With over 20years of experience in the culinary world, Illa Nicole brings her expertise tothe Grand Hyatt Goa as Executive Pastry Chef. Nicole global exposure andexperience in the art of pastry-making is evident as she displays a few select dessertsfrom all over the world at the ‘Desserts of the World’ festival. The festivalis the brainchild of Mark Hagan, Executive Chef at Grand Hyatt Goa. A recipientof several awards at the Culinary Olympics in Ireland and Berlin, Chef Mark says,“We wanted to match it with the Olympics, hence the concept of desserts of the world.”
According to Chef Nicole, every countrymakes its desserts differently. She says, “The Italian desserts differ from theGerman and French ones. The pastries made in Austria are different. India has alot of desserts which you won’t find or anyone would prepare outside of Indiaunless you have speciality restaurants or Indians who prepare it. We wanted toshowcase these different desserts.” Prominent desserts from each country wereselected along with some familiar ones. She feels that most people are not opento the idea of trying new things unless the name sounds familiar.
Chef Nicole cites her observation, “A lotof Indians are conservative. They prefer Indian desserts. To get them to trysomething new is challenging. Also most Indians are vegetarian at this time ofthe year; and European pastries are made with egg as it is an important part ofthe European diet. So we try to balance it out with desserts from the MiddleEast that don’t contain egg.”
Many of the ingredients incorporated whilepreparing these desserts come from outside of India. For instance, thechocolate that is used is imported comes from Belgium. Miriam Gracias,Assistant Manager Marketing Communications adds, “The response to the festivalhas been good “ both by guests staying at the hotel and by people who come inespecially for the festival. We were not supposed to have this festival forthis month. We started it in July but merely because of popular demand wedecided to have it for the month of August as well.”
‘Desserts of theWorld’ will run throughout the month of August at the Grand Hyatt Goa,Bambolim. Go indulge!
