Pooja Dhingra

The World Is Her Macaron

Life, through rose-tinted glasses or through shocking pink macarons, what’s the difference for pâtissier, Pooja Dhingra? She is a go-getter and she will go get it! Attagirl

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

All of Paris is divided into 20 neighbourhoods, arrondissements, they call them. And they don’t have names for them, just numbers. So Eiffel Tower for example is in the 7th arrondissement and the Latin Quarter, where I have walked endlessly with my French sister-in-law, is in the 5th. Marais, the most interesting district,  where we eventually land up, diving into a trendy bar, is in the 4th.
Pooja Dhingra, when she was going through her pâtisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu, was happily living and living it up, in the 15th arrondissement. So impactful was the influence of Paris and all things French in her life that when she returned to India and was all ready to set up her café, the name came to her in a flash, Le 15. As simple as that.
Wonder what it must be like to be 22, footloose and fancy-free, in the world’s dreamiest city, messing your hands everyday in pure molten chocolate!
“Oh, my God, don’t ask,” gurgles Pooja, now 10 or so years older and wiser. “I guess it would be everybody’s dream to be in Paris – studying, working, living, whaaaat ever! And here I was, fortunate enough to be doing so. That, too, soon after being in Switzerland for three years studying hospitality!”
She couldn’t have asked for more. Making friendships with an international bunch of classmates, that wouldn’t just see her through her time in Paris, but carry on to present times.
“Those memories will stay with me forever. All that we would do is discuss all things pâtisserie. All that was on our mind 24x7 was chocolate, cream, sugar and flour. We would go into cafés and dissect the pastries we ate! The talk was always about cakes and cookies. My best memory is picnics under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. We would spread a mat, pull out wine and champagne bottles, somebody would play the guitar and we would eat cheese and things, sing along and conduct blind tastings of macarons bought from different pâtisseries in Paris.
Sure sounds like great memories.
“So how did it occur to a 23-year-old girl, now Paris returned, armed with a degree from LCB, to start her own café, specialising in macarons?” I enquire. “The story goes like this. Even as I was completing my three years of hospitality at César Ritz, I planned to go to Paris for this course. I even secured my admissions without letting my family know. The three months that I had in between Switzerland and France, I came home and told my dad and mom about my plans. They were surprised but fully supportive. When dad came to visit me in Paris, I took him to Pierre Hermé’s pâtisserie, where I made him taste a macaron. Now, my dad who is a fastidious foodie with strong leanings towards an Indian palate, was totally stumped. He couldn’t get over the taste. Sweet, sour, acidic, crunchy, soft – it was a burst of tastes, he exclaimed! I figured if my dad loved it, most Indians would! That’s when I decided I am coming home and introducing this level, this standard of macarons to my fellow citizens!”
But it wasn’t easy. Here, we are used to savouring American style pastries. Besides, she had to learn all over again, understanding how the ingredients shaped up in Indian climate and conditions. The cookie crumbled 60 times before Pooja got all her settings right. Exactement, it was her 61st attempt which gave her what she wanted, her ‘la jupe’ moment. It was a pistachio macaron and there were no cracks at the skirting, which is the true test of a perfect macaron. La jupe literally means ‘skirt’, in French.
March 2010, and Pooja Dhingra was on the go. She set up a central kitchen at Lower Parel, and then her first kiosk selling her delectable macarons, outside a friend’s salon at Worli. Then another kiosk under the stairs as you went up to shop at Good Earth, which, Pooja says, made all the difference; and then came another cute, little one at Le Palladium. Le 15, at Colaba followed. This was a café serving the most amazing savoury fare in addition to her amazing desserts. By now her name and macarons got linked, forevermore. Word of mouth grew. Fame came, along with a pâtisserie store in Bandra. And another café  in Goregoan. And then she launched her first book, three years later;
All a natural progression. Pooja was baking cakes for all kinds of people, for all kinds of occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries, christenings, baby showers, inaugurations. Even a retirement cake – for no one less than Ratan Tata! Filmstars were, and are, her big clients. She has baked cakes for Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Shilpa Shetty, to name drop a few.
I would think though, a feather in her cap would surely be during the Canadian Prime Minister’s visit in 2018 when Mrs Trudeau came along with her kids for a baking lesson at Le 15, Colaba. “Yes,” reminisces Pooja, “that was special. They were there at the café for three hours, learnt to bake cookies and how to decorate them. The kids were really sweet and interested and I can say, Mrs Trudeau was among the kindest and nicest women I have met.”
