From Passion to Profession: Questions We Asked Shivesh Bhatia | @BakeWithShivesh

0:00 suddenly I'm getting flashes of me attempting to make macarons yeah a lot of failed attempts to do that now we have some very quick answers so which ones uh can you pick [Music] okay mithais or pastries your favorite very very tough but I feel that I'm I feel a bit higher more addictive like if you give me one jalebi I will not stop until I finished all the jalebis inside

0:31 so in that sense most definitely mithai because I just feel that you can't have one your comfort food three mistakes that wannabe Bakers must avoid so I think to not have patience because I feel that along with scale and precision and everything one uh skill that you need to have to succeed as a baker is to be patient because it's not gonna come you come to you in uh one day something that will take a lot of time

1:00 so you need to be patient and pull through the other thing would be to stop experimenting because I know that once you kind of nail one dessert it's an order fun to keep only making that but I think it's also very important to uh you know then push yourself out of that comfort zone because if you unlike any other profession I feel that your growth stops if you were not attempting something which makes you nervous so I

1:24 think that even as a baker is extremely important to do and the other thing that I would say is to not eventually invest in the right kind of equipment and I'm not saying expensive mixers or uh you know fancy equipment I'm saying something as simple as a weighing scale or measuring cups these are basic things that you would need to have to get the perfect result because I know a lot of people who try to bake a dessert without

1:50 having these basic equipments and then they blame themselves because they think that uh they are doing something wrong but more often than not it's honestly just the lack of the right equipment if not a baker what would you have been probably a lawyer we Gadgets in your kitchen that you can't do without ah lots of things but of course my oven my measuring cups and my whisk and spatula press everything I can do without three productivity tools you and your team

2:18 swear by so we are all I feel like especially me I feel like I am very uh technologically challenged so I know that they might be expecting to hear some fancy apps that help you kind of increase your productivity but here I'm struggling to just keep up with my WhatsApp and Instagram I'm a very basic person I honestly write down things in my diary with my pen uh all the tasks that I have to complete that day and in

2:44 the evening the joy that it gives me to kind of cut it out is something which kind of helps me be productive if I don't want to do something I just think about how much oil give me later to kind of take it off my list the best advice you've got when you started food blogging I think it is to be consistent and I honestly feel that one of the of big reasons why I've been able to build

3:05 a social media following is because I've been consistent and I'm also like everybody else gone through phases where I feel like giving up and I think that oh it's not working my follow account is stuck I'm not getting the response that I want so it probably doesn't make sense I've had all of those thoughts uh not just on Instagram but even on a platform like YouTube that I've started recently uh but just the fact that I've shown up

3:30 every day uh you know put out some content on YouTube also I've been consistently posting two videos every week I think that is just help me I don't think I am the best baker out there or I have the best recipes or I am the best food stylist I don't think any of that stands true but I know for a fact that I am extremely consistent and uh I do show up every day so I think

3:55 that is something that has helped me a recipe that you've made more blunders than got right macarons one last minute baking hack tip when the cake is just not Rising as planned unfortunately you can't do anything about the cake not Rising if it's already in the oven then give us the hack for the softest cake that one can have so I think a lot of mistakes that people make and it's something that I have done a lot when I

4:21 was just starting out is when you're combining it dry and you get ingredients to over mix it what that does is basically you end up knocking out all the air and that is what results in a heart in a dense cake and I used to have so much fun just mixing it and just see the batter forming those beautiful ribbons and I know it's very oddly satisfying and comforting to just keep mixing but don't do that just fold the

4:44 dry ingredients in only until you don't see any flap pockets and then stop one viral food chain that you really like I recently uh was training right now is that caramelized toast that has come from a Rome Bakery in London so I tried that out recently and I absolutely loved it so that any kitchen mishaps that you remember oh so many and I think again like suddenly I'm getting flashes of me attempting to make macarons yeah a lot

5:14 of failed attempts to do that the worst advice you got when you started food blogging I think a lot of people were of the opinion that I'll be able to grow only as a dessert content creator so I feel that a lot of people were in the opinion that if I'm doing food I should do Savory as well I am glad that I made the decision to stick to something which I genuinely think is my area of

5:37 expertise and something that I genuinely want to talk about instead of just becoming a food blogger and also to save it just so that it appeals to a lot more people and to kind of make my content more Massy so I'm glad that I didn't get influenced by that the one skill that you think sets you apart I think again the fact that I'm extremely consistent and if I've decided something for myself even if it's something which is

6:03 challenging I do end up doing it then we have three tips for home Bakers kids or otherwise product the most because all the other fills do help but again if your product is not great I don't think your customer is going to come back to you secondly although it is one of the Frills but do focus on building a social media presence so I think it kind of works as a great show window for uh your

6:31 customers to just see your work and I always say that if the show window doesn't look interesting enough nobody's actually going to enter the shop and purchase anything so that kind of social media now works as a great uh way to just show the kind of work that you can do and potentially get more customers and my third uh tip would be to focus a lot on customer feedback again like any other uh industry it's very important to

6:58 understand what your customers are seeing and if say you're getting a negative feedback why are you getting that negative feedback and how you can fix it anything new that people should expect or you want to share about when you're wearing three that's that's coming up on the blog Vlog YouTube channel or on your social pages so I am working on uh creating a product with one of the biggest coffee brands which is gonna release this summer so

7:25 that's all I can say for now uh but I think that is something that I am personally really looking forward to because as somebody who does uh you know work on social media and creates digital assets I feel like it gives me great joy to create something tangible that my audience can actually go to a store and pick and which is one of the reason why reasons why I love working on books as a just as a mom who's in the decision

7:50 making phase for you know what her child should pick I think it gives me great uh thoughts that let your kid just do what they want to do their heart out too and I honestly feel that a lot of people underestimate the supportive parents but I feel that when you know that your parents are you know there for you and they've got your back and they give you the confidence that even if they end up failing in what they're set out to do

8:18 they're going to be there to kind of help them figure out what next could be done I think that kind of sets you up for Success so it's extremely important to you know know that your parents are going to be there for you foreign