over desserts in that time they might be able to start seating other guests and this dislike becomes acute when as often in these calorieconscious days a group of people split one or two desserts for customers this means a sweet thrill with little guilt but for restaurants it means a table tied up with little revenue desserts can rarely command a high price beyond a point perhaps the guilt of indulging triggers the guilt of spending particularly at the end of an already expensive meal garlic kheer yet while all these might be practical reasons for the disappearance of desserts from restaurants it still feels like a wasted opportunity unlike dining cultures like japan where desserts have never been a big part of meals in india we have always enjoyed sweets with our meals in fact rather than exiling them to the end they were often served along with other foods on a thali it might just be a few lumps of jaggery but we appreciated the chance for a sweet break midmealwe also have such an exceptional range of ingredients that could be used in desserts starting with natural sweeteners like the different kinds of jaggery then fruits of all kinds spices and grains we make halvas from multiple vegetables and there is even a kheer made from garlic we have a lot of potential with indian ingredients says mathew who uses many traditional south indian products in his dessertsimported ingredients are also easily available which helps with technical issues like the varying quality of flour in india but mathur cautions that just having access isnt enough people dont know how to use them and those who supply the ingredients dont help messman agrees that people use ingredients indiscriminately ive seen a blueberry cheesecake garnished with cherries why would you do that when you can get blueberries quite easily cronuts some restaurants are trying to get around the problem of limited space and hot kitchens one solution is an offsite central kitchen like the magazine street kitchen operation started by the founders of the table in mumbai this makes a range of highend pastries and breads and spreads the cost by supplying them to other cafesrestaurants could also emphasise the desserts that they are more suited to serve than the independent patisseries and mithai shops while these can be very innovative with flavours their format works against serving hot desserts like sweet souffls it needs a proper oven and has to be cooked and served immediately says messman its hard to do that in a shop fernandes points to a technical problem most restaurant ovens now have powerful fans which are ideal for roasting meats but work against the delicately raised structure of a soufflin the end perhaps it comes down to customers all the reluctance of restaurants to serve good desserts would vanish if customers showed they were willing to order and pay a good price for a really good dessert selection perhaps customers