There are two things that grab your attention when you walk into Gât'Oh, the new French patisserie in the city. The wide selection of pastries laid out in a glass display refrigerator; and, the affable Shanaya Dastur. Of her two-month-old bakery, Dastur says she has been planning it over four years. "I'm from Rajkot in Gujarat. I studied mathematics and actuarial sciences, and went on to work at my family-run hospital.

However, over time, my love for food led me to start cooking; and the more I did, the more confident I got," says Dastur, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu London, where she studied cuisine and pastry—savoury and sweet. On returning to India, she turned her focus to pastries because it is her first love. "At École Grégoire-Ferrandi, in Paris, I realised I was meant to become a pastry chef."