Meet Jaipur-based Tejasvi Chandela, who is all set to take the baking world by storm. Here, she talks about her favourite desserts that she’s had around the world and gives us an update on her creative life.

Since the past few years, chef and entrepreneur Tejasvi Chandela took it all in her stride to excel in what she went on to do in life. From studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to doing her masters in chocolate making at EPGB, Barcelona, she has come a long way to reach where she has. Today, she enjoys the sweet taste of success, as she is the proud co-founder of All Things—an artisanal chocolate label, and runs Dzurt (cafe and pâtissière) and Cut Chocolate Cake (a studio kitchen) for imparting workshops.

The current lockdown scene, however, has helped her push the envelope in terms of reaching out to more people and share her baking expertise with. Apart from doing tutorials on YouTube and on her social media page, she is busy reading (her current read is Macarons by Pierre Herme) and penning her first cookbook. The cherry on the cake is the time she gets to spend with her baby girl and family. “I’m trying to stay motivated as much as I possibly can. There are good days and bad days—but I’m sailing through it like everyone else,” says Tejasvi.

Know her signature style

Tejasvi likes to give her personal touch to everything she makes in the kitchen. She takes inspiration from her travels, experiments at her All Things’ factory space with the assorted bars of chocolate and finally, uses her mastered French techniques to lend her own touch to the recipes she’s had since childhood. “I like to stay true to what I love to eat, and bring that to the table. For instance, I love S’mores. So, I decided to get my own version at Dzurt (her pâtissière and cafe in Jaipur). I have got a S’mores Choux Bun, which is basically a choux bun with a chocolate cremeux filling, a brûléed marshmallow fluff on top with a house-made graham cracker stuck on the side,” says Tejasvi.

Debunking baking myths 

For Tejasvi, one should always have fun while baking. “Baking is therapeutic and I genuinely believe that the mindset in which the cake was made is exactly how it turns out in the end. Having said that, I find the cut-and-fold method while making a cake batter a waste of time. It means nothing and rather, incorporates air in the batter. Your cake should never be over-beaten once the dry ingredients go in, as that will make the cake even more dense. Just mix the batter with a whisk first and finish it off with a spatula,” she says.

A baking trick she swears by 

“Foil paper is my go-to buddy in the kitchen. It’s a fabulous thing to play with. Many a time, I use steel/aluminium rings (bottomless) to bake my cakes. While I do that, I just place a piece of foil underneath and scrunch it up from all sides and this gives me the perfect mould,” says Tejasvi, and adds, “If your cake is fully baked on the top, but, is raw from the inside, you can gently place a piece of foil paper on top of the mould and save the cake from burning or browning the top.”

Much-loved dessert moments 

Thinking about her favourite food memories, Tejasvi recalls, “Every Sunday, my father would make banana flambé for us kids. Even now, there are times when we pester him to make it.” She fondly remembers the first time she got to taste what she calls the best tea cake in the world—the Victorian sponge cake. “I had it for the first time next to the Windsor Castle, which was very close to my university in London. The feeling of sitting in the garden on an English summer day and eating a slice of that heavenly cake—I’ll never ever forget that taste,” says Tejasvi. When her classmate made Brigadeiro—a traditional Brazilian dessert—for her, she knew she could never forget the taste for a long time. “I was studying in Paris at the time. My Brazilian bestie, Lulu, and I took a weekend off and went to see my god mother at Les Sables-d’Olonne. I remember entering a grocery store, where Lulu picked up a can of condensed milk, dark chocolate, butter and cream. We went back to our apartment and she made Brigadeiro and it blew my mind,” says Tejasvi.

Predicting the future 

“Honestly, post-pandemic, I really hope our businesses can sustain. Looking at the current scenario, our industry is going to take a huge hit. Nevertheless, I hope chefs remain inspired and something amazing comes out of this. Wishful thinking can do no harm,” she says.