The tangy Bloody Mary shot with Parmesan foam is a good start to a fusion feast

End your meal in style with refreshing chilled champagne and melon caviar

A mint and coriander sorbet is a definite summer soother

Raspberry espuma served with pistachio biscotti blends the sweet, sour and crunchy perfectly

Swap your regular paan for gulkand chocolate to round off your meal

A champagne tulip with a smoking, transparent liquid that’s dancing with little red globules arrives at your table when you least expect it to — at the end of a sumptuous dinner. Deconstructed, this is chilled champagne with melon caviar — jelly-like roundels filled with melon juice created via the molecular gastronomy route — bobbing in it. It’s topped with tiny, dry ice cubes, which get the liquid to bubble and send wisps of smoke rising out of the glass.

The creator of this delight is Deepak Mishra, executive chef, Swissôtel who serves it to his guests at the end of a meal. “Champagne has a very clean, light taste that goes well with the fruity flavour. And it’s a delicious palate cleanser,” says Mishra.

This petite and exotic portion — and others like it — don’t feature on any menu but will most certainly make all the difference to the way each course tastes by washing down the lingering flavours of the previous one. In most cases, palate cleansers arrive without fanfare at your table, punctuating the courses and without you having to order them. And they won’t make an appearance on your bill at the end of the meal.

Palate cleansers can be served with all types of meals — whether you’ve opted for the a la carte menu, a set meal or the degustation (or tasting menu).

These yummy portions were first served up midway during 13-course French classical meals. Usually it’s sorbets of raspberry, orange, blueberry and lemon that are served after five courses or just before the meat course.

A hot trend in restaurants today, palate cleansers are being served before the courses begin to roll, between the third and fourth course and post-dessert. If in the past, you’ve downed lime-based sorbets, celery sticks and tart apples to cleanse your mouth, it’s time to look out for something more exotic. For, the chefs are serving new kinds of palate cleansers, using a whole lot of different ingredients.

It may be a bite-sized treat but inventing a palate cleanser is tricky business. The chef must ensure that it’s a perfect blend of citrus and refreshing flavours and that it’s served in small portions — so that the guest doesn’t end up feeling full. “The pre- and mid-meal palate cleansers must not have an aftertaste — they must serve their purpose and just disappear,” says chef Sharad Dewan, director, food production, The Park, Calcutta.

Pre-meal

According to Dewan, a palate cleanser is served at the beginning of a meal for two reasons: “The main idea is to tease the appetite — like a mini appetiser — and another is to give a hint about the food you can expect at a restaurant.” For instance, if you’re dining at The Park , Calcutta, and the chef sends shots of Bloody Mary with Parmesan foam, the combination would tell you that fusion cuisine is the speciality of the house. The sourness of the liquor blends with the sharpness of Parmesan and leaves your palate hungry for more.

Top chefs endorse the view that palate cleansers served at the beginning of a meal must be very creative. The ideal way to start a meal, says Pradeep Rozario, chef and restaurateur (he owns Kurry Klub, KK’s Fusion and Mio Amore), is with a light aperitif that stimulates the appetite. So he suggests something like Cointreau (the French orange-based liqueur) with fresh whole strawberries, served with assorted canapés or crackers topped with cheese.

Palate cleansers can also be exotic, based on fruits of the season. At Swissôtel, guests are being treated to one ‘designed’ with a mango sphere (again created using molecular gastronomy) that sits atop a cube of watermelon. This is served with ginger-infused carrot foam on the side, which is garnished with a vanilla bean. “Mango spheres are like shiny marble balls — the outer coating of the ball is jelly-like and it’s filled with mango juice that oozes out when the outer coating breaks,” says Mishra.

Other seasonal options include diced melon caramelised with brown sugar and topped with Feta cheese — created by Chiranjib Chatterjee, executive chef, Afraa.

Moreover, Dewan insists: “The presentation of palate cleansers is crucial as it points to the meal that will follow and therefore must look very appetising.’’

Since palate cleansers also double up as mini-appetisers before a meal, chefs are working hard at creating new flavours. Sujan Mukherjee, executive chef, Taj Bengal, recommends a bread canapé with spiced fruit compotes. “It could be very thin slices of brown, multi-grain or corn bread topped with spiced fruit compotes of plum, peach, dragon fruit or kiwi,” says Mukherjee. The fruits are flavoured with cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves and cloves, and garnished with parsley sprigs, sage or baby mint, which make them look and taste refreshing.

Mid-meal

“Just like wine tasters clear their mouths with water, similarly food lovers ought to be given palate cleansers to enjoy the flavour of each course distinctly,” smiles Rozario.

And not only must they be refreshing, but mid-meal palate cleansers must also be acidic. “After consuming anything acidic, the food tastes better,” says Chatterjee. So, between a course, he’s likely to present a small chutney bowl filled with green mango panna granita (a non-churned ice cream that’s grainy in texture).

The panna is prepared using toasted cumin powder, juice of a char-grilled raw mango and sugar. The mixture is then puréed and allowed to set in a square tray in a freezer. Once set, it’s crumbled with a fork and chilled before being served. What you get is a wonderful green hill of sweet and sour mango panna granita that helps wash down the spicy flavours of a dish of heavily marinated meat.

“Between serving dishes of two different flavours like a beef consommé and truffle, it’s perfect to serve a palate cleanser to avoid a clash of flavours,” says Dewan.

