A slice of exotic taste

Mango magic

The recipes are all inspired by mango and are prepared and developed by master chef Anurag Barthwal. For the month of May, the different restaurants in the hotel will offer the most delectable mango delicacies from the culinary repertoire of the master bakers.

The purpose behind prep­aring this menu is to have a balance between a few classics and a few creative desserts. Says Anurag, “Mango is a fruit which is given a lot of importance. Before you buy mangoes, you spend a lot of time smelling it, feeling the texture and the colour. And it’s not done with any other fruit. And with the abundance of mangoes this season, we thought, why not give the customers a slice of the good taste of these fruits?”

He adds, “All these recipes that I have prepared have been inspired by mango. It all starts from a mango and how I can deconstruct it and incorporate it in different forms and transform it into a dessert that everyone would love to savour. And I have used various combinations of flavours like caramel, coconut rum, passion fruit etc that will bring out the essence of a mango.”

“The idea is to present the mangoes in a way you cannot have it at home or anywhere else. It is more of my perception of mango desserts for my guests. So I have used different parts of a mango in various forms. I could have put one sliced mango with vanilla ice cream which is also a type of dessert. But I chose not to because I didn’t find any fun in it,” he says.

The different recipes that have been introduced throughout this month include mango cheesecake vodka sorbet, caramel and pepper mango passion fruit jelly, char grilled mango tart vanilla bean ice cream, mango and vanilla creme brulee, fro­zen mango roulade and chilled mango soup.  Char grilled ma­go tart or the mango cheesecake may sound very plain and common. But when you see it, you will spot the difference.

However, the chef doesn’t pay much attention to the appearance of any food item. He says, “The look is very secondary. It should definitely look pleasing to the eye but what makes the whole difference is the way each one tastes.”

And the way the desserts are prepared, brings out the heavenly flavour and aroma of a mango perfectly well. The mango has an overpowering taste and when you add something smoky to it like pepper, malibou or when you char it, it complements the sweetness perfectly well.

Mango can be used in different formats like salads or as a flavouring in different curries. But he has concentrated mostly on preparing recipes for desserts.  He says, “When you go out for a meal, you always think what’s going to be there for desserts. People have this kind of expectation. So we have capitalised on this aspect and married mango with desserts. And we have used four varieties of mangoes in all our preparations like Alphonso, Sindhuri, Raspuri and Benganpalli.”