As the festive season approaches, food is on the menu and there is a definite movement towards making desserts contemporary too.

Experimenting with traditional food to give it a new age contemporary twist, whether in terms of ingredients, presentation or cooking methods is something that is afoot in the food and beverage industry. What this means is that there have been innovations galore resulting in a plate full of sweet surprises.

Traditionally sweets in India have been associated with ones that are laden with sugar and ghee and something that is thought to be heavy on the palate. However, changing times have meant that traditional sweets are changing to remain relevant.

It is not uncommon to find that chefs are working on fusing tradition with modernity to come up with innovative desserts that tease your palate.

Also, the sweets are being made using natural flavouring without using any artificial additives and in recyclable boxes to keep the ecological aspect in mind. Keeping the taste true to its origin, sweets are getting an artisanal makeover, so you have a motichoor ladoo in wine, lavender and elderflower flavours as well as cheesecake in the form of a barfi.

Indian sweets have confused the pastry chefs and dessert chefs (both Indian and non-Indian) when it comes to menu inclusion and planning.

Most of our sweets are not desserts, but celebratory (or otherwise) bites to be enjoyed with no rhyme or reason at any moment in the day. Given the current meal patterns and everyone’s effort to reduce the intake of sugary stuff, one has no option but to move them towards the end of a meal. The effort to elevate our sweets into western style desserts began back in the  1990’s (when fusion cooking was any way at a high point).

There is a lot of creativity that is going to come out of Indian sweets being looked at differently. And they will have their rightful place at the dinner table as a proper dessert.

Read the full story that first appeared in Seema Magazine’s October 2022 issue here: