 |
| Left: Vedika proud of her sushi platter, with Chef Amit. Right: Nirvaan with his prawn tempura roll. |
Frequent travel overseas, availability of
international ingredients in India, streaming of international food-based shows
and of course the proliferation of diverse restaurants in major cities are just
some of the factors responsible for the evolving palates and eating preferences
of Indians. Interestingly, this is not limited to adults. Even children are
widely exposed to international cuisines due the same reasons. Last year, Chef
Manish Mehrotra had talked about the focus on Kids’ Menus for my article on
food trends for the coming year. I was reminded of Chef Manish’s comment when
I recently visited Wasabi by Morimoto
with my kids, aged 11 and 8 years.
 |
| Ready for Action |
Not only does this fine-dining Japanese restaurant
have a special kids’ menu they even conduct Junior Masterclasses. Nirvaan and
Vedika (my kids) participated in a fun-filled sushi rolling class on the weekend preceding Children's Day. These
masterclasses are conducted regularly and are limited to 8 participants to
facilitate interaction between the chef and the kids. Our masterclass started
with an introduction by Chef Amit to commonly used ingredients like kombu,
nori, sushi rice, sushi vinegar, different garnishes, wasabi and fish roe. While
he encouraged the kids to taste some of the ingredients it was interesting to
note that most kids were familiar with quite a few of them. The kids’
enthusiasm was palpable as they shared their memories of their first-ever
wasabi kick, showing off knowing the difference between salmon roe and flying
fish roe and so on.
 |
| Creating culinary memories and making new friends. |
The kids then moved to a table that was set with
individual counters. Each of them got a bowl of readied sushi rice, a platter
with nori, prawn tempura and salmon slices, and a bowl of ice water. As the
demo started, the kids dipped their hands in ice water and got started with picking
up the rice, rolling it into a ball and spreading it onto the sheet of seaweed.
The process was fun, messy, and fairly easy with ample assistance by
supervising chefs. Each of them made prawn tempura uramaki (rice outside) and
salmon hosomaki (seaweed outside). The chefs did the slicing of the rolls since
the knives are too sharp to be handled by kids. Finally the kids proudly placed
the sushi made by them on platters decorated with orchid flowers.
 |
| Four of the five courses. |
The menu is presented as a customized
‘Certificate Of Appreciation For Exploring And Learning The Art Of Rolling
Sushi At Wasabi by Morimoto’. The two rolls of sushi made by the Junior
Masterchef is the first course followed by chicken tacos, tuna pizza,
teppanyaki chicken and fried rice or soba noodles and vanilla ice cream. Each
item is delicious and appropriate for kids, and all together it is more than
sufficient for even someone with a big appetite.
 |
| Moi with my Junior Masterchefs. |
Details:
This experience including the lunch costs Rs
3,000++ per child. Accompanying adults get a three-course lunch including shira
ae, chef’s special sushi and teppanyaki chicken at Rs 2,000++. Memories created in the process are priceless!
