The Bake Better Show

*Cake D’or opened on 14th October, 2018. This episode was recorded in June 2019, before covid. There has been some exciting changes and new advancement in Cake D’or for which we will be doing a part 2 edition with Manya. If you have any questions that you would like us to cover in her next podcast, write to us at [email protected]. Meanwhile, enjoy this conversation. We are sure, you’re going to love it.

Manya Sharma is an award winning baker chef who lives & runs a French concept bakery in the heart of Agra. She is the head chef and the founder of Cake D’or Patisserie.

Manya did not have an early inclination towards baking and had never thought of opening up a bakery any time in near future. However, destiny had different plans for her. She was an arts graduate, preparing for IAS while pursuing masters alongside. But due to some health issues she had to take a break. Meantime, she tried her hands at cooking & baking and really enjoyed the process. It was at this point that she thought of changing her path and seriously consider Baking as a vocation.

With taking her parents into confidence, Manya first self-funded a crash course in baking to understand its basic concepts; worked as a home baker for two years and then went to Le Cordon Bleu, London to master in French Pastry Arts. Returning to her homeland, she opened up her cafe/patisserie named Cake D’or which has now become one of the most popular bakeries of Agra.

In this episode, she talks about how she became a baker and opened up the cafe with no prior plan or blueprint. How she did the market research and made a trusted clientele. She also talks about the recipes, products, pricing and customer service among other important things.

Some Topics We Discussed:

• How she discovered her true calling – Baking
• Training & mastering your skills as a baker
• Process of opening a bakery in a city like Agra
• How to do your market research
• Procurement, hiring and other early challenges
• Experimenting with the menu and recipes 
• How to price your product on the higher side & still get sales
• Organic brand promotions
• Future plans for Cake D’or 

Find her on: Facebook | Instagram |Zomato | Linkedin

• Reference & Links Mentioned:
  
  1. Le Cordon Bleu, London:
  
  2. Fondant Extruder
  
  3. The Secret [Book]
  
  4. Disaku Ikade

Kamal Arora is a trained French Pastry Chef from Delhi who runs her cloud kitchen by the name Tuileries Patisserie. Initially working in an auditing company, she left her job to follow her passion in baking and flew to Le cordon Blue, Paris to hone her skills as a pastry chef. 

She worked & interned in some of the top renowned pastry boutiques of Paris and came back to Delhi to offer the same experience to her customers.

She started her business around December 2019 and successfully survived through the lockdown even though the business was just 3-4 months old. 

According to her, It is equally important to train yourself as a professional baker and as an entrepreneur to run a successful bakery business. “Being available, visible and regular” to the customers helps the Brand, both online and offline.

For her cloud kitchen, Kamal took inspiration from the proper French Kitchens of Paris in order to use authentic French Techniques and serve classical flavours to the clients. Her menu is a blend of flavoursome Pastries, Cakes, Tarts, Éclairs, Cookies, Travel cakes Viennoiseries and Danishes as well as some savoury items like Quiches, Stuffed puff and Sandwiches. Chocolate lovers should try their Belgian dark chocolate and salted caramel pastry, Dark Chocolate Financiers and Belgian white chocolate and raspberry pastry.

“Bring something to the people that they have not eaten and give them an experience; that’s my brand’s motto.” - Kamal Arora

In this episode, you will hear her talk about her journey and her experiences, the inspiration behind her patisserie, the major challenges she faced while opening up Tuileries and some deep dive business stats. She has also shared some insightful tips and learnings for the listeners who are into baking.

Podcast Sponsors:

1. Truffle Nation Academy - https://trufflenation.com/

2. Bake Better Online Baking Courses - https://bakebetteronline.com/

Some Topics We Discussed Include:

• How she built a business around her passion
• International exposure & how to get internships under renowned chefs
• The pre-requisite formalities and budget required to set up a cloud-kitchen
• Challenges while running your bakery
• How to build and manage a team bigger than yourself
• How to price the products on the menu (Ad spot : BB Online)
• Tuileries’s summer menu
• The average monthly revenue and expenses
• Branding and promotions
• Future plans for Tuileries

Contact Tuileries Patisserie - Kamal Arora:

Website - https://tuileriespatisserie.in/

Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/tuileriespatisserie/

Zomato -  https://www.zomato.com/ncr/tuileries-patisserie-karol-bagh-new-delhi/

Reference & Links Mentioned:

1. Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

2. Gerard Mulot’s Patisserie - Maison Mulot

3. Sebastien Gaudard Paris | On Instagram

4. Russell’s Patisserie - https://www.christophe-roussel.fr/en/  (Confirm with Kamal Once)

5. The Oberoi’s Delhi -

6. Ask her - how and from where she order’s her raw materials and equipment’s from Paris and other places

7. Delivery Partner Pidge

Welcome to the Bake Better Show. This show is for you if you’re planning to become a professional baker, start your career as a pastry chef or looking forward to starting your own bakery or cloud Kitchen in India.

In Season 1 of the Bake Better show, we’ll be bringing you stories from some of India’s biggest up and coming pastry chefs and Bakery owners. 

To name a few, we have  Chef Manya who started her own french patisserie Cake D’or in the heart of Agra or like Chef Kamal who brought a piece of France back with her to India and started a high-end patisserie called Tuileries. 

We also had conversations with Varun Mahna, the second generation owner to run their family bakery business called Kandy’s Pastry Parlour, Sara Taneja of Let’s Bake Love who puts her love & passion into everything she bakes, Chavvi & Shivani Khattar, the smart sister’s duo and co-founders of The Cake Company.

Well this list is quite long..So, why don’t you join us and discover some of the amazing bakers and how they got started with their bakery businesses!

This show is here to help you learn the ropes of starting and growing a successful bakery business in India so if it is something that interests you, please show us your love and support by going to Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify or wherever you love to listen to your podcast and leave us a five star review. 

It would really encourage us to bring more such great stories with you.

In our next Episode, we have Chef Kamal from Tuileries patisserie who shares her challenges, stories and lessons from starting her patisserie and growing it to over 3 Lakhs in monthly revenue. 

So make sure you check that out on BakeBetterpodcast.com or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you love to listen to your podcasts.

See you soon in the next episode.