What is it like to be a woman and make pastries in India? Tejasvi Chandela tells us.

Being a woman and a pastry chef is more or less simple depending on the country in which someone resides. To find out what the reality is in India, in so good..magazine 30 we have spoken with one of the great promoters of pastry in this Asian country: Tejasvi Chandela.

At only 22 years old and after training in Paris, she returned to her hometown, Jaipur, to open Dzurt, the first pastry shop in this city of more than three million inhabitants. Currently, the chef has not only managed to consolidate this business, but she also has a second space dedicated to making bean to bar chocolates.

Chandela also travels around the country and to other training centers around the world to show the extent to which traditional Indian techniques and flavors are compatible with modern European-style pastry.

“In India there are more women than men running pastry shops”

‌Tejasvi Chandela assures that being a woman and a pastry chef in India, without a doubt, is easy. “In fact, you will find more women than men running pastry shops, owning their own establishments in India. There is a huge wave of women entering the trade and really striving for excellence. The Indian pastry outlook has totally changed in the last decade.”

The main challenges of being a pastry chef in India

Currently, 75% of customers in Jaipur are vegetarians and prefer eggless pastries, so recipes and techniques must be devised to cater to these consumers. “Today, a large part of my offerings meet that demand. I would say that it is more challenging now to be a pastry chef, because there is much more competition and it is difficult for newcomers to find their own space. But the right talent always stands out. In my case, the challenge is, was, and always will be to stay relevant and popular in the long run. You have to keep reinventing yourself constantly, finding new ideas to maintain the quality of your patisserie. All this is also the fun part of the job.”

The team is a big family

On her team, with which she has worked since the beginning, there are both women and men from villages around Rajasthan whom she has trained. “These are people who had never seen a cake or worked with chocolate before, but today they are at the forefront of production with passion and dedication. We are one big family.”

Read the complete interview and discover these recipes by Tejasvi Chandela in so good.. 30