Sweet adventures

Indians’ penchant for sweet things is genetic by this point, be it a traditional kheer or an upscale panna cotta. No wonder pastry chef Rachel Goenka, Founder and CEO of The Sassy Spoon, Mumbai, figured that a combination of traditional desi sweets with international flavours — for example, imarti topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream or the iconic mootichoor ladoo served with elaichi mousse — would go down well with the desi masses.

In her debut cookbook titled Adventures With Mithai, the chef provides unique recipes that upgrade traditional mithai, like a humble vermicelli kheer paired with lemongrass panna cotta, or mohan bhog créme éclairs.

Though her adventures wth mithai started seven years ago, it took her only two months to write and shoot the book. Her quest of marrying the two genres of desserts has also won big at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2020, an award that she always dreamt of winning. “I am thoroughly overwhelmed. It’s my first book and the concept is so unique. To see all these desserts come together so beautifully in a book makes me proud. I am thrilled that it has been recognised and appreciated by the prestigious Gourmand Awards,” says Goenka, who won the award in the Pastry & Desserts category. With 50 original recipes including a chocolate barfi-flavoured cheesecake, the book is a homage to traditional Indian sweets.

While the chef started her sweet journey by opening her restaurant and bar Sassy Spoon, where she would spend hours with her team every Diwali making creative Indian desserts, she reworked the recipes for the book in order to make them home-baker friendly. “There were a lot of aspects that I had to keep in mind: The variety of mithais, ease of making these dishes, and also making sure that the ideas behind each dish weren’t intimidating,” she explains.

For the 31-year-old chef, the idea behind the book was to show people how versatile mithai is and how it can be adapted into a Western avatar. “It’s a great way to repurpose mithai and introduce it to people who haven’t tried it before, in a familiar manner. The desserts are great for an interesting traditional yet contemporary dessert table for parties or weddings. I did a lot of research, tasted a lot of mithai, and spent about a month in my kitchen experimenting with different ideas,” she shares.

Since mithai in itself is a high dose of sweetness, Goenka also made sure to strike a balance by keeping the sugar quotient in check. “Mithai on its own tends to be very sweet so you can’t get beyond a couple of bites. With these desserts, you can enjoy your favourite mithais and indulge in them without being overwhelmed by too much sugar. The complementary flavours that I have paired with each of the mithais balance the sweetness,” she says.

When asked the Indian palate accepting the fusion of mithai and Western desserts, Goenka opines, “The Indian palate is extremely experimental. People like to push their taste buds and try new things.” As for her preference between baking and cooking, the pastry chef finds both equally fascinating. While she has always loved cooking, freehand in particular, baking was something she picked up in school. “Baking is something I love when I want to focus since it is a science at the end of the day; you have to be careful with measurements. With cooking, it’s when I am in a more relaxed mood,” says Goenka, whose first ever baked item from her early days was a cake from a premixed pack.

It was the challenges with recipes that encouraged Goenka to keep baking, which eventually led her to iconic culinary schools like Le Cordon Bleu, and Ballymaloe. “I have always loved cooking. I started baking in school and then slowly gravitated towards cooking. I slowly started challenging myself with recipes, and as I grew, the recipes got harder,” she recalls.

While her formal culinary education introduced her to a new world of sweetness, Goenka first curated the dishes for Sassy Spoon with some uncertainty and decided on the name later. “I had all these fabulous ideas that I wanted to bring to India but there were so many challenges around that. Availability of ingredients and the dishes were far too European so I wasn’t sure how well the Indian audience would receive them. But I wanted to showcase what I had learnt so I decided to use elements in the dishes I curated,” she shares.

Drawing inspiration from art, fashion, books, and travel for her work, the chef firmly believes that it can come from anywhere as long as one is open to new ideas. She will soon take her love for desserts up a notch with their first dessert food truck.