The term ‘Bengali’ conjures up a variety of tasteful thoughts. Rohu machli, mishti doi, and of course, the mouth-watering rasogolla, roshmalai and other sweets which transport you to heaven. For the delicious rasogollas, we have one gentleman to thank — Nobin Chandra Das. In 1868, after months of hard work, Das came up with a sweet made from cottage cheese boiled in sugar syrup. This, he named ‘rasogolla’. Fondly called ‘Nobinmoira’, Das took the sweet industry by storm, coming up with delicious confectioneries and variations of the popular ‘sandesh’. With time, his popularity increased, with clientele consisting of aristocrats and royalty. Sharada Maa, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of dedo sandesh, an innovation of Das. His sweets enjoyed great popularity with the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission.
Das’ ancestors were sugar merchants from Burdwan, who later settled in Kolkata. He was the first to use natural fruit pulp in his sweets. His son and successor Krishna Chandra Das started his first shop ‘Krishna Chandra Das Confectioners’, in 1930. Like father, like son, Krishna Chandra invented roshmalai, another all time favourite.
After his passing, the reins were taken up by his son, Sarada Charan. He incorporated K C Das as a company in 1946, and was its founding Governor Director. He replaced the traditional leaf packing with cardboard boxes lined with butter paper. He also came up with several new sweets, including rasogollas for diabetics. Other sweets that he innovated were sandesh cake, gur roshmalai, channar payes, and the amrita kumbha sandesh, an exciting departure from the usual shape and taste. His greatest contribution was to the cooking process. He pioneered and implemented the use of steam from a boiler to make the dishes replace the conventional ‘kadai’ cooking.
The company fell on bad times in 1965, when the Milk Trade Control Order was imposed in Bengal. This forced them to shut down all their shops except for one, which sold savouries along with sweets. During this time, they decided to open up branches down South. That is how, in 1972, a factory and shop was set up in Bangalore. Since then, other branches have been set up in Bangalore with the number going up to nine. K C Das outlets can be found in Indiranagar, Jayanagar, BTM Layout, etc. Apart from sweets, they also serve savouries like samosas, soya roll, peas kachori to name a few.
