More and more international cuisines like Italian, Mexican and Continental are occupying space in wedding menus, say chefs and caterers from the city.
The Italian risotto and Mexican empanadas have carved a space for themselves replacing (or accompanying) chole bhature and hara bhara kabab in the Indian wedding menu.
While the trend started a few years ago with people warming up to the idea of eating such dishes, now families very well demand for international cuisine to be a part of the wedding menu.
Chef Mukul Jha, executive chef in Four Points by Sheraton, attributes the change to information people glean from different media.
“People want their guests to enjoy variety and provide different options in the same. Via foodie programmes on television and food blogs and forums on the internet they learn that there is an ocean of unexplored cuisines that can be relished. Moreover, people also travel a lot, get to know about different cuisines and thus are more willing to incorporate them in the menus,” says Jha.
Families approaching him for preparation of the wedding menu, are open to include a combination of different international cuisines not only in starters, but also main course and desserts.
This is indicative of the fact that they are accepting and adapting to changing times.
“Mexican, Italian and Chinese cuisines are most popular and people are willing to explore unconventional dishes also,” adds Jha.
“Couple of years ago, Italian cuisine meant only pizza and pasta but now risotto, gnocchi and pollenta have also come into the picture. Panna cotta and tiramisu are favourites in the dessert section. Recently, I even had a family requesting vegetarian sushi in the menu,” he says.
Live stations with tacos, nachos, fagitas, pastas with a combination of different sauces and flavours are common sight in weddings today.
However, this does not mean that the Indian flavour has been striked off from the list.
If not have the age-old traditional dishes, people opt to tweak the taste of these dishes in order to keep up our flavour. “A classic Italian pasta will not have a spicy flavour to it but to give it an Indian touch we make it with more garlic, tomatoes and paprika,” says Ajit Kane, chef de partie, The Park in CBD Belapur.
He adds that the young population are fans of continental cuisine be it a Spanish paella, pasta with pesto sauce that are served in the main course or items such as mini pizzas, mini burgers, a variety of croquettes and jalapeno poppers that are pass around snacks.
Wedding caterers are also witnessing the change among their clientale, but it still has not mushroomed to all courses of the meal.
Yatin Parab, who is managing partner in Global Catering Services that is based in Vashi and caters to both a high-end as well as middle class clientale, says that many in the latter category mainly opt for international cuisine in starters.
“They are sure getting a hang of it, thanks to restaurants serving a variety of cuisines. However, many people I have seen prefer to include foreign starters only and choose to keep the main course faithfully Indian,” says Parab.
Pasta salads, burritos, chimichangas, black bean rice are a few oft-picked items.
“Dimsums and momos in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian varieties are also preferred by many. In fact, sometime back a couple who had a Chinese-themed wedding ordered different types of these,” adds Parab.
If you also wish to go global with your wedding menu this season, you have a wide variety of delectable dishes to surprise your guests with. You are free to consult and discuss with the chefs to have the items custom made according to your tastes. Further, you can choose to have live counters so that your guests can have their favourite mix of ingredients and flavours.
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