G's PATISSERIE - A LAVISH CHOCOLATE AFFAIR !

Gauri Varma is the "Willy Wonka" of the professional kitchen. It took her full 3 years to establish as a patissier and invite us to talk about her journey, inspiration, love for the colour pink and cakes *wink*

With no formal training, she deserves an applaud for handling a unique bakery business which "does not" involve any artificial sugary items, preservatives but LOVE !

The one thing we loved about her is that she can bake anything and everything as per the demands of her customer. She creates delicious cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, muffins and biscotti.

Her signature dish "Gooey Chocolate Brownie"  is the concoction of coco, flour and liquids. These small brownies are soft and tender and gooey and melts straight away in the mouth. They have a rich bitter-sweet taste and all natural colour, adding unrivaled depth to the bake.

Gauri takes inspiration from pastry parlours in Paris and admits her tour to Paris every year for motivation and developing her personal characteristics.  Having an eye for creativity is particularly important in making pastry more than any other type of culinary. As a chef, she handles fragile and perishable items which will need complete knowledge of food safety. Her nutrition science knowledge is vital to take extreme caution while handling food items as it is about her customers' health. 

Her range of coloured French Meringue are  both visually and taste-wise 'Beautiful'. Made with whipped egg whites, sugar and natural colours are baked until crisp and can be consumed as it is or decorated on top of cakes and pies and tarts. 

When we saw Gauri meticulously in action, she challenged that no where in Delhi we could find Red Velvet Cake as perfect as at G's Patisserie.  The dark red cake was prepared traditionally with cream cheese as frosting. There are so many variation in this cake that one never really knows if they are enjoying the taste or the colour of the cake. 

Indians are ruled by Danish Butter Cookies since forever. No offense to the brand but what could taste more delicious than hand-baked fluffy butter cookies ? Nothing ! G's bake the freshest, delicious and simply buttery cookies. Homemade vanilla butter cookies are unleavened cookies consisting of fluffy butter, flour and sugar. These cookies are crumblier, crispier and more buttery in flavour than the typical cookie made with high-fat sweet cream butter. Which is exactly why one should buy G's butter cookies. 

Our last segment was filled with laugh, excitement and lessons *YAYAYAY*

The most intriguing part at G's was the dessert making lesson from scratch. Who loves tart ? WE LOVE TARTS. Who loves experimenting with flavours ? WE LOVE EXPERIMENTING FLAVOURS. 

So, for the last segment we learnt to bake tart.

STEP 1 : Kneading the dough made out of flour, cold cut butter and egg. Knead till it comes together.

STEP 2 : Rolling the dough with the rolling pin creating a flat surface and roll out the dough in the tart shell and with the heel of the hand smear until the entire tart pan has equal quantity of dough. Scrap the extra dough from the top with the knife. 

STEP 3 : Put the tart in a preheated oven and bake until golden brown and crisp. 

STEP 4 : With the tip of the finger give the tart a nice massage with hot chocolate. Then fill the tart with thick chocolate ganache.

STEP 5 : Decorate the tart with each and every thing one likes including coloured sugars, meringue, lemon curd, silver sugar balls and various sugary produces. Voila ! It's done :')

What distinguishes Gauri from other pastry chef is her detail-orientation. As we see desserts are usually multilayered, it requires proper assembling of several components together to have a decent final product. 

Gauri inculcate an art of making and beautifying desserts. Having an artistic presence in her preparations creates temptation in the eyes of the beholder, as people want something that is feast for their tongue and eyes as well. Pastry being a niche specialized area, she has good quality equipments and ingredients flown down from different parts of the world and a self-taught highly trained faculty. Chocolates, pastries, designer cakes, muffins are just a few items from the wide range of menu at G's. We wish her and entire team all the luck for their future propositions and hope they spread love and smiles with their power of baking. 

Place : G's Patisserie, Kalkaji

Price : On Request 

HINGLISH - THE MEDLEY OF CUISINES !

Conceptualization and developing philosophies and ideas for conformation of a cafe and then concocting the decor, menu and other facilities to cement a concept cafe like Hinglish - Cafe Beach Bar. The first colonial cafe introduced in West Delhi makes us wonder what could be more prominent to showcase world cuisines with the local Indian Flavours. 

We are wired up to the Tea Session with Mr. Akashdeep Singh Dhiman. It was an eye opening session for tea lovers as he did take us through each and every minute details about tea, tea dust, tea leafs, tea bags and flavoured tea. We tried Lavender, flavoured green tea, black tea and smoking ice tea. The ice tea was infused with apple and cinnamon and the smoke with the use of a smoke gun made our jaw clench. 

The tea session was followed by lunch for which we had a customized menu of the matchless food items Hinglish has to offers.

The lunch started with "Methi Thepla"  A well executed Gujrati snack with garlic chutney, pickles, red chili sauce and creamy yogurt. What a fresh and vibrant way to start a lunch. The thepla is flatbread made with dry fenugreek leaves (methi), wheat flour and dry spices. A healthy as well as a light meal to munch any time of the day. 

