The quest for the perfect dessert led Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna to travel across the country to plate up innovative Indian desserts.
"I had my best experience in Kolkata where I learned how to make sandesh out of a fish. It was the best Sandesh I ever had. And the second best experience for me was how to make the famous Mysore Pak," said Khanna.
The chef was visiting the national capital recently as part of "'Twist of Taste - The Sweet Life", that begins on Fox Life today.
In the "the city of joy", the eminent chef said he was awe struck by the heritage of Kolkata, a city where he could lay his hands on Bengali cuisine cookbooks dating back to 1948 handed to him by his fans .
"A woman from Kolkata taught me how to make a sandesh out of fish by boiling it in different flavored water. She kept boiling it taking it out using a little cardamom elaichi in the water. What imagination! The fish is left with no smell. The flesh turned out to be creamy," Khanna told PTI.
The chef has added his own twist to the "Fish Sandesh" by fashioning a fish cake with black rice and butterscotch bundi.
"So we are just making fish biriyani instead of salt we are using sugar. I just loved Sandesh and fish. So, I had to do such a difficult twist on it," Khanna said.
Other dishes which the chef made at Kolkata included a Tiramisu prepared with candied ginger, a cake fashioned out of sugarcane juice, as well as coconut and rice flour with a sauce made out of candied papayas.
"The second best experience for me was Mysore Pak" Khanna said.
"When I went to learn the real Mysore Pak I was shocked to learn why we chefs can't make it. Nobody has ever taught us the sense of temperatures and what goes in what temperatures and when to take it off heat when to settle it, how much to cook it- it's total game of genius," Khanna said.
