Online pattiserie SugarPlay.in, chef Amit Mehta's debut venture, with a workshop tucked away in an undisclosed area--and the sinful indulgences of Chef Neha Lakhani at La Folie are two great reccos to make this first month all the more sweeter.

THE END of December 2016 marked the launch of India's first fine dining online patisserie, SugarPlay.in, the debut venture by Cordon Bleu's Chef Amit Mehta.

Much like Santa's workshop, the SugarPlay kitchen too is tucked away in an undisclosed area, where Chef Amit and his happy helpers toil to create little bites of happiness for the dessert lovers of the city. Instead of sending your request to the North Pole, Chef Amit, shares signature favourites, macaroons, pralines & truffles online for us to decide how nice or naughty we would like to be! One thing that he promises though is that each item looks like a work of art and every piece is made with love!

SugarPlay is a recreation on things saccharine and savoury, and promises to change the way we order desserts. Local and international flavours are re-imagined in sucre classics, giving you the finest balance between quirk and elegance. As Chef Amit Mehta says “We’re passionate about rewriting the grammar of baking and cooking. We take the idea of what is conventional and accepted, and give it our own SugarPlay twist. Ingredients, be it local or international, will be the star of the dish if they’re used intelligently.”

Being a chocoholic, I of course gravitated toward the Original Sin, a sinful Belgian dark chocolate with Clove ganache, sea salt caramel and topped surprisingly with poppy seeds which add a crunch to the exotic. The stand out dish among his unique menu however was the Limewire, a burst of colour and flavour. Beautiful to look at married with zesty lime with a whisper of dill and green pea custard on a bed of crunchy tart. No surprises for guessing the reason for my additional holiday weight!

Next in line on my dessert trail I stopped over at La Folie for the special Christmas collaboration with Chef Neha Lakhani. From delicious mulled wine cheesecakes to mouth-watering Christmas pudding with cinnamon and rum custard to crumble meringue; Chef Neha, another Cordon Bleu graduate puts her french pastry making into practice to spread the festive cheer. And for those who have overdosed on pastries and cakes, there is always hot chocolate!
This January my resolution is to indulge, splurge and stop with the calorie count, after all we have a whole year ahead to lose it!