For this week’s episode, we invited Aditi Sahdev, the Chef Owner of The Dessert Studio which is a vibrant and cozy bakery located in Civil Lines, Delhi.
It is a pocket-friendly, go-to neighbourhood cafe near university campus where college students and even the localites love to come, play games and enjoy the baked goods and snacks.
Popular on their menu are Gelatos, brownies, cookies, cup-cake, breads and their most celebrated freak Shake!
In Aditi’s words, her cafe is a reflection of herself – Friendly, playful, homely and cheerful.
About Aditi? Well, Aditi had never planned to pursue baking and always considered baking as just a stress-buster.
She would often bake some delicacies for the guests at her family’s Bread & Breakfast retreat in the Himalayas and receive tons of positive reviews that really used to encourage her.
It was during a career counselling session, that she realised an ever-present inclination towards Hospitality.
Thereafter, She went to Switzerland to study hospitality, acquired business training and worked all across the globe to develop her skills further.
Returning to the homeland in 2017, she opened up her bakery “The Dessert Studio” right away, to tap early into the bakery market. How has her journey been from 2017 up till now, we have covered it all in this episode.
In this week’s podcast, you will learn about Aditi’s experience during her training as a bakery chef; about how “The Dessert Studio” happened and what all went behind opening up this bakery cafe.
The conversation includes topics from market-research and brand positioning to hiring employees and managing the team.
“I have seen this in many hospitality industries, in India at least, that most of the people get really overworked and ultimately end-up resenting the job. I wanted to a create a very good work life balance with everyone and that’s been one of the driving forces for me to expand my staff” – Aditi Sahadev, The Dessert Studio
Other Topics Covered:
- Hospitality training and experience in Switzerland
- Innovation for bakers
- When is a good time to open the bakery?
- The Dessert Studio’s targeted audience
- Designing of the studio
- The kitchen set-up of her Cafe
- Importance of market research and quality of your products
- Challenges – How to deal with the employees and find correct vendors
- Different Departments & The staff behind The Dessert Studio
- Investments & formalities needed while setting up a bakery cafe
- How Covid revived her business model
- Delivering all across Delhi
- Menu at The Dessert Studio
- How to price the products on your menu
- Importance of social-media, branding & packaging
- Are bakeries in India profitable?
- How to take criticism constructively
- How to tackle with rude customers
- Aditi’s future plans for The Dessert Studio
Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/ncr/the-dessert-studio-civil-lines-new-delhi
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/the_dessert_studio_/?hl=en
Aditi Sahadev – https://www.instagram.com/aditisahdev/?hl=en
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/thedessertstudioindia/
Equinox for food hygiene inspection – https://www.equinoxlab.com/audits-and-inspections/
Eurofoods for raw materials – https://eurofoods.co.in/
FSSAI License – https://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in/index.aspx
Pidge Delivery Service – https://www.pidge.in/
Pierre Hurme’s Books – https://www.amazon.in/Books-Pierre-Herm%C3%A9/s?rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_27%3APierre+Herm%C3%A9
