Following the hype around dalgona coffee and banana bread, there’s been a rise in pull up, pinata and bento box cakes over the last year. Indian sweets also saw a reinvention and the use of sustainable ingredients only grew. 2022 includes sustainability too coupled with many other trends on the rise ranging from old-school indulgent classics to good-looking plated desserts. We speak with 6 dessert chefs who fill us in on what they think will be the dessert trends in 2022.
1. Prathana Narang, Chef & Executive Chef Instructor at Lavonne Academy
Plant-Based Desserts
“Plant-based is a new lifestyle change that is being adopted by the masses. A way to change into sustainable veganism as it’s called is something that the new pastry world is seeing. As I see the trends change, what we observe in it is not just substitution of butter to vegan butter but taking more healthy and flavour oriented ingredients to make a delicious and tasty product. Using more locally made bean to bar vegan dark chocolates, or using ingredients like nut-based and fruit-based products. Classical French pastries were all about the rich butter and egg-based pastry, but the new chefs of the world are changing this to adapt and serve to the plant-based audience that has increased in large over the last couple of years,” Parthana shares.
New Forms Of Natural Sugars For Dietary restrictions
“Earlier, our bodies and metabolism were so different to adapt to the available food and culture around us. Now, the new change in lifestyle are the dietary restrictions and allergies that have become a large part of a person’s life, it is something that has changed the way people eat and are able to eat. Gluten free bakes, dairy free desserts, using natural forms of sugar like jaggery, inulin, etc are on the rise. This trend is being adapted very quickly and it is good that we are able to cater to all kinds of audiences and letting them enjoy the pleasures of eating a cake or a pastry even with such restrictions,” adds the chef.
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2. Chef Prateek Bakhtiani, Creative Director, Ether Chocolates
A Shift From Artificial Colours
“People are warming up to the idea of simply good, scaled back deserts that find a way to look beautiful by leveraging the natural forms and colours of quality ingredients. Clients subconsciously understand that by choosing these desserts, they are giving chefs ’no place to hide’ low quality ingredients. They are choosing good quality, ingredient-driven yet delicious desserts with and I cannot be more glad!” he says.
Interdisciplinary inspirations
“Pastry is rightfully migrating in the public consciousness from a craft to an art form. With this transition comes the conversation around inspiration and referencing. Just like a tailor uses tweed, but a designer is ‘referencing’ Chanel, in pastry I see a shift of chefs bringing other artistic movements and ideas into the folds of storytelling in the dessert medium. For instance, our Waterlilies box is inspired by Impressionism,” Prateek adds.
3. Freny Fernandes, Founder & Chef, Monèr Bistro & Dessert Bar
Elevated Classics
“In the last few years, India has seen a lot of places coming in with classic desserts from the US and Europe like doughnuts, churros, cheesecakes, etc. People are now looking for something different and try out innovative food. A lot of chefs from India are studying and working abroad and returning with tons of experience and ideas. This means this year we’ll get to see a lot of elevated classic desserts or rather modern versions of the classics. For example, the Tiramisu ( a coffee bean-shaped dessert with a lot of different textures and flavours) or The Caramel Apple (a version of an apple pie with the filling being vanilla mousse, cinnamon apple compote, and cinnamon streusel) are served at Monèr,” says Chef Freny.
Plated Desserts
“Simple pastries are now a thing of the past. Modern patisserie includes a lot of textures, colours, layers, and flavours in each dessert. Every plated dessert–which is an arrangement of one or more components–has a crunchy, creamy, crispy, soft, and cold element. The idea is to serve desserts that look like art and bring an explosion of flavours in your mouth. Plated desserts also give the chef a canvas to work on with different ideas, shapes, colours, and textures which is otherwise very limiting with regular single pastries,” she shares.
4. Chefs Oishi Nag and Dhanesh Gandhi, Founders, Chez Oi Patisserie
Coffee-Infused Desserts
“The growing trend of people moving away from instant coffee to Indian origin artisanal coffee has greatly influenced many brands. The artisanal coffee wave has yielded products like coffee infused gin to whisky barrel aged cold brew coffee and many more. The trend has been growing in the desert space exponentially as well. We have observed that customers are beginning to appreciate the flavour profiles and finer nuances of coffee like origin, roast and brewing methods. And now it’s making its way in desserts too,” shares the duo.
5. Pooja Dhingra, Founder, Le15 Patisserie
Nostalgic Retro Desserts
“With the pandemic and isolation coupled with the inability to travel and explore, nostalgia provides a certain kind of space that a lot of people find comfort in. Increasingly, I am seeing more people request for desserts they had when they were young. That’s why I have introduced desserts such as the Mix Fruit Cake, Brown Butter Pineapple Cookie, Vanilla Cupcake, Strawberry Cream Cake that prove to be a nostalgic treat,” shares the dessert chef.
If you’d like to know the food trends for 2022, check this story here.
