DESSERTS make people happy. When I was a boy of 10, I discovered how to bake cream puffs for my folk at home, and that was such fun. Not half as much, though, as being the only boy in a batch of girls working in the confectionery that made the popular American "Mrs. Field's Cookies" later on!

When I sought admission to the Culinary Institute of America, which is famous for its two-and-half year associate degree course in baking and confectionery, I was expected to already have two years of experience in the subject. And three letters of introduction (and recommendation) from chefs!

Fortunately, after Mrs. Field's Cookies, I had put in time with the Chateau Souverain, a famous winery and restaurant at California's Napa Valley, as the "helping chef". There, and later on at an Italian restaurant, I learnt what high-class dining was all about. And the one lesson I will always remember, is that desserts can put a smile on the most hard-to-please diners' faces.

It is my experience that people look forward to a grand finale to their meal. And that can be provided by a beautifully made and presented dessert. Guaranteed! Even a bad meal can be saved by a good dessert. I discovered that pastry-making was fun. Desserts were fun. You can create such a lot with basic ingredients like flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Chocolate? That would be a help!

In India, my work as Consulting Chef (Baking & Confectionery) for the Taj Group of Hotels, has taken me all over the country. And I've found that I have to adjust all the time to varying degrees of quality in the key ingredients! The flour does not have the gluton content that I am used to. The amazing chefs I've worked with here rely on improvisers. These are organic, and there are 20 varieties! Stabilisers are used in cakes. All this is new to me.

When I bake breads here, I find I am using a different bag of flour every day! For a croissant to taste the same, the content and quality of the flour must be consistent. If the sugar and eggs are fine, the butter is salted. I have always worked with unsalted butter. Here, that's uncommon! So I adjust my recipes, I take out the salt content, I adjust the baking powder, soda, make changes like that.

I've learnt to use Indian jaggery instead of molasses. And garam masala, wow! I put it in my Roman Apple Cake where the recipe calls for spices like cinnamon or cloves. I use fresh coconut for macaroons, ice-creams, cakes. The papaya I find is 10 times the size I want, the chikoos are fine, but the mangoes are out of this world! Man, I use them in all kinds of desserts in season!

The point I'm trying to make is that cooking should be fun... whatever the odds. Believe me. I'd like you to give these five exotic desserts I recommend a shot. If you get stuck, write to me (e-mail: [email protected]) and I'll guide you along the second time. But before you start, here are seven rules (Chef Mark Willard's Tips, rather) that should help you along:
1. Get everything accurate.
2. Be patient, good things come with patience.
3. Develop a relationship with your ingredients. What you put in is what you get in the end.
4. If you fail, don't worry. You learn from your mistakes, nobody is perfect the first time.
5. Create from my recipes. If it doesn't come like in the pictures, maybe you want to make it differently. Go ahead! Take my foundation and carry on.
6. Always keep room for improvisation... in the ingredients, in the cooking procedure. That's your contribution. Your thought. It comes from you.
7. Everything in cooking is up to you. How you want the final product to come, is how it will come.
Good luck, bon appetite, and write and tell me how the desserts come!