Let me admit. Firstly, I am not someone with a sweet-tooth, I do not like sweets much. But, when it comes to icecreams…. well, that’s a different story. Chocolates, personally, is ok-ish thing for me. But this concept of mine changed after last sunday evening, 21st February 2015, when we saw chocolate romancing ice-cream in one of the most sinful affairs a The Taj Bengal, Kolkata. One of the international chocolate biggies has come down to Kolkata to launch their premium choc-o-bar icecream- The Magnum.
Masterchef Kunal Kapoor came down to Kolkata to teach a selected audience a thing or two about premium Belgian chocolates and some recipe using the same.
We were taught, in a small witty lecture, about why Belgian chocolate is one of the best. We didn’t know that there has to be at least 35% cocoa/ cocoa butter to call something a Belgian chocolate. And how do we judge the purity of a chocolate. For this, we were offered bowls of Magnum Belgian chocolate (3 varieties) to taste and judge.
Do the test yourself. Buy one bar of ordinary chocolate and another premium chocolate from the market. Both will be good- I know. But now, place one, in turn, inside your mouth and press it with your tongue to the palette. The less costly one will leave a sticky feeling and premium one will just melt away like good memory- that’s the difference. Meanwhile, entered the diva, the ever gorgeous Soha Ali Khan (the self-proclaimed Magnum fan) and the cameraman went gaga over her (well, deserved, I must say)…..
Next round was interesting. We were given Magnum choco-bars and we were asked to take the first bite of the bar at one time (the full banquet) and there was a huge SNAPPING sound from the chocolate, a combined slurrping sound and request for more- so we were served more bars. And the bars were attacked devilishly… who says woman are tender ? Give them chocolate and see their original self come out…. LOL, we all loved this.
We were told, the Magnum bar comes in three variants (only in stick or bar)- Classic (which is your standard choc-o-bar), Almond (almond stuffed chocolate crust covering rich vanilla- my personal favorite) and Chocolate Truffle (Chocolate sauce running into chocolate coated vanilla- a pure chocolaty affair). It will be available in the leading outlets in the city from 1st March and costs Rs 90 each bar (90 ml). The good part about this bar is when I bit into it, the rest of the chocolate outer-layer didn’t come out, like the rest (that’s one of the reasons I don’t prefer a choc-o-bar)- that’s the sign of the premium chocolate- hell yeah !!!
Now, what’s a Master Class with master chef without some cooking ? While Soha remained the dumb eye-candy (I don’t think she’s as dumb as she wants us to believe), chef Kunal prepared a Magnum staffed Patishapta (as its Bengal) and the stuffing was done beautifully with Magnum chocolate bar, dry fruits, pistachio, cherry and what not- damn, it was brilliant….. And he personally allowed each table to see and take pictures of it.
Then came the interesting round, each table was given some Magnum bars, assortments ans were asked to prepare a sundae out of the same. Each table tried their best, but I personally think we were THE best (see, that’s my attitude and can’t be helped).
The ending session was a small high-tea from the organizers. And as it happens with all the 5* hotels, the menu was good but food was bogus, so was the service.
vegetable railway cutlet
Chicken tikka patties
chicken and cheese chop
Finally, it was the usual press interview wit the attendees and It all ended on a sweet note with a small jar of layered chocolate mousse and a choco-bar shaped pendrive and off we went. Thanks a lot Kolkata Bloggers for getting me connected.
Please feel free to comment and share…
Meanwhile, I can be reached at 9903528225 / indrajit.lahiri@ymail.com
For more pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/indrajitlahiri/
Bon apetit !!!
