Exotic flavour to Gen-X wedding menu

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">KOLKATA: Blueberries on a bed of cream, avocado with hot salad dressing, succulent meat dipped in kickoman sauce, broccoli soup, risotto rice, Kiwi <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">malai</span> <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">paak</span> or Chinese beer - foreign to the ears, possibly, but not to the tastebuds.The wedding menu in Kolkata has never been as exotic as these last couple of years.<br /><br />"Nowadays, every wedding menu sets aside counters for Thai, Lebanese, Mexican and other cuisine. The demand for salad bars, live stations and exotic fare is no longer a novelty but rather an important aspect of the Indian wedding menu," said ITC Sonar Bangla Sheraton & Towers sous chef Shivneet Bohoja. Weddings held at the hotel witness the use of large quantities of imported ingredients, like Muscatel grapes, Wasabi paste, fettucini and orange sauce.<br /><br />"Today''s hosts are much aware of varied cuisine and want to incorporate the best of each for special occasions, especially weddings," said Hyatt regency executive chef Subroto Goswami.<br /><br />"Today''s youngsters travel a lot and have immense exposure to cuisine from across the world," remarks catering king Munna Maharaj (alias Dipak Kumar Singh). Having catered to some famous Indian weddings — including those hosted by Birlas, Jindals and Mittals — Munna Maharaj feels that new additions to exotic fare, in terms of ingredients and recipe, are the order of the day.<br /><br />"I constantly reinvent my menu using exotic ingredients to suit the spicy Indian palate," he said. Says Bhoj Caterers owner Bijoy Bose, who caters to the who''s-who of the Bengali community: "Ours is a relatively small city, as far as wedding clientele is concerned. We have to prepare something new each time to keep their interest alive."<br /><br />Both Rumki Mahapatra of Initiative catering unit and Bijoligrill Caterers'' Tapan Barik feel the tilt towards exotic cuisine is "more noticeable among the non-Bengali community". However, the occasional Russian salad, olive dressing and Red cabbage and leek and avocados are slowly making their presence felt at such weddings too, said Mahapatra.<br /><br />As a well-known industrialist said, "I wouldn''t like to serve the normal naansabji, fish fry and jalebi fare for an occasion as special as a wedding. I think we need to move out of the ordinary time tested dishes."</div> </div>