This Children's Day, Mumbai based NGO Akanksha Foundation, took their children behind the kitchen doors of some of the city's high profile eateries for a peek at what it takes to be a pastry chef
Restaurants across Mumbai came together this Children's Day and opened their kitchens to the little chefs from Akanksha Foundation, a not-for-profit that provides quality education to children from low income families.
As part of an initiative by the Akanksha Foundation, ten restaurants in the city provided students from the foundation, aspiring to make a career in the food industry, a unique experience of creating their own desserts for the restaurant.
“In the week preceding Children's Day, we took the children, in groups of five, to one restaurant each where, under the supervision of the chef, they prepared one dessert from them,” explains Chitra Pandit, director-marketing at the Akanksha Foundation.
“Children were between the age of 11 and 13 years and picked based on their interest in cooking.” It was a first-of-a-kind experience for many of the children who come from low income families. Many had not even heard of the dessert names!” adds Pandit.
Akanksha runs 15 municipal schools between Mumbai and Pune. “Through such activities we are trying to make a small difference in the lives of these children and give them exposure to opportunities they may not have had otherwise,” she explains.
The chef and their teams decided on the dish based on what was popular in the restaurant as well as child-friendly to execute.
“The chefs took the children through the recipes and the ingredients and got each of them to do one task. So one of them beat the eggs, one mixed the dough, one got to cut the strawberries and so on,” Pandit describes reactions by the children.
“The children enjoyed themselves so much and were hugely grateful and humbled. They had never been to such restaurants and Ehassan a 13-year-old from one of our schools said he'd love to become a chef when he grew up. He was so comfortable in the kitchen using knives and the kitchen appliances.
This particular dish was then later replicated by the chef teams and made available on the eatery’s menu between November 14 to 24. Some of the city's prime diners are participating in the project, including Blue Frog, Busaba, The Table, Cafe Zoe, BBC at the Marriot, Olive, Tote on the Turf, Moshe's, etc.
Here's what's is up for grabs at the respective restaurants:
Moshe's: Chocolate Strawberry Brownie
Cafe Zoe: Cup Cakes
The Table: Fruit Custard
Seven Kitchens: Macroons
Olive: Chocolate Foundant
Neel: Beetroot Halwa,
Bombay Baking Company, JW Marriot: Cookies and Brownies
So if you do drop by any of these restaurants this week, ask for the Children's Day special. A certain percentage from the sale of these dessert will go to Akanksha Foundation.
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