Desert Delicacy
From Chef Kaushik Chowdhury

During his career as a pastry chef, Kaushik Chowdhury has worked in five countries. His cooking style, he says, is always influenced by local cuisine and local ingredients, but chocolate has always been the best and most reliable ingredient.

“The Incans, who discovered chocolate, called it the ‘food of the Gods.’ Why not? Whatever the occasion we're celebrating, chocolate is always a gift that is warmly received. Chocolate gifts are very versatile and something everyone enjoys, whether birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Easter, dinner parties, house warming and thank you gifts of all kinds,”
 he says.

“I have an inclination toward milk chocolate—probably because my earliest chocolate memories are of Cadbury's milk chocolate bars and my mother's decadent chocolate cakes,” Chef Chowdhury says.

 “Like wine, chocolate has different tastes depending on its origins. I like to blend these tastes in creative ways.”  Quoting the prolific nineteenth century French gastronomic writer Curnonsky--"In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection"—Chef Chowdurhy says he likes to keep his style simple but “simplicity doesn't mean limiting flavors or style; it means maintaining the integrity of the ingredients and the cooking method so that the flavors complement each other in the finished dish.”

Desert Delicacy Read Recipe

Chef Chowduhry earned a degree in hospitality and management from the Indian Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, worked as assistant pastry chef for Four Seasons in Oxford, England and with Gordon Ramsey at his restaurant, Connaught, in London. He joined the Marriott Management Development Program in Mumbai, India. In 2004, Chef Chowdhury joined JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, AZ, as senior pastry chef. His elaborate and artistic gingerbread villages, which are created with a team of pastry chefs and more than 500 pounds of gingerbread dough and 120 pounds of dark chocolate, are displayed at the resort each December and are much anticipated by guests.

Chef Chowdhury has received numerous awards throughout his culinary career including first place in the Food Network Sugar Showdown competition and a gold medal at the Nestle Young Star Chefs competition.

He created the Desert Delicacy, his extravagant dark chocolate napoleon layered with nougatine cake and Earl Grey tea mousse complimented with milk chocolate lime ice cream for the  Ristorante Tuscany and Meritage Steakhouse at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa.

Visit www.jwdesertridgeresort.com.

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

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