Crazy about chocolate

BENGALURU: Look no further if you’re looking for a mid-week pick-me-up. World Chocolate Day falls on July 7 this year and while we don’t need a reason to indulge in its decadence, city restaurants and cafes have whipped up a range of sweet deals that will leave you spoilt for choice. Take, for instance, the Copper + Cloves @ The Organic World café, where two of their bestsellers - the coconut cinnamon latte and the banana walnut loaf - have been made into bars of chocolate. The plan has been in the making for close to six months now and founder Sarah Nicole Edwards, who collaborated with artisanal chocolate makers Mason & Co for this, is excited about the new offering.

“While the banana walnut loaf bar captures the essence of the original dish, the coconut cinnamon latte bar tastes just like the latte we serve at the café,” says Edwards. The chocolates come in a set that is priced at `360, which is available via Air- Menus and in the café at Indiranagar. Chef Sahil Ratta, who is the deputy corporate chef at AA Hospitality - Pan Asian, is making chocolate almond rocks.

These will be served as complimentary petit fours at Lucky Chan and Misu, with a 400 gm box priced at `650 available for take-away and pre-order. True to the cuisine served at the restaurants, the chocolates come with a pan Asian twist. “The almonds have been roasted in Thai-style with sugar coating,” says Ratta. Amrut Mehta, chef and director of the Little Italy Group of Restaurants, is launching an indulgent new dessert on the menu for World Chocolate Day.

While the existing menu offers chocolate fondant, brownies and mouse, their new dessert - the chocolate garden - combines five different textures. “It’s a culmination of our other desserts. So there.s fondant, brownies, mousse, cookies and sauce. They all come together to look like chocolate mud and once topped off with microgreens and edible flowers, you get yourself an edible chocolate garden,” says Mehta, adding that the dessert is priced at Rs 375.