Each and every one of us has grown up eating candy – some sweet and others sour, some hard and others soft or chewy. Every experience is a new experience and what follows is an explosion of flavours, which even though for a few minute lasts in our memory for a lifetime or till the next adventure, at least if you have a sweet tooth. While popular cinema has immortalised chocolates and candy in many movies, Halloween is around the corner and if nothing else, gives everybody the opportunity to gorge on candies. At Café Duco in Mumbai, chef Urvika Kanoi took this very opportunity to explore her love for candy and add it to a dish. She explains, “Halloween is the treat season and candies are something that are very versatile and they are made up of boiled sugar, so just having something whimsical in the dish is something that really called out to me.” 

For the longest time, the celebration, which is observed on October 31 is the holiday before All Saint’s Day on November 1. While it has been celebrated around the world for a long time, over the years, it has become popular in India as people dress up in spooky costumes and enjoy different kinds of food, drink and dessert. Interestingly, most people would imagine candies to be a part of dessert or sweet dishes but Kanoi will surprise you. It’s because the Mumbai chef finds uniqueness in candies with how they impact sweetness in a dish. She explains, “Candies actually have a rounded flavour of all the six senses. Be it umami, sweet, savoury, bitter, spicy and salty – and it is something that I really enjoyed working with. Candies are also a massive part of childhood so it’s just nostalgic and easy to work with. So, I wanted to also showcase something super different when we decided to add candies to our dish,” she explains. 

Exploring orange candy 
Kanoi makes a dish inspired by the classic French dish Duck a l’Orange, which is essential a roast duck with an orange sauce, but she gives her own twist to the popular dish. She explains, “We have made a duck dish, which has a grilled breast cooked French style, like how you eat in a brassiere. The duck is girdled off on a really hot pan. Along with that, we make an orange candy sauce and a little bit of fondant potatoes and some greens which are sour to offset the sweetness of the candy.” So, how did diners react to the dish? The chef and founder of the Bandra restaurant admits that she has got a mixed response till now.