Myriad flavours of ice cream decoded

Celebrity chef Kunal Kapur, known to be an Indian cuisine whiz, will now be donning the hat of an ice cream maven with his association with world-famous ice cream brand, ‘Magnum’, that is now available in domestic stores.

Chef Kunal, who has become a household name after his popular stint judging the first three seasons of popular TV show Master Chef India, calls the need to consider ice-cream as a whole dessert experience. “I came on board with Magnum last year. What happened was that Dutch Unilever was launching one of their most selling ice cream on a stick in India.

 And I think there was a requirement of a chef who could talk about chocolates, who could talk about ice-creams, specially Magnum because it takes on from not just being an ice cream on a stick to a very different dessert experience and I fit in perfectly,” Kapur told PTI.
The chef who was in town to host a Master Class, took ice cream aficionados through a round of chocolate tasting, sampling and appreciation, helping the dilettante audience identify the basic difference between the cocoa content of white, milk and dark chocolate,determining its quality along the way.
While the ice cream produced by Magnum is solely made from Belgian chocolate imported from ‘Barry Callebaut’, world’s largest producer of premium chocolate, chef Kapur accepts that the taste bud of the average India is not yet aware of the difference between myriad flavours of chocolate.
“The Indian palate is not at all aware of what is a pure Belgian chocolate flavour. For most of us, which is, let us say about 99 per cent people, a chocolate is a chocolate – there may be light, white and dark. But what really makes your chocolate, how many would know?” says Kapur.

The chef, however says that people are becoming more curious about knowing what ice cream and chocolate they are eating.

“We would want people to take their ice cream seriously. I think now there is a level we have reached where people are indeed interested to know what chocolate and what ice cream they are really eating,” says the chef.