I enjoy being surprised with meals at home. And I’ve recently been on a roll. For Ganeshotsav, there was Ukadiche Modak. For Onam, a banana leaf banquet of traditional vegetarian Kerala cuisine. Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting are next. Soft and moist, warm in the center, seductive to look at and difficult to resist, and incredibly delectable to eat. Vidita Kamat, my young buddy and cook extraordinaire, thoughtfully and wrote me this message to remind me “how lovely life is and how grateful we should be.” I’m all for such tasty reminders.
It’s tough not to be thankful to live when it suddenly sends a tasty cue like these Chocolate Cupcakes to inform me that this kitchen diva was busy baking throughout the Covid shutdown simply to make someone’s day.
Vidita is a descendant of the Kamat Group of Hotels.
My longtime buddy is her father, the entrepreneurial restaurateur and famous hotelier, Dr. Vithal Kamat.
I had no idea Vidita was following in his massive footsteps and was as talented at cooking as Kamat until lately. On weekdays, she may be found at the family’s Orchid Hotel in Mumbai, greeting visitors, making rounds in the kitchen, and keeping an eye on Asia’s first five-star ecotel, which Kamat founded in the late 1990s.
On weekends, she is doing the same thing at their heritage retreat Fort JadhavGADH near Pune, holding the team’s hand while Kamat is busy opening restaurants all over the world.
Mezclaa – Blend It, a Spanish word that indicates a mixture of ingredients, is her own confectionary business, albeit her cupcakes are American with an Indian spin. To be honest, I’m not shocked by Vidita’s business.
Her father, an electrical engineer who started out in the kitchen, informed me that he never sat at the cash register in any of his restaurants.
“The owner’s place is in the kitchen,” remarked Kamat.
He can prepare 95 percent of his dinners.
“If you have the drive, devotion, and discipline, all of which begin with the letter ‘D,’ you can make the most important ‘D’ of all happen – your destiny!” he said.
I’m sure Vithal Kamat instilled this lesson in all of his children. Vidita said that the Chocolate Cupcakes were just flour, cocoa powder, a leavening agent such as baking powder, eggs, oil, caster sugar, and demerara sugar in a balanced ratio, salt, vanilla essence, and the secret Kamat ingredient – buttermilk. Her office’s OTG (Oven, Toaster, Grill – did you know?) took 15 minutes to bake. This is not the Orchid’s bakery.
“My office is like Dexter’s Laboratory,” she explained. The rose frosting was made with buttercream and icing sugar, which was applied using a Russian nozzle! “Did that brighten your day?” she inquired.
“And how!” I exclaimed.
You can call Vidita Kamat/Mezclaa at 7304800609 if you want to place an order.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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