Rachel Goenka

From chocolate barfi-flavoured cheesecake to cardamom mousse sprinkled with motichoor laddoo, Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai brings you 50 original recipes of Indian classics with a modern twist.Rachel, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, uses international techniques to create luscious delicacies. Now, she shares her techniques, flavours and designs that are almost too pretty to eat, in a cookbook for ambitious home chefs.From desserts and ice-creams to macarons and chocolates, these easy-to-prepare, innovative desserts are perfect for entertaining during the festive and wedding seasons.

Rachel Goenka is the Founder and CEO of The Chocolate Spoon Company – the holding company for her enviable chain of chic restaurants, bars, bakeries & patisseries (The Sassy Spoon, House of Mandarin, Sassy Teaspoon, Baraza Bars and Bites & Wicked China). Shy to boast of it’s many firsts, TCSC dared to bring in Eclectic European cuisine to India in 2012. Rachel was instrumental in redefining how restaurants in India curated desserts with a range of innovative offerings at her restaurants.

Rachel graduated with a double degree in Journalism and English from The Pennsylvania State University. Post her stint in journalism and advertising she realized her true calling and passion was in food and decided to turn her dream into a reality. She then attended The Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, where she trained under celebrity chef Rachel Allen, and then moved to Le Cordon Bleu in London to specialize in patisserie.

A young businesswoman, at 24 Rachel embarked on her entrepreneurship journey and is best known for her astute business sense and a strong belief that your employees are the most critical ingredients of your business platter! Sassy is what best describes her approach to all that she does from restaurant conceptualization to delighting the customer with holistic dining experiences.

Currently, her restaurant portfolio comprises 15 outlets and 2 central kitchens across Mumbai and Pune. In addition to the traditional dine-in business, under Rachel’s leadership, TCSC has been aggressively diversifying its revenue streams via outdoor catering, corporate lunch box services, private labelling and banqueting. She has also launched one of the first cloud-based dessert only delivery brand, Cake Me Home, aimed at leveraging the advent of third-party delivery channels, in Mumbai this year.

TCSC & Rachel have both been extensively recognized and won numerous accolades in 2018 & 2019. Rachel most recently won the award for ‘Woman Entrepreneur of the Year’ at Times Hospitality Icons 2019.
In 2018 she won the award for ‘Young Restauranteur of the Year’ at the Restaurant India Awards 2018 and was also featured in The CEO Magazine article on ’30 Women Entrepreneurs to watch in 2018 in India’.

Ms. Sassy, as Rachel is widely known, has made her mark on a heavily male dominated industry and is intent on blazing a trail for other aspiring women-entrepreneurs across all industries!

Her first cookbook, Adventures with Mithai, has recipes ranging from ras kadam cheesecake to kaju katli truffles The foundation of Rachel Goenka’s first cookbook, Adventures with Mithai, was laid seven years ago when she started European restaurant The Sassy Spoon in Mumbai. Talking over phone with MetroPlus, the Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, says, “Every Diwali, I would come up with a specific festive menu. The desserts would be predominantly Indian with a contemporary flair to them, similar to the recipes you see in the book. But the recipes I had at The Sassy Spoon were plated desserts and you can’t expect a home-baker to do that. It was a challenging yet rewarding process, adapting Indian ingredients, especially sweets, to a Western palate and balancing those flavours.” The book is aimed at those who want to re-purpose the boxes of sweets they received or bought during the festive season, or those who want an unconventional yet traditional dessert table, or even just want to introduce mithai to others in a more familiar way. Comprising 50 recipes, the book is sorted into desserts, cheesecakes and cakes, truffles, macarons, ice creams, kulfis and sorbets. The book has a lot to satiate the adventurous pastry enthusiast: from the lemongrass panna cotta with vermicelli kheer, and Mysore pak and tender coconut domes to the ras kadam cheesecake, kaju katli truffles and rasmalai ice cream.

The Sassy Spoon hosted celebrity chef Rachel Allen in a bid to raise money for under privileged children with the GOAL foundation. GOAL is an international humanitarian agency dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the underprivileged. The event comprised of a meet and greet with Rachel Allen followed by a dinner specially designed by Rachel Goenka and Irfan Pabaney with a spread of wine and food inclusive of specials from The Sassy Spoon and inspirations by Rachel Allen. The cost per person for the event was 5000 Rupees, all proceeds of which have been donated to GOAL.

Every Diwali, I experimented with traditional flavours and I loved doing it so much that I started developing different confections for different festivals. Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai is the product of seven years of experimentation, toil and quirk. The inspiration is simple – elevating mithai in a fun way by taking our favourites and jazzing them up! Mithai is amazing on its own, but there is so much more that you can do with it. Ingredients 200 gm kesar peda 10 gm cream cheese 10 gm icing sugar COATING 100 gm powdered sugar Preparation Mash the kesar peda in a bowl using the back of a spoon or a fork. Ensure the mithai is at room temperature, so that it mashes easily. Add the icing sugar and cream cheese and mix till it forms a paste-like consistency. Refrigerate the filling for approximately 30 minutes. Measure 15 gm of filling for each truffle and roll into balls. Store the truffles in an airtight container in the fridge till you are ready to serve. To serve, bring the truffles to room temperature and toss them in powdered sugar. They look stunning served on a beautiful silver tray, rolled in powdered sugar. Toss a few strands of saffron into the powdered sugar to create a more dazzling impact. These truffles can keep for a week in the fridge. Excerpted with permission from Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai, Rachel Goenka, HarperCollins.

Every Diwali, I experimented with traditional flavours and I loved doing it so much that I started developing different confections for different festivals. Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai is the product of seven years of experimentation, toil and quirk. The inspiration is simple – elevating mithai in a fun way by taking our favourites and jazzing them up! Mithai is amazing on its own, but there is so much more that you can do with it. Ingredients CRUST 550 gm chocolate barfi (only brown layer) 110 gm digestive biscuits 45 gm unsalted butter, softened 20 gm granulated sugar FILLING 380 gm Philadelphia cream cheese 200 gm dark chocolate, roughly chopped 175 gm heavy cream 75 gm castor sugar 7.5 gm cornflour 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence GARNISH 150 gm chocolate barfi 20 gm roasted almond flakes Preparation

Rachel Goenka is the chef behind The Sassy Spoon, Sassy Teaspoon, House of Mandarin, Baraza Pune and Wicked China, and author of the award-winning Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai. These decadent truffles are first dunked in chocolate and then embellished with glittering silver foil for the ultimate dessert to share and enjoy! Kaju Katli Truffles Ingredients 200 g kaju katli 20 g cream cheese Dark chocolate, melted Edible silver foil Method Mash the kaju katli with cream cheese to a soft, pliable consistency. Roll them into balls and dip completely in melted dark chocolate. Garnish with bits of silver foil. Allow them to set in the refrigerator for two minutes. Your truffles are ready to binge on!