I can safely separate Pooja Dhingra’s professional life into two parts. Pre-lockdown and post-lockdown, vis-a-vis the pandemic which unfortunately continues even as we speak, or read. Before the world shut down, Pooja was an extremely busy girl. Running two cafés and three stores, including, of course, catering for those extraordinary cakes. She was working from morning to night, on a tight schedule, baking everyday, testing menus, training staff. Four times a year she would change her menus. If 10 years ago she had started out with a staff of three in the kitchen, by 2020 she had 30 buzzing around her! Her small 500 sq. ft. central kitchen also morphed into a swanky 5000 sq. ft. with an office and a studio complete.
At the peak of her success, when there were COVID stirrings, Le 15 was in celebration mode. They were completing 10 years on March 1, 2020 and then the worst happened. The lockdown was declared. Pooja was shattered. But made a studied, heart-wrenching decision. She shut down both Le 15 cafés, at Colaba and at Goregaon, right away, in April. “It was like pulling the shutter down on my heart. Felt like my happy world was ending. I had to cut my arm to save my life. I cried and cried for six days.”
I guess the sun shone through on the seventh day, dispelling the dark clouds because daunty Pooja decided to get up and take charge of her life. She wasn’t going under, no sir, she wasn’t about to disappear.
She asked herself the question, “Am I still the same old Pooja who was so passionate about everything?” “Yes!” came the quick answer. So she rolled up her sleeves and got to work in her home kitchen. Re-discovering her zeal for baking from 10 years ago. “I started to bake every night, for myself, for my followers. Baking became my saviour, during the first lockdown.” She went on to create hundreds of recipes, even launching Le 15 Café Cookbook, an e-book. In October, there will be another one, Coming Home.
Post the second lockdown, Pooja has become an entrepreneur once again. She has launched her products, now packaged. Hot chocolate, cake mixes, cookies. “I feel blessed. We do have a large community online which loves our products. When we test-marketed, we sold 1000 packets of hot chocolate in 12 hours! Which really gave me the courage to go ahead,” says Pooja, candidly. In the pipeline, she has R&D going on, on chocolate sauce. Something I am waiting for.
 “The pandemic has really and truly opened my eyes. Work can, and did, continue for me. Though differently. I am active on social media, especially on Instagram. I have a podcast called No Sugar Coat where I talk to chefs and restaurateurs. I also conduct online classes through Zoom where people join in from all over the world, and in an age group that ranges from 7 to 93! Yes, I guess I have changed and altered things, adjusted to the new life. I workout from home, I do yoga, meditate. I work until 6 pm, and never on a Sunday, now. I meet select friends and have only just started to dine out. But one big decision that I did make recently was that I moved into my own little apartment. I am a big girl now and thought I needed my independence,” says Pooja, happy and smiling. But she is a mama’s girl at heart and calls her up at least five times a day. As well as spends Sunday nights at her parents’ home. “It’s lovely, I am getting to know my parents as adults now,” says Pooja, elaborating, she is an adult now and so are they! As for her dad, he is Pooja’s pillar of strength, one who believes and trusts implicitly in his daughter’s instincts and talents.
Above and beyond being a pâtissier, there is another side to Pooja which I find rather remarkable. That she is the determined kind, is a given. But I also see she is constantly challenging herself, setting new goals. Like every two years she wants to do something new. A few years ago, she wanted to dance on stage. So she joined a hip hop class and laboured at it for three months. At the end of which the troupe performed on stage in a large auditorium in Bandra, where she lives!
Another time she decided she will run the Bombay Marathon. Not the full course, not the 5 km Dream Run, but the half marathon. Which is all of 21 kms! And she did it, she trained, went on a proper diet and ran. And completed it. Never mind she was sore for three days and couldn’t move an inch after!
Yet another time she took up the challenge of speaking to a hall full of 4,000 people in Bordeaux, France. The subject was Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Not a big deal, you would say, except she had to speak in French! She had a lead time of one year, so she accepted. And then took private lessons, three times a week, and not just brushed up on the smattering French she had picked up in Paris during her student days, but even got fluent in the language. Must have got quite an applause.
Her next goal? Well, being a Japan junkie, she has now set her eyes on Mt Fuji. She wants to go climb it! Well, you go girl, the world is your oyster.
And I do hope your other plans work out, too. To become a yoga instructor after you turn 40. And to eventually be able to live six months in Bombay and six in Paris! Why not!