What good is it if you talk in flowers and they think in pastry?” Sneha Singhi Upadhaya answers Ashleigh Brilliant with her brilliance because as of now when she talks in pastry, the world thinks in pastry.
The BBC Pastry Chef of the Year and East India, Young Restaurateur of the Year not only has a flair for fondant but is also a food revolutionary. Experimenting with food, flavours, spices, and crèmes in Kolkata these days, Sneha Upadhaya went voilà when from the sample spaces she gave birth to an exquisite outcome and brought to life Paris cafe and Le Studios, Kolkata. Her cooking skills are being appreciated in the City of Joy and all over the world.
“Food runs in my blood”, Sneha Upadhaya says. Ever since she was a child, she knew in her heart that she was destined to be a chef. At the tender age of seven, she knew her fate was to be a chef. Her devotion to food remained unwavering and she started learning about food when she was thirteen years old. Sneha studied at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris where she learned a great deal about food at Pierre Herme in Paris and Laduree in London. Working as a chef at these places gave her a crystal-like edge and lustre to her already brimming culinary skill set. It helped her gain experience and sharpen her cooking skills.
It was after Paris and London that Cafe Paris came to life. Her extraordinary skills and motivation helped her bring Paris on Plate to Kolkata. Little Sneha, she tells us today, dreamt only about food, her thoughts only circled around flavours and cuisines. “I used to wake up thinking what I’m going to eat during the day and sleep imagining what I’m going to eat the next day,” she says. Her achievements know no bounds and she is on her way to more success.
Her cafe has ventured into the amalgamation of cuisines and health and she came up with Fit Meals by Paris Café. Her adventures with flavours do not stop here. While she never let go of the delectable beauty, that is Indian cuisine, she adopted the continental too. While she playfully flirts with the French crèmes and the Indian curries, she finds herself in love with the Italian cuisines, the subtle ingredients, and the no-fuss cooking and. “Pizzas are my friends,” Sneha says. The golden feathers to her toque though are sharing kitchens with famous chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor, David Rocco, Pierre Herme, and baking sessions on Food Food where she hosted a show called Bake Diaries.
The key is staying positive about everything, knowing what you want to in life, and being adamant about it. It comes down to the meaning we choose to give the events and circumstances we find ourselves in. It comes down to what we believe this one, precious life is all about. She maintained a journal and always wrote down her ambitions almost as if she’d already achieved them. A word of advice from this culinary prodigy is “Just believe in yourself, even in the moment of doubt. You will make it, and you will make it big!”