RETURNING TO CITI FIELD
Queens Bakery Farine Creates a Delicious Viral Sensation with South Asian Fusion Desserts
After he introduced it two weeks ago, Chef Michael Mignano couldn’t keep his gulan
jamun cheesecake in stock.
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 22-28, 2019 41
THIS WINTER
theworldsfare.nyc
Farine Creates a Delicious Viral Sensation with
South Asian Fusion Desserts
BY JOE DISTEFANO
As the Culinary King of Queens, I’m so
very fortunate to live in the most diverse
and delicious destination in all of New York
City. Really I’m not royalty though, I’m
an ambassador, and a hungry one at that.
Today, we examine an only in Queens dessert
sensation, a fusion of South Asian sweets and
classic American desserts as envisioned by
a classically trained French pastry chef who
hails from the World’s Borough.
There are dozens and dozens of South Asian
sweets to be had in the teashops and cafes of Jackson
Heights, from blocks of fudgy Indian chum chum in
day-glo orange and green and grainy laddoo to red
sugar-syrup soaked Bangladeshi kalojam, but there
are no South Asian sweets quite like those made by
Chef Michael Mignano at Farine Baking Company.
The Sicilian-American pastry wizard recently
introduced a pair of confections that combine South
Asian sweets with classic American desserts: a
cheesecake with an Indian flourish and cupcake with
a Bangladeshi accent.
The gulab jamun cheesecake came first, about
two weeks ago, when the former pastry chef of The
Pierre Hotel reprised a sweet treat he used to make
at the hotel for Indian weddings. At the hotel it was
served in individual cups, with the sweet cheese
ball hidden at the bottom. At the bakery Mignano
showcases the gulab jamun. Each slice sports a
cross-section of two gulub jamun. Another of
the golden brown orbs—topped with gulkand, or
candied rose petals—crowns the whole slice. The
cheesecake itself, flavored with cardamom and a
hint of rosewater, sits atop a graham cracker crust.
It eats like a South Asian version of a classic New
York cheesecake, but really it’s the first ever Jackson
Heights cheesecake.
“When I posted it on
Instagram on Saturday it went
viral with a lot of my South
Asian followers,” says the chef
who’d whipped up four cakes
that proved to be insufficient
for the demand. “On Sunday
people were waiting on line at
7:30 in the morning like it was
a cronut.”
Young second generation
South Asian foodies pass by
colorful display cases of mithai
as they are known in Hindi or
mishti in Bangladeshi and it’s
almost like they’re a dessert
museum, Mignano points
out. By combining American
and South Asian sweets, the
former Iron Chef winner has
given the new generation an
exciting, delicious way to enjoy
treats that they previously
may have only associated with
their grandparents. “Adding
conventional Desi sweets to
conventional American confectionaries is the
new trend we never thought we needed,” wrote
Instagrammer @muslimfoodies, after trying the
cheesecake.
The second of Mignano’s South Asian fusion
creations takes two shopworn desserts—cupcakes
and pumpkin spice—and combines them with
Bangladeshi confectionery to create a treat far
greater than the sum of its parts. With its hot
pink frosting scattered with almonds it looks
many other fancypants cupakes, but the Kalojam
Pumpkin Cupcake has a secret. Cut it open and
you’ll find a ruby red core of kalojam at the center
of the pumpkin cake. And that pink frosting? It’s
flavored with Rooh Afza, a syrup made with a
medicinalgourd, various herbs, and rosewater that
is reputed to have a cooling effect in hot South
Asian summers. As cupcakes are to American kids
so Roof Afzah is to Bangladeshi’s of a certain age
who have fond memories of drinking milk based
beverages made with the syrup.
“It’s like a Bangladeshi Shirley Temple, says
Mignano who gave the new cupcake to own of
his Bangladeshi servers without telling her what
flavor it was. “The look on her face when she bit it
into was priceless,” he recalls. “‘It tastes just like my
childhood,’ she said.”
This pumpkin cupcake has a delicious secret, a Bangladeshi
sweet inside, and a frosting made from Rooh Afza syrup.
Address: 74-24 37th Ave, Jackson Heights
Phone: (718) 433-9830
Web site: www.farinebakingcompany.com/
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