Bakery

Purna Chawla, a Bakery Owner & Chef Fashionably Showcasing Her Love for Fusion Foods Through Her Bakery and Simple Meals Through Blogging

Chef & Owner at Layers and The Simple Chefmumbai

Purna is a Chef and loves Baking. She says that keeping yourself relevant in this time period when everyone is their own home chef is a challenging task.

Purna Chawla was born in Pune and is currently running her own home bakery, Layers: A Chemistry of Tastes. She is also running a Food Blog under the name ‘Simple Chef’ where she shares simple recipes for everyone to try. Purna says that she is making all sorts of fusion recipes like Rasmalai Cake, Paan Cakes etc.

Purna is an Engineer and has done her B. Tech in Computer Science from Symbiosis Institute. She then changed her field completely and pursued her MBA in Culinary Arts. She says that during one of her placement interviews she was asked about her future and she inadvertently answered that she wants to own a restaurant one day. This incident changed the trajectory of her life and she entered into Cooking.

Purna says that her first cooking session was with her grandmother when Purna was in Standard 8th. She cooked ‘Kada Prasad’ with her. Purna says that her father also had an exceptional hand in the kitchen. He used to cook many dishes for her and she has learned a lot from him as well. Her MBA journey helped her train under many professional chefs and groomed her professionally.

After two years of college and six months of training in Delhi, she thought of starting her own bakery. Purna took a loan and started Layers, a home bakery delivering fresh homemade cakes and pastries. She says that they started on a very small level and now work in Pune and Mumbai.

Purna says that she had to face many challenges during this journey of hers. Doing an MBA in Culinary Arts required long hours of standing and a very busy schedule. Purna says that it is very tough in this field as precision is to be maintained no matter how tired you are. She shares that tackling a sense of inferiority complex by seeing other better chefs is also a challenge. In business, providing quality at a reasonable price is also a challenge she faces.

Purna feels that her biggest achievement is that she is content and happy with her business. She gets support from her husband and everyone else and is just grateful to all of them.

During Covid's second wave, Purna says that almost everyone contracted the disease and had to be in separate rooms. It was a tough time for them. She also adds that during the lockdown, everyone started cooking and you can now find a baker in every corner of every lane. She also says that much of her ingredients and raw materials got wasted and they had to undergo losses which are still in the recovery phase.

She says that the only Success Mantra she follows is to be confident and never give up.

Purna says that her dad is her inspiration and she also follows Chef Bani Nanda who runs Miam Patisserie. Purna gets motivated by the videos and innovation that she brings in her cooking. Purna attends all her classes.

If given a Time Machine, she would like to go back to her college days and relive all the happy memories with her friends.

Purna says that Experience and Education both are important and have equal contributions in life. Without proper knowledge, one cannot gain fruitful experience in life.

Her advice to young bakers is to not get overwhelmed by the content present online and just focus on your own self. One should add their own signature to every dish to stand out from the rest.

Purna says that in her free time, she likes to go out on outings on weekends. She also likes to see baking-related stuff and read the newspaper in the morning with a cup of tea in her hand.