Most of you reading this must be a fascinated fan of Kolkata’s reputed rosogolla. The spongy feel that evolves from the syrupy sweet often been defined as an elevator (not stairway) to heaven. Bengalis having a sweet tooth as a matter of heredity, syrupy sweets have evolved in the eastern part of the country. However, the 200 years old rosogolla, that has given Kolkata an identity across the globe was waiting to be deconstructed.
Thanks to Sudip Mullick, who has not only brought a welcome change to the rosogolla, but has also made it to the list of six most promising entrepreneurs in the country selected by Forbes India Magazine.
During his job stint with the Oberoi Grand kitchen, the 33 year old director of Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick Sweets had picked up a European taste for desserts and dreamt of fusing them with the typical Bengali sweets their family shop was famous for.
Being a part of the reputed list of business innovators by an esteemed business publication, Sudip is more than happy.
Desserts like strudles, pudding, truffles and souffles are now common on the Balaram Mullick racks and though they are mostly variants of the traditional sandesh and Bengali ‘rosh er mishti’ (syrup filled sweets) in their myriad forms, one can’t really decide if he is tasting a European delicacy or a Bengali favourite.
Sudip has mechanized the entire process by using machines he imported from Denmark, Taiwan, Japan and Italy, and fused various processes to churn out his own delicacies.
The Japanese machine used to make rice dust desserts there, is used to make the jol bhora sandesh with a Japanese twist, the machine from Denmark that is used to churn out pure chocolate truffles, is used to make chocolate-coated sandesh and rossogolla truffle and the Italian machines designed to make cookies are making golapi pera sandesh. There is a type of singara being made by a German machine originally used to bake patties.
Other promising entrepreneurs on the Forbes list are Rahul Gonzalvez of Bangalore, for his digital design agency, Ashoke Thakur, for churning out vada paos by thousands in Mumbai's Dadar, Sirish Duttatreya who is a third-generation second-hand book shop owner with over 9,00,000 titles in Pune and Parvatlal Kanhaiyalal Dubey who is the country's biggest wedding planner.