Indians love their traditional candy but what is cooking inside Indian restaurants? Chefs from around India tell us about their experiments
At Raahi Neo Kitchen and Bar in Bengaluru, chef Ankur Sharma makes a candy out of pork apart from orange and paan. Photo Courtesy: iStock.
Key Highlights
- Halloween is the treat season and candies are something that are very versatile
- They are also a massive part of childhood so it’s just nostalgic and easy to work with
- We asked chefs from around India about their experiments with candies for Halloween
Each and every one of us has grown up eating candy – some sweet and others sour, some hard and others soft or chewy. Every experience is a new experience and what follows is an explosion of flavours, which even though for a few minute lasts in our memory for a lifetime or till the next adventure, at least if you have a sweet tooth. While popular cinema has immortalised chocolates and candy in many movies, Halloween is around the corner and if nothing else, gives everybody the opportunity to gorge on candies. At Café Duco in Mumbai, chef Urvika Kanoi took this very opportunity to explore her love for candy and add it to a dish. She explains, “Halloween is the treat season and candies are something that are very versatile and they are made up of boiled sugar, so just having something whimsical in the dish is something that really called out to me.”
For the longest time, the celebration, which is observed on October 31 is the holiday before All Saint’s Day on November 1. While it has been celebrated around the world for a long time, over the years, it has become popular in India as people dress up in spooky costumes and enjoy different kinds of food, drink and dessert. Interestingly, most people would imagine candies to be a part of dessert or sweet dishes but Kanoi will surprise you. It’s because the Mumbai chef finds uniqueness in candies with how they impact sweetness in a dish. She explains, “Candies actually have a rounded flavour of all the six senses. Be it umami, sweet, savoury, bitter, spicy and salty – and it is something that I really enjoyed working with. Candies are also a massive part of childhood so it’s just nostalgic and easy to work with. So, I wanted to also showcase something super different when we decided to add candies to our dish,” she explains.