Like many of us who grew up in the 1990s, Shriya Shetty’s first memory of tasting an unlikely flavour duet traces back to birthday parties, where potato chips accidentally smeared with chocolate-cake ganache became a guilty pleasure. Shriya, chef and co-founder of Buco, an artisanal bakehouse and café in Mangalore, is not alone. Brands like Royce Chocolates and Lay’s have leveraged the combo in packaged snacks; as has Salt In My Cocoa, a Gurgaon-based chocolatier that offers the potato-chip treat in two variants — milk and dark chocolate.
Salt, even if only in pinches, has played a veritable, albeit visceral role in baking, bringing about balance and harmony to confections. As palates shift and chefs push the thresholds of flavour, desserts are receiving a savoury fillip. Think bonbons featuring blue cheese and raspberry chilli, tarts with miso and chocolate, the utilisation of root vegetables, pulses, and grains like red beans, jowar and bajra or more daring ingredients, such as taro and curry leaves and porcini mushrooms, alongside popsicles harnessing the kick of tart fruits from the Konkan. All, seemingly branded as ‘savoury’ but finding new fervour in the pastry-scape.
