Chef Pooja Dhingra’s book, Coming Home, documents the toughest time of her life, says Aaliya Ashwin
Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”
John Lennon’s words couldn’t have rung truer for most of us if we look back at the pandemic years. Each one of us had big plans when the clock struck midnight to usher in 2020 and chef Pooja Dhingra was no exception. Her bakery chain Le15 Patisserie was at a positive turning point, the chef says over a Zoom call to discuss how the pandemic impacted her deeply personally and professionally., “In March 2020, we had actually celebrated our 10th anniversary, and for the first time in my life I told myself, you should be proud of what you have achieved.”
Then, life and the pandemic happened. For Dhingra, the pandemic meant making decisions she never thought she would have to make. “There was a deadly virus around the world, the world of restaurants was hit and I realised that we have to shut half our business down. But that was unfathomable... It was soul-crushing,” Dhingra says and the twinge of regret is still evident despite the space of a year and a half since she made the decision. Her latest book Coming Home documents her experience of the toughest time of her life.
What she perhaps did not realise at that time was how much of a personal toll shutting down her cafe would take, “Every little piece of me was in this space. It was unimaginable to shut it down. The first two months were some of the darkest days I went through in my life when I feared not only for my business but also for my health and life.” Then, there was the love of the craft of baking itself, something that had been her joy and solace ever since she was 15. “I was an impatient child, and my bua first took me to the kitchen to bake brownies as a way to channelise my energy. When I first discovered how simple ingredients like butter, sugar, flour, eggs can go together, it was magical, and it drew me to bake more and more,” the chef remembers.
Now, hit by the pandemic, having had to shut her bakery chain that was not just a business but something intrinsic to her identity, her coping mechanism kicked in. “I deleted every social media app from my phone for over a week and I slept and I watched Friends. I forgot what day it was, what time it was. I knew, I had to make the journey within,” Dhingra mentions in her new book Coming Home.
But going through these tough times only made her stronger. “It (the pandemic) also made me realise that you can't operate from a place of fear. So, for me, that was a big, like, mental switch also, and about one finding the opportunity in a crisis.”
For Dhingra, this pandemic was all about rediscovering her love for baking. Her journey during these times is one of perseverance. She describes her business goals for the New Year as, “World Domination”. She would very much like to see her cafe Le 15 in other countries, to write more cookbooks, and to have podcasts. One of her personal goals is to climb Mount Fuji next year.