revisited!childhood,

20 / MAY 2015

From Parle G Cheesecake to cotton candy, from masala chai lollipops to ice cream

sandwich sundaes and the famous Chicken Tikka Maggi, we look at how restaurants across

India are letting you relive your precious childhood moments… again!

ParleG Cheesecake

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b u r p ! m a d h u l i k a d a s h

German novelist Franz Kafka once said, “So long as you have food inyour mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” Make that‘food’, a childhood favourite, and even The Metamorphosis author would haveagreed, that it will make all problems vanish for a good meal time.

Let’s face it; when it comes to an instant connect, nothing teleports youback in time like food. Then if the dish has something that has been a con-stant of your childhood, then it just makes the whole experience muchsweeter. This perhaps explains the frenzy that the paan-flavoured cotton candyintroduced by Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra, two years ago, created.

A year later, Farzi Café, the first Indian bistro in Delhi, upped the ante byintroducing in yet another childhood winner—the Parle G Cheesecake andthe Posh Maggi. Such was the ‘food joy’ around these universal childhoodconnect that the Posh Maggi became the highest instagrammed picture of theyear closely followed by the cheesecake. The instant connect was evident, andthe Indian culinary world suddenly bursted into this whole new fad of puttingnostalgia/childhood on plate.

However, it wasn’t the first time such an innovation was trending. Hotelsand standalones have been using chaats and gola to satiate palates for eonsnow. So what made this so different? The ‘difference’, says Sabysachi Gorai,“was the presentation. Dishes were being designed differently. It was not justabout bringing back a flavour but also creating something equally addictive.”

“It was,” says corporate Chef Vikas Seth of Mumbai-based Dish Hospitality, “a case of serving the old wine in a new, classy bottle. In this case,a carefully thought, paired, presented dish.”

Just like that diners lapped up the new trend with every restaurant bringing out something that was unique yet had one element in common: it was childhood on the plate. But it wasn’t just about anything. “The deal,”says Massive Restaurant’s managing director, Zorawar Kalra, “was to bring in something that had a wider connect and then create the flavour to perfec-tion and on that throw in a twist that would etch it in the diner’s memory. So the selection to which childhood memory to choose was as important, or rather more, than the idea on what twist that would make it befitting arestaurant’s menu.”

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Paan-flavoured

Cotton Candy

Mobar Sundae

Sandwich

Guava Tan-ta-ta

Chilli Mango Popsicles

MAY 2015 / 21

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A classic example of this has beenFarzi Café’s Parle G Cheesecake. Whilethe idea of cheesecake could be catego-rized as contemporary, the Parle G bis-cuit, which has been presented as asandwich rather than how one used tohave back in time, is a culmination oftwo distinct favourite of the time: ParleG Biscuit and ice cream sandwich. Then,adds Kalra, “the addition of Gems on itliterally brings childhood on a plate.”

The success of such initial disheseventually prompted more chefs to trytheir hand at taking something old, mix-ing it with new and creating somethingstunning – and equally addicting. TheNoir Blanc Bread Pudding of ByblosKitchen and Bar, Mumbai, for example,which gives the ordinary bread puddingan haute twist. Or the Guava Tan-ta-tanof Bombay Canteen, where the simplesnack of pink guava sprinkled with chillipowder gets a French twist in form of atart and spicy caramel. Likewise is the case of Mobar Sundae Sandwichserved at the Monkey Bar in Delhi thatrecreates Jughead’s favourite sundae foradults! Nope, we don’t mean alcohol, butdecadently close. Think layers of cake,ice-cream, assorted nuts, nutella, tutti-frutti, jelly and praline!

So what really prompted the chefs toring in such childhood memories? Asidethe fact, adds Chef Seth, “that thesedishes have the potential to be best sell-ers, it is also the challenge. If recreatingthe flavours that once dominated yourchildhood through sheer memory istough, pairing it with something thatwould only enhance its flavours andmake it more memorable is creatively de-manding.”

Agrees Chef Gorai. “While workingwith such known flavours, the pairing isall important else it may leave a bad tastefor the guest who ordered it merely torelive the moment. So you cannot justpair Maggi with popcorn or bread withMarie biscuit just because you had it thatway as a child.”

“In fact,” concurs Kainaz MessmanHarchandrai, Theobroma Foods PvtLtd, Mumbai, “it is more important thatthe element of each of the dishes is insync with the flavour your want to bringforth. Like for the Ginger and GreenMango tea cake I created, the idea wasto get the same flavours that one hadwhile eating raw mango doused in redchilli and salt from a newspaper mas-querading as plate but with the softnessof a nice ginger tea cake.”

At the end, adds Chef Manu Chan-dra, Executive Chef & Partner MonkeyBar (Delhi and Bangalore), “the idea isto have something that was considered‘cool’ then and now is super cool to in-troduce to yourself and your friends.”

While that could have been thethought behind creating the Masala ChaiPopsicle in Bombay Canteen, or design-ing the Sunday special Ripe Mango Lol-lipops at Nido in Mumbai not allchildhood-inspired dishes come with thehaute makeover. Some like the ChickenTikka Maggi are sheer case of hit exper-iments. Says Rahul Singh, founder andCEO, The Beer Café in Delhi, “The con-cept of the dish was to mix twofavourites: Maggi and chicken tikka, andsee how things work. The result was soamazing that we had to re-introduce it inour menu again on popular demand.”

Another example of ‘keeping it as itis’ is of Childhood Memories on Plate atMasala Library By Jiggs Kalra in Mumbai.Essentially a dessert that has the Parle G,Phantom Cigarette, the cerelac, caramelbanana split, the mud pie – which actuallylooks like the mud pie – and more, itbrings childhood literally on the plate by,as Kalra said, “Cleverly choosing thingsthat each has a story with.”

22 / MAY 2015

Childhood Memories on Plate

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