‘Hya re, cake abar ki rokom misthi re’? ( Darling, what kind of a sweet the cake is?)
Asked Khiroda, a widowed Hindu Bengali woman, in the later years of her life, to her son Abhaypada, who worked with the Sahibs of an English Engineering firm in noted novelist Gajendra Kumar Mitra’s third installment of his three part chronicle of Bengal’s changing social map from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, Poush Faguner Pala ( The changing seasons of life).
Abhaypada, the no-nonsense son, treats Khiroda to a piece of cake gifted to him at an office party much to the grievances of his family where eating cake and all kinds of foreign foodswhich carried taboo ingredients like the egg was strictlyprohibited.
But the son revolted saying ‘Paap hoy amar hobe’( I shall be the sinner).
Modern day Khirodas not only eat but also bake the quintessential cake at home for their children and grand children specially on occasions like birthdays, Christmas and New Year. This sea change in attitude towards the curious concoction of flour, corn flour, sugar, eggs, nuts, cream, milk and more did not happen overnight. Bengal as well as the Hindu society was slowly but steadily exposed to occidental savories by a few luminaries of Kolkata’s, then Calcutta, confectionary club.
This summer we take you through the century old journey of the cake through the eyes of two city based bakeries that have been intricately associated with changing the city’s taste map since decades. The Easter, in perfect tandem with England’s popular cake carnival, is the ideal time for that which we start by paying a small homage to the baking giants Flurys and Nahoum.
There is hardly any Kolkata born and brought up who hasn’t stood in the winding line outside Nahoum, the cake and pastry shop in New Market, while crossing over from one year to the other on the global Gregorian calendar. The more than a centuryold shop was owned and started by a Jew from BaghdadNahoum Israel Mordecai supposedly in 1902. The age is apparently evident from the thick black and brown teakwood bordered interiors of the shop famous for its Fruit Cake and Puffs among other items. The family owned proprietor ship business which is now managed from Israel by the fourth generation from the original owner is an inspiring story of rising from the rags to riches given it all started at the peak of colonial Calcutta by carrying savories across the city from one buyer to the other personally.
The apple of all eyes of cosmopolitan food connoisseurs in aristocratic Calcutta, Flurys on Park Street however speaks of a slightly different baking lineage. It was established in 1926 by Joseph and Freida Flury, a Swiss couple settled in Calcutta and lapped up by the Bengali gentry along with the then population of Jews, Armenians and Parsis in Calcutta as the ‘tea room’ to go to. It is believed to have been modeled on Zurich’s Sprungli Café, where Joseph originally belonged to. Famous for its eclectic savories, Flurys, now taken over by the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels and revamped in 2004, is popularly recognized for its tasty Baked Beans along with Rum Balls, Silvana Cake and Asparagus Roll along with more lip smacking snacks.
After we pay our obeisance to the two super bakers of our city,let’s walk the talk with two other traditional bakeries, both situated at South Central Kolkata, the hub of the city’s cakehappy, fun and frolicking eaters, as outstanding contributors to Kolkata’s global confectionery credibility since pre independent India.
Saldanha
The business started in the 1930s, pioneered by first generation food entrepreneur from Goa, Ubelina Saldanha, an ace cake baker, with the Calcutta Boxwallas, reminiscent of the Mumbai Dabbawallas, carriers of multi platform food trunks, typically painted black with the name of the provider written in whiteover them. The trunks would be full of Cakes, Pastries, Chocolate, Chicken Patties, Puffs, Jam Tarts, Strawberry Cubes,Sunlight Biscuits, Breads and more prepared at makeshift food sheds in Calcutta and supplied to all cake loving doors including homes, offices and even schools, colleges and hospitals.Boarders who were regular buyers of tasty snacks at educational institutes like St. Thomas and St. Agnes would maintain monthly ‘accounts’ against their pocket money with the Saldanha boxmen just the sight of whom would be enough to brighten up their teenage days.
Later on the business took a prominent shape by the next generation successors Denzil Saldanha and Mona Saldanha.Together they formed a society of snacks and savory entrepreneurs of the city like Nahoums and other Goan bakeries among others who shared an environment of healthy competition much to the delight of food lovers.
