From Corporate Job to Paris – A Pastry Chef’s Journey to Success

Disha Ekal, A pastry chef in Paris left her well-paying corporate job to follow her passion for baking

Disha Ekal baked her first cake when she was 15. It was a really fulfilling experience, but she got busy with life and forgot about it. It was not until her college days when she baked a few cupcakes and muffins for the college festival that she was fully immersed in the passion for baking. But she knew that India was not a place where you can make a living out of baking. So, she did an MBA in Sports Science and got a corporate job. She continued her passion for baking and experimented with various cake recipes.

One day, she took some cupcakes and muffins to her office, and it was an instant hit. One of her colleagues told her that this is her ‘true talent’. That stuck with her, and Disha wanted to give baking a try. In 2019, she quit her corporate job and started working as a pastry chef. She was surprised that it paid her only Rs. 5000 and it was 10x less than what her corporate job paid her. But she was 10x happier. But her parents asked her why she is working for Rs 5000 after doing an MBA.

Disha wanted to achieve something bigger. So, she chose to study in Paris – the world’s centre for Pastry making. She researched various options and left to study in Paris in December 2019. Since the Pandemic came, it got difficult for her to finish her course. But since baking and the bakery business was an essential part of Paris, Disha managed to secure a job there. Today she is a Pastry Chef in one of the elite Indo-French cafés.

Disha is now doing her dream job, but she believes that she would not have been able to reach where she is now if she had not believed in herself and taken a leap of faith.  

-Staff Reporter