Pooja Dhingra is an Indian chef and businesswoman, the owner of macaroon bakery chain Le 15 Patisserie (西饼店) in Mumbai. She should have been a lawyer. But while studying 1 at university in Mumbai, she decided to 2 her major and do something more creative.
Dhingra's father and her elder brother are both restaurant owners. Remembering helping her mother in the 3 during her childhood, she decided to work with food instead of legal cases. She 4 her parents to let her attend a hospitality (招待) and management course in Switzerland. Three years later, she went to Paris to learn the 5 of French baking. There her friends took her to one of the best macaroon shops. After just one 6, Dhingra determined that when she returned to Mumbai she would 7 her own shop, the first of its kind in India.
After graduation, she started making macaroons in her parents' kitchen, 8 it was a complete failure. The hot and wet weather in Mumbai made it 9 to make delicious cakes. It took her around six months of research and 60 failed 10 to finally get a favorite recipe. Yet being both young and female 11 she faced extra challenges. “The biggest problem was to get people to take you 12,” she says. “For example, if I had to buy machinery, I would have to ask my father to make these calls for me.”
Dhingra eventually opened her first shop in 2010. To 13 sales in a city where very few people knew what a macaroon was, Dhingra gave away some 14 macaroons to customers, which made her cakes popular immediately. She continued 15 new recipes. “Once you know basic techniques, inventing recipes is very 16,” she said. “All you need is an open 17. I get a lot of my ideas and 18 from basic things around me.”
Dhingra is the author of a best-selling cookery book, The Big Book of Treats. She also started running classes on how to make macaroons and other cakes. In 2016, Dhingra 19 her business, opening a new location called Le 15 Café. Today, as a professional baker, Dhingra 20 up one of India's finest patisseries .