We preach innovation and when talk about amalgamation, "Mango Chutney filled Croquettes" is the passage merging Hindi and English style food. The small breadcrumb fried croquettes incorporates mash potatoes, mango chutney and cheese. Crispy yet creamy, these cylindrical shaped goodness was a pack of distinct flavours absconding us in heaven. The mayonnaise served along had fresh herbs and the unification of the chilled mayo with piping hot croquettes was grand *yummy*  

Whenever someone wants to have the best of both world "Mushroom on Toast" is apt for the taste buds. Baked with mushroom tossed in the mushroom sauce and large portion of cheese on triangular piece of multigrain bread. The conception of serving healthy and delectable food is phenomenal. Crispiness of the wedges gives a complementary wallop to the toasties. 

"London Bridge Burger" is a king size gigantic vegetable burger which was tough to bite in. The cottage cheese double patty burger promised the traditional way on munching a burger - squeeze and let the filling fall *smirk* With generous amount of tomato, cucumber, slices of cheese and two piquant paneer patty it was lusty to gorge. With extra mayonnaise inside every layer of patty and bun, the flavours were powerful and the soft paneer patty melted in the mouth. 

The best is always for the last and  like in movies climax is stunning, we presented with a mind-blowing dessert.

"Sweet nachos" Blown by surprise ? Tempered white and dark chocolate were cut into long triangular pieces alike nachos accompanied by three nectarous dips - pure chocolate with hot chocolate syrup, strawberry foam with strawberry syrup and mango with mango syrup. The sweetness of the tempered chocolate pieces where perfectly balanced with the sharp acidic taste of the dips. What a paradisiacal way of wrapping up a rainy afternoon *finger-licking* 

Refurbishing the first colonial cafe in West Delhi to a Cafe Beach Bar has been consummation in various ways. The cafe is divided into two parts where the first section is for casual dining with open kitchen and the second section sets the beach mood with an open bar always in action and no one would deny the ambiance of beaches and sand and shacks. 

BonAppetit ! 

Place : Hinglish - Cafe Beach Bar, Tagore Garden

For Two : Rs. 2500/- 

#DEKHTAMASHA

Not the usual mundane when you look forward for an exciting evening while watching the sun setting right beside. The foremost cognizance while entering Tamasha is a humongous bar-truck beguiling crafted and fushion mocktails and cocktails. It took us by awe and we conjectured nothing less by Priyank Sukhija who is becoming the sobriquet of "The King of Bars and Restaurant in Delhi" 

The courtyard cavernous where most of the actions take place ; beer and wine on tap, state-of-the-art-grill and drinks. Heterogeneous from other restaurants, Tamasha offers bar with food and not the other way around. Representing the traditional and modern upholstery it fits to epitomize the world capital. 

Tamasha enhances the prestige by offering contemporary and fusion style sustenance. The amalgamation of Indian and classic Middle Eastern flavours is recommended for every gastronome.

We have a knack of masticating the best a restaurant offers and the staff was amiable and keen to guide through the exquisite specialties of their restaurant.

In a small wooden plate comes "Crispy Thai Spring Rolls"  The star of the roll is the crispy vegetable that sautes up beautifully in garlic oil and it is accompanied with spicy-sweet chili dip. Brimming with vegetables and lots of flavour, these spring rolls make best appetizers. 

Along with the tried and test, there is some new, highly promising items. Top among them is the "Butter Chicken Burger"   An unbeatable combination of a red sesame burger made freshly with beet root stuffed with well spiced butter chicken. The thick butter chicken gravy sticks comely with the red bun. Not only did it aggrandize the burger, it also kept us drooling on the flavours of the perfectly cooked butter chicken. Complimenting the exemplary bar food, a burger seems as a single person who craves for a relationship with crispy fried potato chips or fries. 

The menu is filled with combination of vibrant cuisine and tons of chef specials. The "Tamasha Non-Vegetarian"   is a thin crust pizza brimming with variation of meats inclusive of chicken tikka and mutton seekh kebab, adding on home made makhani sauce, mozzarella, bell peppers, onions and chili with mint chutney. We are partial to thin crust pizza - the crispier, the better ! 

Non-vegetarians, we profusely recommend this if you are looking for a healthy yet meatier PIZZA ! *ear-to-ear-grin*

The ultimate main course we tried was "Chicken Chettinad" A south Indian style chicken gravy served with Malabar Parantha. This again took us by awe. The assorted condiments used for the concoction of this chicken gravy was lip smacking and we would love to come back again and order this. Tender chicken chunks slowly cooked in a rich tomato gravy making it thick and tempering dry red chili, curry leaves and mustard seeds made it potent and consuming the whole portion might make you burp ! Malabar paratha was a layered flaky flat bread close enough to a Lachcha Parantha but is flaky yet fluffy, crispy yet soft. 

Desserts are di rigueur and we look forward for fusion and thought-provoking ones.

"Citrus Combination"  is a three layer of creme patisserie where banana is the base. It is a beautifully crafted pastry, made with delicate hands consisting of orange jelly, lemon cheese curd, lemon meringue and orange meringue. It had a citrus punch, not too sweet not too tangy. Great on flavour, spectacular on texture. 

There is an unbeatable combination of hip interiors, pop music and food and drinks at affordable prices. Service needs an applause and the servers were kind enough to answer all the inquiries and offer the best they could. Surrounded on the outer circle in Connaught Place, table recommendation is essential on weekends else you'll have to turn around and wait for hours for your seats. 

BonAppetit! 

Place : Tamasha, Connaught Place

For Two : 2300/-