Mumbai Food: Former boxer-turned-chef gives French desserts a desi twist

Vanshika Puri sprinkles gold dust on a tart. Pics/Atulâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Kamble

Last year, after graduating from the famous Paris culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, Vanshika Puri found herself in a dilemma. "When I returned to Mumbai, I realised authentic French desserts might not work with the Indian palate because they're eggy, and people here don't like that," says the Juhu resident, who was only familiar with entremes back then, which in chef's lingo, is a multi-layered dessert using different textures - cakey, creamy, crunchy, jelly and moussey.

So, one winter morning, the 24-year-old bought all the Indian sweetmeats she could think of and lined them up in her kitchen. "I have a weakness for mithais. So, I thought why not create something using the best of both French and Indian desserts." Like a scientist in a laboratory, Puri began experimenting by infusing cream cheese in gulab jamun and a custard cream filling in gajar ka halwa. "I had no recipe in mind. I would concoct the method in my head and then try it. It was entirely trial and error," says Puri, who recently clinched the first prize for the Mocha Truffle at the recent Mumbai Dessert Festival.

Gulab jamun tart

Today, Puri's patisserie, The French Affair, which she operates from her Juhu home, boasts of desserts like paan gulkand tart, gajar ka halwa tart and kesar pista tart, besides the regular pastry items. In fact, when we meet the former national level boxer one evening, she has kept ready the gulab jamun tart and thandai pannacotta for us. While the tart base is an authentic French recipe made of ground almonds, the gulab jamuns, sliced in half are placed on it. The sweetness and warmth of the Indian dessert smoothly blends with the cream cheese filling, the sweetness not overpowering either. "I didn't want to create something where people can't have more than a bite," she says.

What takes the cake, literally, is the thandai panna cotta in which the flavour of almonds, cardamom, fennel seeds, magaztari seeds (watermelon kernel) and rose petals soaked well in the light and creamy panna cotta. However, there were a few hiccups too in some of her experiments. "The motichoor tart turned out to be a disaster. I couldn't put it on the menu," she says with a chuckle. The lack of authentic French ingredients made her job more challenging. That's when she decided to import a few ingredients. So now, the gelatin sheets, Cocoa Berry chocolate and the purees come from France. It took her about a month to put it all together and then she held a tasting for family and friends. "My mother, who had some serious doubts about my culinary skills, was quite amazed," she laughs. Her sprawling kitchen contains baking equipment only and her fridge stores just the dessert raw materials. "I have warned everybody at home to not use this fridge because when you put any vegetable or condiment, the flavour tends to rub off on the dessert," she says.

Puri's next step, however, is to familiarise her clientele with authentic French recipes. As of now, the only classic French dessert on the menu is The French Opera that has layers of sponge with a twist of dark chocolate and coffee. "I'll also add healthier options like gluten-free, sugar-free and flourless recipes because people are conscious of calorie counts. And after all the sweets that I end up eating myself while preparing, this could be a good idea," she smiles.