Archive

Happiness is a warm chocolate walnut brownie
Baking a Dream — The Theobroma Story by Kainaz Messman Harchandrai with Tina Messman Wykes. Published in 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers, A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, website: www.harpercollins.co.in Pp: xx+240. Price: Rs 599.
 
To those who are familiar with Theobroma, the famous patisserie with the strange name, there’s no need to explain that reading this book is like biting into one of Kainaz Messman Harchandrai’s (pictured left with sister Tina) warm chocolate brownies studded with walnuts. Luckily for the hungry reader she has very generously provided a recipe for this item along with a few other favorites. So, first bake your brownies and then, as the aroma of chocolate wafts through the air, settle down to enjoy the dainty little book with color photographs of the extended family and new outlets like icing in the middle of a gateau.  
The Theobroma story is part memoir, part an extended thank you to all those who have made the journey possible with maybe some do-it-if-you-can tips to aspirational brownie eaters. It’s also part of a marketing success story of two sisters who had a dream as the title suggests and made their dream come true starting in their mother’s kitchen in Colaba, South Bombay. As their name and fame grew by word of bite, Theobroma has expanded into a recognizable brand with 50 outlets across three different cities and their suburbs. All this we learn happened in the course of 14 years (2004-2019) that were filled with both trials and triumphs as Kainaz records with warmth and a cool sense of creating a history that is much more eloquent than a dream. 
There are as many steps to the rendezvous with Theobroma (that means "Food of the Gods” in Greek, as she explains in the preface) as there are people that she meets and falls in love with. She adds that it’s also the botanical name for cocoa: Theobroma cocoa. Part of her narrative is devoted to mentioning many of the various people whom she met along the way and who helped her take the first impulsive steps. For instance, late into the book, while running the Mumbai Marathon, Kainaz finds herself in in the company of a stranger who just by chance happens to be Elsie Nanji, the brilliant designer who has created the distinctive look of the book to match the re-invented look of the once dark interiors that Kainaz had first envisioned for the shop. If in the early days it was more like a chocolate box of Black Magic in dark maroons and wooden floors, later on it became like a tin of Mackintosh Quality Street with pastels pinks and pistachio, whorls of creamy parasols, bird cages, wind-up gramophones and tiered cake stands that spoke of a more gracious world of hearty breakfasts and evening teas. 
It’s hard not to become enthralled with the descriptions of Kainaz’s early life with her much loved family of four. There is Farokh Messman, the born-to-be-an-entrepreneur Dad, who always dreamed big and wanted more for his daughters; the practical Mum, Kamal, who started making handmade chocolates, puffs and pastries from her home kitchen; Tina, the older sister, who starts off as a first born bully, but later becomes Kainaz’s dream partner and explorer through all of London’s best known pastry shops, tea and coffee salons, pubs and markets. 
It’s a bit like meeting the Durrell family celebrated in My Family and Other Animals by Gerard Durrell where food at their dinner table in the Greek island of Corfu was always a part of the conversation. Their lives have now been re-invented into a cookbook where Louise the mother who had lived in India during the early part of her life creates a glorious combination of tastes and flavors based on what ingredients are available to her on the island. 
As though her Bombay family were not enough, Kainaz finds herself in a remote French province in the South of France at the age of 16 on a year-long Rotary scholarship. Without any knowledge of French but a gift for making herself at home with the four different families who are her hosts during her stay, Kainaz records her extraordinary adventures learning the language and the food. It is, as she tells you, the most dramatic turning point in her young life. The French passion for shopping and foraging through the markets for the best ingredients, the best wines to go with the simplest of dishes that are made every day, or during celebratory meals at remote farm houses, finds in her a willing student. She learns how to make bread, the different textures of wheat that go into making it in all its bewildering variety. Eventually, when she returns to India and becomes a part of the trend for making artisanal breads using other varieties of grains and seeds, she is up there with the best of them. 
 Tina meanwhile has also been on a transformational journey as an exchange student in America. It inspires her to become a chartered accountant. This adds another important component to the family enterprise when they realize that they must grow from their initial family-run shop. Each step of the journey is described in separate chapters that for the most part alternate between what the family believes they can achieve collectively and how at each stage they expand their base to include professionals who persuade them to think differently.  

 

 

 

 

 

It’s not that Kainaz herself is not a thorough professional chef. From the time she returns from her year in France she sets herself a goal of learning at the best avenues for food technology and catering. She describes her stint at the Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition (IHM) Bombay; and later at the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development (OCLD) at Delhi. As she reflects on her time at both these places Kainaz remembers how she was repeatedly warned that being a chef was not going to be easy for a woman. The work hours, the pressure from both mentors and peers, the need to think on one’s feet while catering to large crowds creates the kind of atmosphere that is like going into battle. At one point, Kainaz slips in one of the Oberoi kitchens and damages her back seriously enough to be hors de combat (out of action due to injury) for two months, after which she has to train twice as hard to make up for the time lost. She also recalls that being in such close formations instills a respect for the others in the same kitchen and creates what she insists upon in her later kitchens, the need for team spirit. Creating a vision and allowing others to become a part of that process is eventually what she tells the reader is her most important lesson.
Towards the end Kainaz sums up her journey as "Twelve Things I’ve Learnt Along the Way.” If one were to summarize the Theobroma mantra in five easy words, it would be: passion, perseverance, planning, perfection and pleasure. 
For the rest of us it’s simpler to say: "Pass me another warm chocolate walnut brownie” and "Cheers” to Kainaz and     Tina.                                  

 

 GEETA DOCTOR