Desserts tease taste buds, play hot and cold!

Cause you’re hot then you’re cold, You’re yes then you’re no, You’re in then you’re out, You’re up then you’re down.”  Listening to Katy Perry’s Hot and Cold on a winter evening throws up a befuddling question: Should we just give up on our ice-cream cravings? Or stir up a winter dessert along with a hot condiment to balance it out? Of course, the latter one! Metrolife speaks to City-based chefs and figures out some ‘hot and cold’ desserts for you. 

Get your taste buds ready for a wintry delight as Chef Shaleen Gambhir, Executive Chef, Radisson Blu MBD suggests a savoury to team up with your ice cream. As a unique combination for ‘hot and cold’ desserts, he suggests having a “Zafrani pulao with makhani ice cream”. Quaint, right? Before you hit your kitchen to whip up this recipe, read what the other leading chefs have to offer...

“Italian desserts are my favourite as they play with different textures and tickle not only sweet but other taste buds of the tongue too,” says Chef Anil Pandey, Executive Chef, Raasta. A few hot and cold Italian desserts that top his list are freshly baked orange and almond mascarpone (an Italian cheese made from cream) with chilled melon gratin and iced hazelnut zabaglione (a whipped up Italian dessert or beverage using egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine) with hot bitter chocolate marsala fudge. 

Vouching for the Indian desserts, Chef Rahul Hajarvanis, Executive Brand Chef, Shiro, says, “I just love the unique combination of hot jalebis and chilled rabadi.”

Making our mouth water at the thought of pista kulfi with hot gulab jamun, the dessert specialist at Zerzura, Hinglish-The Colonial Café, Silk: Oriental Kitchen and Bar and Rang De Basanti Dhaba, Chef Surajbir Singh adds, “Bake the date and fig gratin and serve it hot with homemade honey ice cream. Or try out some bread and butter puddings glazed with saffron.” Throw caution to the wind, and try out all these desserts, especially in winter!