During a five-course meal, he sends out three palate cleansers — one pre-meal, another after two courses and the last after the dessert.

“At Saffron, we serve frozen cubes of musk melon with a syrup called Shafa that’s prepared with chillies, honey and lemon,” adds Dewan. The guest is served a platter with squares of scooped melon filled with clear Shafa on which float tiny chilli flakes (the sharpness of this syrup goes very well with the refreshing summer fruit).

For those who love champagnes, there’s good news. Mukherjee says: “We also create subtle flavours of champagne by infusing it with saffron or rose and freezing it in cubes. These champagne cubes are served in a Martini glass. By the time it comes to the table it melts a little.”

Chilled beverages are a speciality of chef Joymalya Banerjee — former Oh! Calcutta chef, who now runs Joy’s Deli and who is poised to launch his first restaurant, Bohemian, next month. Banerjee uses an array of unusual local produce in his sorbets. These feature on his menu and are also priced.

The mint and coriander sorbet is a sure shot summer soother. “I add a hint of lime or even tamarind to make this sorbet a little piquant,” he says. He serves this light green concoction in a shot glass or a champagne saucer. “It’s a very subtle version of the dhania-pudina chutney,” he chuckles.

Another refreshing sorbet in his kitty is the subtly-flavoured Gondhoraj lime sorbet with coconut malai. This is a cooling mix of castor sugar churned with crushed ice, to which he adds the zest and juice of Gondhoraj limes and tender coconut malai.

Post-meal

“A post-meal palate cleanser must also act as a digestive besides helping get rid of the lingering flavours,’’ says Dewan.

The Gondhoraj on its part also makes for the perfect ingredient for a post-meal palate cleanser. If you’re in no mood to leave Dewan’s restaurant with an aftertaste of coffee, you can savour the taste of thin crunchy slices of Gondhoraj sprinkled with breakfast sugar. The wonderful, refreshing sourness of the Gondhoraj mingles with the sweetness of sugar — and a hint of bitterness from Gondhoraj zest balances the flavours to perfection. “I learnt to make this one from an Italian chef who used lime in the same way and people just loved it,” says Dewan.

For those who like to round off their meals with something that’s sweet, sour and crunchy rather than bitter, Mishra has the perfect post-meal palate cleanser. “A frothy, chilled raspberry espuma (textured froth) in a demitasse (a small cup — the name comes from the French term, which means half-a-cup) can be eaten using crisp thin pistachio biscotti,” he says. The crunch of the biscotti goes perfectly with the sweet and sour lightness of the raspberry and cleanses the lingering flavours from, say, a heavy chocolate dessert.

However, if Indian mouth fresheners are your thing but you’d rather not chew on a full paan, there are a whole lot of innovative options — like gulkand chocolate. “When chocolate is being moulded, we stuff it with gulkand — a vital ingredient for preparing paan — and serve it after a meal at our Indian restaurant or after theme banquets,” says Mukherjee.

You could even ‘drink’ a paan as Dewan serves up paan shots for guests who detest the red colour that paints the mouth on chewing betel. “The paan shot is basically a blend of betel leaves, gulkand, milk and ice that’s served in shot glasses,” says Dewan.

This beige-coloured shot with a sprinkling of finely chopped betel leaves tastes exactly like a meetha paan or sweet paan and leaves the same sweet refreshing flavour in the mouth that a paan does — minus the odious colour.

There’s more: Chatterjee has something light up his sleeve. He flavours toasted muri or puffed rice with vanilla or strawberry essence and binds it with white chocolate. The effect is little crispy balls, sometimes filled with bits of chopped fresh strawberries.

He also has something for those who love popping nuts post meals. Chatterjee sandwiches two basil leaves with assorted nuts like peanuts and walnuts and batter-fries them. He serves these crispy parcels with honey.

For Rozario, it’s organic herbal tea with a piece of mint-flavoured chocolate that’s, “just brilliant and very refreshing at the end of the meal”.

Clearly, it’s time to say goodbye to celery and carrot sticks to clear your mouth. The chefs have much more in mind to titillate your taste-buds.

Melba toast with spiced fruit compote (Serves 5)

Ingredients

5 thin, brown bread slices, cut into 4-in long pieces

A slice of watermelon

A slice of honeydew melon

A slice of kiwi

A slice of plum

5 grapes

A pinch of cinnamon powder

A pinch of star anise powder

A pinch of salt

A pinch of pepper

100ml sugar syrup

method

Cut the fruits into fine slices. Make a compote of the fruits by poaching them in the sugar syrup and spices. Allow the mix to cool and then refrigerate. Meanwhile, lightly toast the thinly-sliced brown bread. Arrange the chilled fruit compote on the bread and serve.

Kasundi and jalpai shots (Serves 4)

Ingredients

200gm fresh green chillies

50gm garlic

30gm fresh coriander

15ml lemon juice

20ml olive oil

10gm sugar

10gm rock salt

50ml kasundi

5gm aamchur powder

100gm ice cubes

200gm jalpais (Indian olives)

method

Wash and de-seed the green chillies, peel the garlic cloves and roughly cut the coriander. Then, along with the kasundi, blend these well in a food processor with a small quantity of chilled water and ice cubes. Transfer this mixture into a mixing bowl, add rock salt, sugar, aamchur powder, lemon juice, jalpais and olive oil, and blend well. Store in the refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Photographs by Rashbehari Das