Chef Vikas Srivastava who heads the Confectionary & Patisserie at ITC Royal Bengal and ITC Sonar feels that the biggest trend is authenticity. One needs to be authentic to succeed. He enjoys innovating and working with new indigenous ingredients creating interesting textures and flavors especially with seasonal fruits and vegetables. Driven by creativity and quality of new inspirational up market trends, Chef Vikas Shrivastava’s endeavor has always been to cultivate and maintain the finest kitchen operations and to develop and maintain strong relationship with guests.
It's not just creating sweet delights that he is passionate about but also loves He is passionate about travelling, singing and enjoys cooking and baking for his family in his personal time.
In a quick chit chat with HTSLurrp he speaks his heart.
What’s that one food memory that makes you go nostalgic?
Comfort food provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to oneself’ pancakes have a special place. “This no fuss dish was something my mother used to make with ease and treat me to every time she decided to pamper me—which was often. I continue to recreate it for my guests till date, blending it with different fruit-based flavours and syrups as well as with different forgotten grains.
What has been your favorite deserts as a kid? Fondest memory
Interestingly, Gujiya made around Holi festival, also has a connect. This has always remained my favourite dessert as making the stuffing with my mother around the kitchen table and folding each of those gujiyas for being ready to be fried is one of the fondest memories of the desserts I have.
Desserts have become super creative; how do you keep evolving with the trends?
Culinary professionals are using their creative excellence when crafting desserts by adding bold flavors, enriching texture, and combining nontraditional ingredients like vegetables. Corn is turned into corn mousse served with fresh berries and tarragon. Blueberry sorbet is made with a bit of green cardamom. The most unusual, though, is her take on a strawberry shortcake: shortbread, strawberry “spheres” (strawberries pickled with vinegar, sugar, and pink peppercorn and then formed into spheres using reverse spherification), and vanilla cake “crisps” (super-thin slices of cake dried until they are crisp like crackers).
How easy or difficult was for you to the Indian palate and create accordingly?
It does take experimenting with different flavours but mostly we deal with western desserts which requires a different set of ingredients altogether but when on guest demand we make Indian fusion desserts we need to be creative and calculative with the flavour tones.
While designing something interesting and new, what all things do you keep in mind?
Texture, Flavour, Availability of ingredient, Local flavours, Taste palette of the region.
What has been three of your signature desserts?
• Red wine tart with sangria prunes and poached pear in vanilla syrup
• Milk chocolate cube filled with earl grey tea mousse and grapefruit and orange gelee
• Deconstruction of cream catlana:blood orange gelee, foamed cream brulee and cinnamon ice cream
What trend do you forecast for the industry this year?
Following the pandemic, we have seen that wellness dining market will definitely keep rising. Eating and living with a conscience or Responsible Dining is going to become a strong part of the ethos of the food industry, and more businesses will take a greener and more sustainable approach to their operations.
Healthy, local and responsible eating is a major concern for our guests. ITC Hotels’ ten-year strong ethos of ‘Responsible Luxury’ underlines the chain’s culinary brands and initiatives to present innovative cuisine experiences while adhering to superior standards of food safety and hygiene.
The guests are purchasing more bakery products due to their greater variety and high health quotient. Additionally, With dairy alternatives taking over supermarket refrigerators and plant-based alternatives even popping up at large fast-food chains, plant-based eating is fast on its way to shed its status as a trend and become fully established. In 2022 the demand for plant-based products is expected to persist and grow, because they meet the contemporary consumer’s desire for both health benefits and ethical choice-making.
