As the rickshaw stops outside building No. 33 in Deonar village, we know we have arrived, for the building is painted in the exact shade of pista-green as the takeaway box of Theobroma that we flipped open so many times for a millionaire brownie. On the agenda is a meeting with founder-owner and chef Kainaz Messman, whose book Baking a Dream (Harper Collins) co-authored with sister Tina Messman Wykes, is set to release on March 13.

Dressed in a sunshine yellow top and pants, her poker straight hair is pulled behind her ears, like always. We glance at the collection of cookbooks when she offers to make us a short espresso. As the coffee machine wheezes, we flip through the book and meet the Messmans—Farokh, wife Kamal and their daughters Tina and Kainaz. We are now privy to casual family banter about starting a business in 2004. It seems like a day-by-day account of Theobroma patiseerie opening on Colaba Causeway on a rainy day. There is the first-timer angst, but gradually they find collaborators, like their transitioning CEO Cyrus Shroff who helped them retain the old-world charm in changing times. "We had received offers to write a recipe book, but I felt that would be too simple," says Kainaz, an alumnus of Dadar's Institute of Hotel Management. She was only 24 when she launched Theobroma's after a back injury had pulled her out of training with the Oberoi Hotels. From a small staff of three in the first year, she has grown the business to one that supports a strength of 300, with branches in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, and soon to launch in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.