Life Desk :
City restaurants give an innovative twist to food presentation by creating dishes that resemble another.
Didn’t we order an ice cream?” my friend asks, as the server places a burger in front of us at Papacream in Churchgate. Sure enough, melted cheese oozes out from between the burger patty and the buns. We summon the server and remind him that we ordered the Jumbo Doughwich. He, in turn, smiles as he informs us that the ‘burger’ is actually a dessert. Intrigued, we take a closer look at the burger buns and realise that they are actually doughnuts, with chocolate ice cream moulded in the shape of a burger patty.
Deception (albeit, of the milder kind) certainly seems to be the buzzword when it comes to serving food at eateries today. Creating a dish to resemble another brings an element of surprise and innovativeness to the dining table, say chefs across the city.
The surprise factor
One of the quirkiest dishes at Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra is the Wild Mushroom Chai, truffle oil crumbs and dehydrated mushrooms. With a flourish, the server pours the consomme of mushrooms, topped with truffle and dehydrated mushrooms from a tea kettle into a cup. The restaurant also serves a Jalebi caviar, saffron glaze and pistachio rabri, which is served in a plate resembling a sea shell. Here, the jalebi is moulded to resemble caviar, with the rabri forming the base. “If you have Indian desserts such as jalebi or rabri anywhere else, they will probably taste just as good but the wow factor kicks in with the presentation,” says Chef Saurabh Udinia, Chef de Cuisine -Modern Indian Cuisine, Massive Restaurants Pvt Ltd.
Tanvi Chowdhri, the co-founder of Papacream, explains that her ice-cream parlour is founded on the concept of innovation. “For us, it was all about what more can we offer the customer,” she states. At Papacream, they decided to serve ice-cream as part of its meals.When it came to their signature dishes, they played around with the idea of serving ice-cream disguised as foods people would love to indulge in. “The doughwich, for example, looks like a cheeseburger, whereas the Thai Sushi Ice Cream, is for those who like sushi. The coconut and lemongrass infused ice-cream has smatterings of kiwi and passion jelly to cut the sweetness. It is wrapped with a chocolate crepe, which is rolled into chocolate sauce and rice crispies to make it look like sushi,” she explains.
Aditya Gupta, partner at SpiceKlub tells us that a few years ago, many customers would skip dessert after a meal at a restaurant.”It either seemed too expensive or it would be the same old rabri or kulfi,” he says. But he points out that with restaurants now offering innovative desserts, they get an order of at least one from each table.He cherishes those few seconds of complete astonishment as his customers are served the Edible Soap Bar on their table -chocolate cake shaped to resemble a soap, served with rabri foam in an actual soap dish and a towel.
“You can play around a lot with desserts more than appetisers and mains, because of the various textures and colours,” he says, pointing towards the edible chocolate pot, complete with frozen rasmalai topped with chocolate soil, pistachio dust and chocolate spoons that look like spades.
A beer popsicle, anyone?
What if the mug of beer that you order one hot afternoon arrives at your table in the form of a popsicle?
Well, this is no hypothetical situation at the White Owl Brewery. “As a kid, I loved popsicles and since we have a brewery, we thought, why not use craft beer to make an adult version of a popsicle,” laughs Chef Dinesh Bherwani, Executive Chef, adding that the idea of playing around with textures and flavours prompted him to experiment.
The Beer popsicle at the eatery includes ingredients such as Dulce de Leche, coffee, sugar and cream. The tangy aftertaste of craft beer lingers long after you’re done eating the Beer Popsicle. “The idea is to be creative and have fun with food,” says Bherwani, adding that he gets a lot of orders for the dish, only because of the curiosity factor that’s attached to the dish.
Some restaurants have even begun experimenting with the mains as well. The newly-opened Modern Asian Bistro, Pa Pa Ya, for instance, serves a Sushi burger, pickled vegetables and Philly Aioli. While the burger buns are made out of vinegaired koshikari rice, its fillings comprise Atlantic Salmon for nonvegetarians and pickled gobo and takuan for vegetarians.
For Chef Sahil Singh, Executive Chef -Modern Pan Asian, Pa Pa Ya, taste is always preceded by creativity.”We just follow one concept. Be creative with every dish,” says Singh.