Debra Alexander, a former banker and who is the third generation present proprietor of the bakery, who gained expertise in the business of cakes from her father Denzil opines “Bengal being the seat of the British power and Bengalis being very well conversant with the world, it did not take very long in the time to erase all their prejudices about cake eating given theprogressive education”. She further adds “ Passion is all it takes to excel and so is the confectionary business, it’s just our passion for tasty food which took us places, I being a foodie myself”.
Saldanha takes care of its basic material from the farmers, baking and making process, value for money and customer satisfaction to the tee.
Alisha Alexander, Debra’s daughter, a professional degree holder in confectionary, hotel and hospitality management from London is taking the family’s food baton forward with impressive improvisation of their heritage cuisine, specially Goan delicacies seasoned with local tastes, clubbing theirCheese Puff, Fruit and Walnut Cake with Mocha, Opera and wedding and other ‘special occasion’ cakes like on Holi, Diwali and Eid .
Finally she signs off “I have all my close associates here, I am most comfortable in Kolkata and there is no place like this city”.
Barua Bakery
Originally called the J.N. Barua Bakery and situated at the historical wartime soldier hub and now Anglo Indian, South and East Asian residence in South Central Kolkata, Bow Barracks,this modest looking Bengali bakery has been a long time maker, seller and supplier of European delicacies. It was established in 1947, the watershed period of partition in the subcontinent’s history, by Jyotindra Nath Barua who migrated from Chattagram, Bangladesh to Kolkata in search of bread and butterbefore partition. The Baruas traditionally belonged to the food profession of baking, cookery and catering which found a sound centre of culinary expression in the then erstwhile British capital of India. The cakes they started with were mostly taken a leaf out from the old English recipes given the neighborhood aided with creative kitchen storming putting years of food exposure to use. Their business peaked with the receding Anglo Indian population of the city which allowed an easy competitionmarket.
After the patriarch Jyotindra, his eldest son, the Late Montu Barua took over the control of their business which is still being run successfully by Montu’s younger brother Ratan Barua.
Point to be noted the famous Sanguvalley chain of hotels, Bhawanipur locality in South Kolkata being its one of the most popular branches, is owned by one of the Barua families, saysRatan.
Chana or Cottage Cheese Cake is their flagship fusion savory,which is a rarity outside, along with Mutton and Chicken Pattieswith Wine Cake, Walnut Cake, Plain, Fruit and Cherry Ghee Cake including vegetarian items of coconut and paneer even eggless cakes later down the year . They usually prepare dry food keeping away from the creamy variety. The bakery uses original ingredients ‘dicing’ and ’ dusting’ or processing them in the kitchen to their cooking instead of using readymade branded spices. They have their loyal suppliers of raw matter and cooks who have worked for them for generations and refuse to part even against the most tempting alternative. Their kitchen includes two different types of ovens, one electric and the other wooden, situated on site and at Poddar court, supplying snacks to many famous churches of Kolkata both during festivals and other times. They also accept large orders to cultural events,outer city functions, offices both private and government on and offline.
“Cakes percolated into the Hindu Bengali milieu with changing times and steady socio- cultural needs and intersection” says Ratan on behalf of Barua Bakery, the food icon of cosmopolitan Kolkata.
The local apathy towards eggs in cake however still exists marginally as evident from one buyer in the long cake lover’s queue outside Barua Bakery’s 1947 outlet on 31st night asking “Ihope there is no egg in the food items here”. To that the sellers and the other clients present on spot answered in good humor “There is egg in every savory here, but you can savour it freely as God won’t curse you for one day”.
A long time has passed since the days of relegating the cake as the forbidden fruit. The modern market is a tough competition between corporate confectioners all alluring our eating ambition with delectable dishes. The business world being as fickle as the taste preference of the consumers, Souvik Roy, Marketing Head of Kreamz Cakes, takes us through a comprehensive dossier of the modern cake eating consumer market. Over to him…
‘’We Indians and specially the Bengalis have always had a sweet tooth to which the cake had added variety. Earlier we would wait for hours at Nahoums in Christmas for dry cakes, we still do, but e-commerce has made the cake easy and available. Business of corporate franchise has come up big time to keep with the popularity of cakes. We are also in tandem with health and tradition which is seeing stomach friendly cakes, eggless cakes, sugar free cakes, cakes for every ‘day’ courtesy social media, customized cream cakes. The cake is forever evolving’’.