I Never Planned to Fall
in Love with Chocolate.

But some of life's most meaningful chapters begin with an unexpected gift.

I started with balance sheets, not ganache. A finance graduate from Banasthali University with an MBA and a clear professional path ahead — numbers were my language, spreadsheets my world. Chocolate? That was just something I loved to eat.

Then, one ordinary day, a friend handed me a small box. Inside: handmade chocolates. I took one bite — and something shifted. It wasn't just the flavour. It was the realisation that someone had made this with their hands, from scratch, with intention and craft. That moment quietly rewired everything.

That little box of chocolates didn't just change my career — it changed how I see creativity, science, and what it means to build something meaningful.

The beginning — Ludhiana

Life had taken me to Ludhiana, following my husband's career. Far from home, in an unfamiliar city, I enrolled in my first chocolate workshop — equal parts curious, equal parts nervous. What I discovered in that room was nothing short of wonder. Chocolate, I learned, was not just confectionery. It was chemistry, craft, culture, and commerce all melted into one.

I came home that evening and couldn't stop thinking about it. So I kept going ? learning, experimenting, making mistakes, and making better chocolate each time.

From kitchen to clients

Slowly, carefully, I began selling. Restaurants. Cafes. Ice cream parlours. Word spread, and soon I had corporate clients knocking at my door. My MBA hadn't gone to waste after all - I was running a real business now, one built on technique, trust, and taste.

But the part that lit me up the most? Teaching. When I started conducting workshops, I discovered that sharing chocolate knowledge was as rewarding as making it. Women who wanted to start their own businesses from home would walk into my workshops uncertain, and leave with confidence - and a whole new set of skills. That transformation never got old.

When the world went online

Then came COVID. Like everyone, I had to adapt. I moved my workshops online - and something unexpected happened. The virtual classroom didn't shrink my reach; it exploded it. Students from across the globe joined in. What had started in a Ludhiana kitchen was now reaching homes in different time zones, different countries, different cultures - all united by a love for chocolate.

Mumbai and a new turning point

Mumbai brought the next chapter. I joined one of India's leading companies as NPD and Production Head - and it was a masterclass in chocolate at scale. Working at that level deepened my understanding of food science, formulation, and the rigorous standards that separate good chocolate from exceptional chocolate. It was the bridge between artisan craft and professional expertise that I hadn't known I was missing.

Where I am now

Today, I work as a freelance recipe developer and chocolate consultant — and my focus has shifted to where the real story begins: the farm. Understanding chocolate at its grassroots, tracing how every decision from fermentation to roasting to conching shapes what eventually lands on your palate — this is what excites me far more than piping a perfect bonbon.

Great chocolate is not made in the kitchen. It is made in the cacao grove, in the fermentation box, in every invisible choice between harvest and bar.

If you want to understand chocolate at that depth — how origin, post-harvest processing, and each stage of production fundamentally determines the final outcome — you are in the right place. This is not a space for shortcuts or surface-level tutorials. It is a space for people who ask why, not just how.

I share everything I know, openly and precisely. And I mean it when I say this is a two-way conversation — your questions, your experiments, your perspectives genuinely shape how I think and what I explore next. The best learning has always worked that way.

Finance trained my mind to think in systems. Chocolate taught me to think in origin, process, and flavour. Together, they made me the kind of professional who never stops digging deeper.

10+years in chocolate • Chocolate Maker • Recipe developer • Educator • Chocolate blogger