Awaken your senses
FOODIE
| Zeba Kohli churns the chocolate about leisurely but deliberately, every now and then sweeping some up with her spatula. "Chocolate is made to awaken the senses. You must have fun with it," she says. |
| When she pours some into the silicone moulds to make the shells for the chocolate, she does it with distinct childlike abandon, letting it swish about. Then she turns the moulds upside down, letting the chocolate drip back into the double boiler. "Let's make chocolate rain, shall we," she giggles. |
| "You must've loved the movie Chocolat (which, like its subject, is a sensory and sensual delight)," I ask the managing director of Fantasie, makers of fine chocolates. "Of course," she replies. Kohli, a physics major, says her induction into the business happened quite naturally. |
| "I spent all my afternoons hanging around my mother and grandfather at the R&D workshop, where I'd shred the cellophane to wrap the chocolates in," she recalls. |
| Where previous generations had to master the rules of a then-novel business by trial and error, Kohli inherited the company at a time when Indian consumers were surrendering their traditional palate for mithai in favour of sinful handmade chocolate. |
| Platefuls of chocolate make their way to us at Kohli's behest and she begins recommending the order of consumption. First the strawberry cheesecake chocolate (milk chocolate filled with a gooey mix of cheese, cream and fresh strawberry pulp) followed by the gooseberry coated in milk chocolate, then hot chocolate (which in your mouth is a burst of spice). |
| "Finish with the coffee chocolate. It'll clear the palate," she urges. Kohli spends half her working week at her R&D centre devising new flavours. "I like experimenting with flavours like kali miri and cardamom; and when I do it's delicious to some, deplorable to others." Still she says, good old roasted almond will always be the crowd favourite. |
| But it isn't just chocolate that's her line of business. Good Housekeeping, the parent company started by Kohli's grandfather, has an import-trading arm, banqueting services and a cold storage business. |
| "You need tough infrastructure for a delicate product like chocolate. That's what attracted Lindt to us in the first place," says Kohli of the company's exclusive representation of the world's most recognisable brand of Swiss chocolates. |
| Kohli has just launched her company's second imported product, a Korean-made fat-free beverage called Aloe. "I only launch products that I really believe in. I believe in the power of the cocoa bean and in aloe vera," she says evangelically, as she prepares a batch of chocolates for us, using, cleverly, the Aloe drink as an ingredient. Kolhi makes chocolate making seem so easy. "Always try and buy pure chocolate instead of a compound that has cocoa butter substitute," she suggests. |
| There is a steady stream of customers to Fantasie's flagship store. Kohli stops to chat with each one of them. A mother-daughter duo gushes as they compliment the Fantasie product. "I promise I didn't pay them to be here," laughs Kohli. |
| They walk away with their purchases and a beautifully wrapped box of chocolate, a present from Kohli. One can tell this isn't the first time. "What goes around comes back around," she beams. |
| FAVOURITE RECIPE |
| Aloe Chocolate 100 gms Aloe drink (launched across India) 100 gm fresh cream 300 gm milk chocolate 50 gm white chocolate (for shading) |
| Using a non-hair brush, shade (dab) the mould with melted white chocolate. Keep for drying. When dry, fill the moulds up with melted and tempered milk chocolate. Turn mould upside down to let all the chocolate pour out. |
| The coat of chocolate left behind in the moulds will cool to make the hollow shells for the chocolate. Boil 100 gm of fresh cream and cool it completely. Add 100 gm Aloe drink (with pulp). |
| Slowly fold in 100 gm of melted and tempered chocolate. Stir well and half-fill (use an icing cone) the hollow chocolate shells in the mould. Top it off with the balance melted milk chocolate, cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Tap out each chocolate lightly from the mould. |