The new patisserie at Oberoi in New Delhi just sold a cake for Rs 75,000.
The Hermes store has a vibrant ‘India’ scarf as part of its shop décor. But if you tear your eyes away from it and walk past, down a flight of stairs to where Kandahar, the shut and forgotten restaurant at Oberoi in New Delhi, used to be, you’ll stop dead in your tracks. This one is Oberoi Patisserie and Delicatessen, which, despite its name, is as far from the ‘pastry shops’ of Indian hotels as — pardon the cliché — chalk from cheese.
And cheese there is. Gorgonzola and Parmesan and everything in between (only top-of-the-line, imported stuff), as also single-origin chocolate, luxury pasta, gourmet mustards, cranberry with Cointreau and other jams, and the lone-Indian representation: Exclusive honey from the Himalayas. But you’ll only take in these much later.
As you enter, a huge wedding cake greets you, as also cakes shaped like a lady’s hand bag and, well, stilettos. These are only displays, covered in marzipan, and will last about 10 days before they have to be replaced. But they serve their purpose — to attract attention.
The real cakes, on the other hand, at this ‘luxury gourmet retail’ outlet, the first of its kind in the country, range between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500. Special ones, like a wedding cake, come for more at Rs 2,500 per kg. And the chefs tell you that they will be able to replicate the displays — almost — “the hand bag will have to be without the zip because in the display, we have used a real one”.
The three-tier wedding cake on display is in much demand. The price, if you want to replicate the scale, is Rs 30,000-35,000. If you doubt, in the time of recession, people’s ability to consume, there’s more. One of the big orders the pastry chefs took a couple of days ago involved a layered cake (for a customer who designed this herself) costing — hold your breath — Rs 75,000.
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And, by the way, did we mention a display of solid ‘chocolate’ blocks with a wood finish? If you want a cake like that — all solid (Belgian) chocolate blocks, no sponge inside — it would cost you Rs 2 lakh.
Recession or not, General Manager Jay Rathore is confident that the luxury experience will draw its fair share of customers: Ladies who lunch and stroll down the rarified shopping arcade with its luxury brand outlets, and those who will come to the Oberoi salon, set to come up next door.
“Do you think that people who come to ThreeSixty and Travertino will mind spending Rs 2,000 here?” asks Rathore, referring to the hotel’s other restaurants that offer redefined exclusive dining in Delhi.
Spread over 4,000 sq ft (four times as large as a usual pastry shop in a hotel), with Bottochino marble flooring and teak finish, Oberoi Patisserie and Delicatessen can seat 20 — on couches and in a central bar-like area, where you can order your glass of wine or cup of hot chocolate (Rs 300).
The last is, though, another spectacle in itself: Accompanied by a real chocolate spoon, to be dipped into the beverage and dissolved. Then, there’s a ‘chocolate factory’ with an open-air kitchen, luscious looking meats, cured and otherwise, and even a side entrance for chauffeurs to take deliveries.