Date of event – July 14,2016
My Gourmet Kitchen is the creation of Vatsala Bagla and Namrata Bhatia. This club was formed to enhance gourmet skills and provide their clientele with exclusive interactive experiences with skilled chefs from the restaurants of Bangalore’s finest hotels.
Moving away from the ordinary and mundane, the participants are privy to demonstrations of handpicked dishes from exotic cuisines. The sessions which are conducted in the comfort of luxurious venues, are eventually followed by a tasting of the items and a sumptuous lunch.
Started in January 2016, this 6 month old venture has successfully coordinated classes every month and several like minded people have come together to benefit from these curated events. I had the pleasure of being invited to be a part of their Chocolate class at Fabelle, ITC Gardenia.
Currently just 2 months old, Fabelle by ITC, is India’s first premium luxury chocolate brand which is sold from the boutique store in the hotel’s premises. Fabelle meaning dark, sultry beauty, is an apt label for the fine chocolates that they create. Importing the finest cocoa from Africa and South America, their chocolates made from single origin couverture, possess the distinct flavors of the terrior (region) that they hail from.
Our class was conducted by the very knowledgeable and extremely skilled Ruby Islam, Head Chocolatier at Fabelle. Ruby … a true Gem, whose passion for the craft was evident as she imparted her skill to her eager students, took us through the fine nuances (new’ances?) of working with chocolate and using it in delectable desserts and beverages. And as a good teacher would, her demonstration was accompanied by a lot of useful information about the science of chocolate, which certainly was valuable information for her keen listeners !!!
She began with showing us how to melt chocolate and set the perfect ganache, as her appreciative audience watched her work with care as she controlled the dark, unruly liquid and worked it into submission.
Cheesecake followed, with the creation of the biscuit base and blending of the chocolate and the cream cheese layer. Handling the components with ease, she made the composing of the cheesecake look like … yeah a piece of cake.
Decadent tiramisu was up next, with the assembling of rum soaked Savoiardi biscuits (of which there was much surreptitious tasting 😀 ) and piped mascarpone.
The session ended with a simple and fail proof method of stirring up a mug of soothing hot chocolate, topped with home made bits of crunchy nougat.
Of course it was not really over until everything was tasted and the appreciative mmm’urmurs of the group were sufficient testimony to the awesome teacher and her creations.
Lunch at the Cubbon Pavilion provided a fitting finale to the morning. Many thanks to My Gourmet Kitchen for this opportunity. You can view their event calendar at their Page – My Gourmet Kitchen and you can sign up for their upcoming classes as and when they are announced.
July 14,2016
You can view more pictures on My Facebook – My Gourmet Kitchen – Fabelle
