Confectionery craftsman

As a student at the Billimoria High School, Panchgani, Meher­nosh Khajotia would carefully remove and preserve the recipes on the condensed milk bottles that his mother Perin would send him from Bombay. This was perhaps Khajotia’s earliest interest in the subject that has over the years blossomed into craftsman­ship in baking and confectionery. Khajotia’s pastry counter Celebrations Fine Confections was inaugurated at the Cymroza Art Gallery on February 21, 2004. "Please do share in my passion for the finest desserts in town,” stated the invitation to the opening at Pheroza Godrej’s reputed gallery at Breach Candy, Bombay. After years of operating from his home at Grand Paradi, Kemps Corner, Khajotia now has an outlet from where he can market his cakes and pastries as well as sell those especially made to order. Almost every cake available at the counter can be bought also as a slice, enabling new custo­mers to sample the confectionery before buying the whole.

Strawberry Dipped Chocolate on a Tiramisu Strawberry Cake

"Every cake is different,” insists Khajotia, adding that justice to the Double Chocolate Nut Torte — with three layers of macrons, a layer of milk chocolate mousse and another of cho­colate mousse topped with fresh cream, chocolate curls and cracked toffee — can only be done when savored. Khajotia’s website http://celebrationsfc.tripod.com provides a comprehensive list of all his confectioneries with pictures and details of their weight, related prices and main contents. Almost all his desserts weigh over one kilo, he clarifies. He offers a variety of gateaux, desserts, mousses and tortes. The Chocolate Walnut Mousse Gateau, one of the lowest priced confectioneries in this section, costs Rs 370, weighs 800 g and serves 8 to 12 persons whereas the Gateau Chocoholic with Crushed Nutty Caramel costs Rs 650, weighs 1.7 kg and serves 14 to 18 people. To introduce his cheesecakes the site specifies, "Made out of the creamiest cheese ever — the original Philadelphia Cream Cheese; always the best. Topped with stewed fruit of your choice and cool whip. We also make the base freshly baked with crushed biscuits, always with pure rich butter — every bite a sin, need I say more?” Whether it be the Old Country Cranberry Cheesecake or Vanilla Peaches and Cream, Khajotia’s cheesecakes are all priced over Rs 1,000. He justifies his high prices, stating that most of the ingredients are Swiss and Belgian.

Thirty-three-year-old Khajotia began selling his confectioneries under the name Celebra­tions Fine Confections, approximately 10 years ago, he recol­lects, when Burjor Poonawalla of Comart Lithographers suggested Khajotia’s products should be branded. Poonawalla "has been like my godfather,” Khajotia states, not only one of his oldest and most loyal clients but also a constant guide. Khajotia’s wife Nilufer, who works with British Airways, and helps him with his computer work, costing,etc has also been "a lot of inspiration,” he says. Diwali, Christmas, Pateti and the New Year are his busiest sea­sons, most of his clientele being corporates. Infosys, HDFC, ICICI, Union Bank, The Great Eastern Shipping Company, Tata Infomedia, the Birlas and even Stephen Hawking when he visited India, are "amongst our many satisfied customers,” he mentions. On an average he bakes six to 15 cakes in a day with the assistance of his helpers. When it’s season time his mother helps with the packing. "My dad (the late Kersi) used to do all the weighing of the chocolates and I used to see him put an extra chocolate into each box while he weighed them. He used to say that it is for good luck, a practice I continue till today,” says the confectioner. With the corporates, his chocolates which he has been making for the last 15 years are the most popular since a company logo can be embossed or raised on the chocolate surface, making an ideal business gift. Says columnist Ruby Lilaowala who was present at the launch at the Gallery, "This outlet also makes a wide range of eggless as well as health-conscious creations prepared from oats, salad oil and soya cream.” Khajotia informs that they make diabetic chocolates too and will introduce low calorie desserts and home delivery in and around south Bombay shortly.

Confectionery delights; Mehernosh and Nilufer Khajotia; stand and the pastry counter at Cymroza with Perin Khajotia in the foreground

As a child, Khajotia reminisces, he would be bribed with Black Forest cake to finish his daily meals. His father would provide Khorshed fui (paternal aunt) with slices of the cake, which she would then dexterously offer to Khajotia in exchange for morsels of food. Four slices of Black Forest cake per day could bring Khajotia to complete his meals. After the eleventh grade Khajotia, who suffers from dyslexia, left his schooling and pursued a career in confectionery. He began training under chefs Dolly Munshi and Veera Lam. He would help with Munshi’s catering business and for Rs 50 per day Lam would teach him two desserts. He sold his first cake when he was a teenager. A neighbor, who was throw­ing a dinner party for 20 people, suggested Khajotia bake a cake for the occasion. This being his first professional order, and for a large number of people, he miscalculated the time it would take to bake the cake and at 11 p.m. when his neighbor called frantically the dessert wasn’t ready. At the dot of 11:30 though he delivered the cake, baked perfectly and steaming hot. It was such a success that the next day one of the guests at the party called him placing an order for the same cake insisting that it must be delivered just so, steaming hot. Khajotia whose earlier miscalculation earned him a new clilent, was now at a loss to repeat the same order. Nevertheless his entrepreneurship left his second client also very pleased.

The "stepping stone” in Khajotia’s career came when one of his cakes was sent to Camellia Panjabi, former executive director of the Indian Hotels Company Limited. She was so im­pressed with young talent like his that she helped him enroll in the catering college at Dadar. But Khajotia left after a day because the course included cookery and confectionery, whereas he was interested "only in desserts from the beginning... I don’t want to cut onions,” he confessed. Instead he joined the YWCA Insti­tute of Baking and Nutrition Education at Bombay Central and studied there under the guidance of Sheela Sadarangani for one and a half years. Khajotia then trained at the Taj, after which he worked independently for a few years. When Khajotia’s parents were holidaying in Switzerland they came upon a college that specializes only in confectionery. Khajotia joined the institution for a six-month course and even "worked in a couple of Swiss bakeries.”

"Confectionery today is a big business. Baking cakes and manufacturing chocolates is a specialized field with specific training requirements,” says the connoisseur. "We Parsis have excelled in every field... We’ve been corporate leaders, executors of law and order, doctors, teachers, journalists, actors... We may be a small community but we’ve produced the most prominent personalities around. I am very proud to be a Parsi... We are a community that believes in ‘live and let live’ so let’s continue to believe in peace, love and harmony and spread happiness,” he adds. Khajotia hopes to spread joy through his creations: "You need to have a passion for what you create... You need to have a passion to create something new everyday... to experiment... If you love what you do... success can’t be far behind. I belong to the select few who can proudly claim, ‘I can make my cake and eat it too.’”

Khajotia’s confectioneries are available at The Pastry Counter, Cymroza Art Gallery, Breach Candy, Bombay between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tel: 30953043. He can also be contacted at 9821122290, 23640665 and 23681209.