Which is a better restaurant-city: Delhi or Mumbai? While the jury may still be out on that one, I, for one, think that Delhi has evolved to a much higher degree of sophistication and the quality of cuisines available in the Capital is far superior to what you find in any other metro. However, one area in which Mumbai outclasses anything that Delhi has is desserts. Delhi may have its mithai shops, but when it comes to less indigenous desserts, interesting cakes and pies, standalone p?tisseries and chocolatiers , Delhi is clearly lagging.
In Mumbai, I realised this as I sat at the BBC?Bombay Baking Company?a charming caf? (a true coffee and dessert place) at the JW Marriott. As the name suggests, its highlight is a wide variety of freshly-baked breads and desserts, but the caf? also has a comfortable air about it, which allows you to sit solitary, if you are inclined to, and take in the goings-on around you while digging into a sinful wedge. Amongst all Indian cities, it is Mumbai, which allows you to feel so comfortable in your skin in this way. The service staff is chatty but not intrusive and unlike Delhi where the pressure to maintain appearances and check out the next table is immense, in Mumbai, you can just be yourself.
The caf? is a favourite with the film fraternity: writers, directors and sometimes actors. The staff told me that Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna regularly order and take away cheesecakes in particular. And this brings me to the second reason why I liked the BBC so much and would rate it as India?s best dessert place. There?s a huge dollop of creativity evident in almost everything on the menu.
Chef Savio Fernandes, the man behind BBC, is a quiet Goan, with a serious sweet tooth and some very imaginative ideas. I was blown away by his concept, for instance, of creating cakes after personalities, usually of people, and sometimes even films! His cake calypto, for instance, is inspired by Mel Gibson?s Apocalypto: the blues in its colour palette, the vibrancy of the greenery et cetera making their way into the cake.
Another cake is named after Savio?s friend Melba, from the kitchen at the hotel. ?She is easy going, a little nutty and lends colour to the entire kitchen team,? the chef says, explaining his vision. So to compliment this reading of another person?s personality, he created a concoction of a silky mousse with colourful marshmallows, macaroons and so on, embellishing the layer of cake beneath.
If you ask him, he?ll customise your chocolates, putting your name on these or filling them with the same ingredient! But what I really loved were his fusion desserts, where he brings together mithai with Western cheesecakes, pies and tarts.
For example, Savio?s love for gulab jamuns finds expression in a gulab jamun cr?me brulee, a dessert concocted thanks to an early mistake. Then a junior chef, Savio says, he accidentally dropped a gulab jamun into cointreau and served it to a guest, who loved the flavour of the slightly bitter orange liqueur seeping into the Indian sweet. It was the memory of this accident that led Savio to embed gulab jamuns soaked in cointreau (for two weeks, so that the flavour gets intense) in a creamy brulee.
When I visited the BBC, one of the desserts recommended by the staff was a boondi cheesecake, where the traditional base had been replaced by fine boondi. A simple but effective idea, which got me interested in meeting the chef right away! I asked Savio if he could demonstrate some of these interesting ideas (not on the menu) especially for this column and he enthusiastically got to work in the kitchen coming up with a rasmalai-tiramisu (the rasmalai drenched in kalhua, coffee, liqueur) as well as another concoction that he had attempted at the Asian Pastry Cup (whose winner gets to present his creations at the world event in France, the Mecca for desserts, every year): a cold chocolate and thandai cheese cake with a mango salsa on the side. Simply delicious.
Like always, Savio?s creations demonstrate that what separates the genius of a chef from a regular kitchen hand following recipes is a natural instinct for combining unlikely ingredients in order to surprise and wow, and the thought that goes behind each dish that is put on the table.
The writer is a food critic