Sweet sensation

(More published work...)

It’s come at last. Medical specialists have finally agreed that chocolate is indeed a good thing. Women have known this for almost ever, since chocolate has helped them get through so many crises, from PMS to Bad Boss Days to break-ups to singed soufflés to jeans that don’t button up to hair that will not behave. And sometimes, to deal with situations of this kind, as a woman, I know you need to have a bite or four of something rather more special than the chocolate you can buy at any common garden grocery shop. Custom-made, special order, for that one moment that makes sense…chocolate has wandered off the shelf and into kitchens that belong to people who do not manufacture it on a huge commercial scale, but carefully hand-make it to suit specific tastes, for specific occasions. There are many who do this, with a few more added to the list every year, some who make it all a completely family operation, others who have professional helpers. And as tastes evolve, so do methods, packaging and sales techniques.

Thereza Gomes is someone who is always looking for adventure. So for her, making chocolate became a new kind of adventure, one that is fairly happy and, so far, profitable. The story started when a friend showed her how to make chocolate. Gomes tried it, and “It turned out okay. And I am always happy to be creative, especially since chocolate is a passion with me!” So she experiments, like every natural chef, adding a little here, a little there and finding the results to be not just delicious, but a hit with her test-tasters too. She is not a professional chocolate maker, in that the word about her culinary creativity is spread through friends, on the train into town every day as she commutes to work, at church, wherever she meets people who like eating. “I don’t advertise or push it too much, since I work fulltime and I can only do this when I have spare time,” says Gomes, “but I am willing to make it on a larger scale if I get really big orders.” Her sweets range from about Rs750 (plain chocolate) to about Rs1050 (with nuts), “but it depends on the prices of the ingredients today,” she explains.

Psychologist Alzeyne Dehnugara was once in a fairly high-pressure work situation. Today, her training takes a back seat as her passion takes over her life, becoming an all-consuming fervour: making chocolate. The magic ingredient is instinct, which directs her to play with flavour and proportion. Dehnugara started her chocolate making as an experiment, after a friend gave her simple instructions. “I am an absolute foodie,” she says, “and I tried various fillings and kinds of chocolate. My family and friends gave me very positive feedback and I started selling.” The orders have been coming in fairly easily and quickly, with corporate offers following a friend’s wedding. In fact, she spoke as she travelled back to Mumbai from Gujarat, focused on making chocolates for a Holi kit for a company. She prices her delicacies at about Rs500 for plain fudge to Rs550 plus for assorted nut chocolate to about Rs560 for the intriguing chocolate crumble.

Seema Abbott, whose family owns the Abbott Hotel in Vashi, has been making sweet treats for about nine years now. “It started as a hobby, time pass, with friends and relatives being my customers.” Today, she is registered on the Times Food Guide and takes corporate orders, apart from working on sweet treats for the hotel. “It took me about a year to develop a client list; profits were practically nil until then,” she recalls. Trained at the Catering College in Dadar, Abbott always liked “playing around with desserts. I polished up my skills with a course with a professional chef and paid more attention to presentation and, of course, quality control – after all, if it is appealing to the eye, people will want to eat it,” she knows. She has professional help, working out of the second flat she owns, which has been converted to a bakery-confectionary unit. She makes chocolates, fudge, brownies, cakes, biscuits and more, with prices starting at about Rs400, with a minimum order of 750 grams.

Bandra-based Marzia Ramzanali also works out of her home, with professional help. And her repertoire is as varied, ranging from plain chocolate (Rs500 per kilo) through chocolates with butterscotch and nougat (Rs600) to dry fruits (Rs700) and liquor fillings. She also caters to children, with chocolate alphabets (Rs5 apiece), cartoon characters (Rs10), biscuits (Rs15), lollipops and more. “In 1999 I took a course in the subject and what I made impressed my family with its taste and presentation,” she reports. It may have begun as a hobby, but today her client list is indeed impressive, her resume including treats for the wedding of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, and for Helen Khan, apart from corporate and special orders and exclusive gifts. “It has come with word of mouth and my website,” Ramzanali says, “and I am quite happy working from home.” She would like to start a store, but outlets in the area where she lives are not doing roaring business, rents are prohibitive and her way of functioning works well for the newly married chocolatier.

Packaging and presentation is as much part of the desserts business as the sweets themselves. Abbott, like the others, looks for wrapping paraphernalia herself, since only she can spot that special foil or that perfect bow that she wants for a gift order. Ramzanali says that while friends and relatives do tell her when they see something interesting, she has to choose the wrapping for herself. Vashi-based Gomes gets her supplies from the city, with a little help from her “wrapping machine called Leo Gomes (her husband),” who also doubles as dish washer and general helper. But, for all these chocolatiers with a passion for the craft, like all their customers who have an equal passion for the sweet brown stuff they create, as Gomes says, “chocolate is chocolate, the ultimate food!”