Desserts bring out the child in adults... especially if they are forbidden... it’s so much fun to see the joy on people’s faces when they are eating your desserts on the sly,” says the jolly chef.
What works the best for him is combining various textures — like his sinful-sounding eight-chocolate platter, or an equally dizzy ensemble of strawberries, custard and chocolate that he thinks makes for the perfect Valentine’s dessert.
The best dessert he has ever eaten was in France. “It was a Napoleon slice at Alain Ducasse’s pastry shop in Paris. A very simple dessert, a layered pastry, made with puff and French custard… but the taste was memorable,” he says. And we drool.
Where East meets West
Ramachandra Kumar
Shangri-La, New Delhi
Ramachandra Kumar, or Chef Ram, likes his gulab jamun and gajar halwa so much that they often find their way into his cheesecakes. So does the masala chai into his bread-and-butter pudding.
“I have to ensure there’s a balance. So, for the gulab jamun cheesecake, I use a little lime juice to lessen the sweetness,” says the 28-year-old while spinning a fine sugar mesh for a garnish.
Ram, who has worked for four years in Italy, loves the Italian classic desserts — from the simple tiramisu to the Cassata Siciliana, a traditional ricotta cheese delicacy that has diners eating out of his hands.
But his heart lies in working on Indo-European fusion. “My chocolate cake with curry powder got me rave reviews.” We are still waiting for something with rasmalai.