-Mumbai Mirror
City restaurants give an innovative twist to food presentation by creating dishes that resemble another.
Didn’t we order an ice cream?” my friend asks, as the server places a burger in front of us at Papacream in Churchgate. Sure enough, melted cheese oozes out from between the burger patty and the buns. We summon the server and remind him that we ordered the Jumbo Doughwich. He, in turn, smiles as he informs us that the ‘burger’ is actually a dessert. Intrigued, we take a closer look at the burger buns and realise that they are actually doughnuts, with chocolate ice cream moulded in the shape of a burger patty.
Deception (albeit, of the milder kind) certainly seems to be the buzzword when it comes to serving food at eateries today. Creating a dish to resemble another brings an element of surprise and innovativeness to the dining table, say chefs across the city.
The surprise factor
One of the quirkiest dishes at Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra is the Wild Mushroom Chai, truffle oil crumbs and dehydrated mushrooms. With a flourish, the server pours the consomme of mushrooms, topped with truffle and dehydrated mushrooms from a tea kettle into a cup. The restaurant also serves a Jalebi caviar, saffron glaze and pistachio rabri, which is served in a plate resembling a sea shell. Here, the jalebi is moulded to resemble caviar, with the rabri forming the base. “If you have Indian desserts such as jalebi or rabri anywhere else, they will probably taste just as good but the wow factor kicks in with the presentation,” says Chef Saurabh Udinia, Chef de Cuisine -Modern Indian Cuisine, Massive Restaurants Pvt Ltd.
Tanvi Chowdhri, the co-founder of Papacream, explains that her ice-cream parlour is founded on the concept of innovation. “For us, it was all about what more can we offer the customer,” she states. At Papacream, they decided to serve ice-cream as part of its meals.When it came to their signature dishes, they played around with the idea of serving ice-cream disguised as foods people would love to indulge in. “The doughwich, for example, looks like a cheeseburger, whereas the Thai Sushi Ice Cream, is for those who like sushi. The coconut and lemongrass infused ice-cream has smatterings of kiwi and passion jelly to cut the sweetness. It is wrapped with a chocolate crepe, which is rolled into chocolate sauce and rice crispies to make it look like sushi,” she explains.
Aditya Gupta, partner at SpiceKlub tells us that a few years ago, many customers would skip dessert after a meal at a restaurant.”It either seemed too expensive or it would be the same old rabri or kulfi,” he says. But he points out that with restaurants now offering innovative desserts, they get an order of at least one from each table.He cherishes those few seconds of complete astonishment as his customers are served the Edible Soap Bar on their table -chocolate cake shaped to resemble a soap, served with rabri foam in an actual soap dish and a towel.
“You can play around a lot with desserts more than appetisers and mains, because of the various textures and colours,” he says, pointing towards the edible chocolate pot, complete with frozen rasmalai topped with chocolate soil, pistachio dust and chocolate spoons that look like spades.
A beer popsicle, anyone?
What if the mug of beer that you order one hot afternoon arrives at your table in the form of a popsicle?
Well, this is no hypothetical situation at the White Owl Brewery. “As a kid, I loved popsicles and since we have a brewery, we thought, why not use craft beer to make an adult version of a popsicle,” laughs Chef Dinesh Bherwani, Executive Chef, adding that the idea of playing around with textures and flavours prompted him to experiment.
The Beer popsicle at the eatery includes ingredients such as Dulce de Leche, coffee, sugar and cream. The tangy aftertaste of craft beer lingers long after you’re done eating the Beer Popsicle. “The idea is to be creative and have fun with food,” says Bherwani, adding that he gets a lot of orders for the dish, only because of the curiosity factor that’s attached to the dish.
Some restaurants have even begun experimenting with the mains as well. The newly-opened Modern Asian Bistro, Pa Pa Ya, for instance, serves a Sushi burger, pickled vegetables and Philly Aioli. While the burger buns are made out of vinegaired koshikari rice, its fillings comprise Atlantic Salmon for nonvegetarians and pickled gobo and takuan for vegetarians.
For Chef Sahil Singh, Executive Chef -Modern Pan Asian, Pa Pa Ya, taste is always preceded by creativity.”We just follow one concept. Be creative with every dish,” says Singh.
-Mumbai Mirror
