Journey of Bake-a-Diem

As final year students of Symbiosis School of Culinary Arts, Pune, we always looked forward for this Dissertation Project to showcase our culinary skills with a touch of our entrepreneurial skills learnt throughout the course of three years. Generally, dissertation projects are theory-oriented where students create thesis on their researches, but SSCA being a practical-oriented institute, emphasized on the practical approach to learning and hence has put forth a live dissertation project for the students.

In the words of Henry Ford,” Coming together is progress and working together is success”. We saw the beauty of different minds working together, ideas culminating through creativity and being put into action through grit and determination. The brainstorming of ideas began months prior to the actual dissertation. After several considerations and deliberations, a clearer picture of the enterprise began to form in front of our eyes. We were guided by our dissertation mentor Chef Hemant Gokhale, Director Chef Atul Gokhale and Deputy Director Chef Manoj Patkar.

The team was further divided into various essential departments like marketing, finance, purchase, sales and production teams. When the operations began, integration of the key departments became more important than ever. A pilot study was conducted to study the likes and dislikes of our targeted customers with which we could create a menu. Our bakery instructors, Chef Pankaj Deshpande and Chef Shamal More offered their most valued insights and expertise that helped us finalize the menu. A wide array of baked goods was offered with an attractive spread of sweets and savouries. Our stalls were set-up across the Symbiosis Campuses and other selected areas in order to

cater to the demands of our customers. As a responsible member of this society, we also promoted the idea of sustainability by using only recyclable packaging materials. In addition to this, pre-orders for various products like specialty cakes and specially-curated hampers on the occasion of Women’s day were accepted which became an instant success!

The entire process was a holistic learning experience for all the team members. Starting from the scratch was certainly not an easy task but the students, along with the help of their mentors, put together all the resources required to establish this pop-up venture. Greater things like communication, respecting opinions, team work, being responsible for our actions and facing them with a positive attitude was something that we learnt but looking back, everything surely came to us as a learning

lesson with a great experience that will definitely support us for our future endeavours in the industry. Yet, everyone worked together and they were meant to fit in together like the pieces of an elaborate puzzle.