CHENNAI: Chocolate solves everything — whether you’re stressed, happy or sad. Using chocolates as an anchor for his creativity is Chef Boopesh Pichaimani, corporate chef for The French Loaf and Le Chocolatier in the city. From carving and installing a dense chocolate version of the famous Merlion of Singapore to infusing all kinds of flavours in artisanal chocolates, Chef Boopesh is the pro you’re looking for.
Boopesh was always fond of chocolates even as a kid, so it came as no surprise that he would pick a career out of it. “I started in 1994. During my hotel management days in college, I won a lot of competitions related to chocolate. I realized that I could choose a different path in the field, something many wouldn’t tread. So I chose the ‘chocolate and baking’ aspect of the course, and since then I’ve been creating the same,” he says.
After obtaining his degree, the chef grabbed any opportunity that would hone his chocolatier skills. “I trained at several prominent hotels for years before moving to a famous bakery house. Soon enough, I became a travelling pastry chef at cruises,” he narrates.
Believing that baking is an art, chef Boopesh models his works following three principles — practice, patience and enthusiasm. “You need to work around these three in order to get ahead. Eating a chocolate is simple but the process behind making it is the real task you need to excel at,” he says. Everyday, he tries to create something new — perhaps a fusion of milk and dark chocolate on one day, or a dolphin-shaped chocolate on another, or even a dryfruit crunchy chocolate — the ideas keep coming to him.
“You can easily satisfy 60-70% of people with chocolate. And a favourite among many is the milk chocolate,” he says. In a bid to enhance flavours of the chocolate, chef Boopesh believes that cappuccino and chocolate make a terrific combination. This is evident in a lot of his dishes, particularly in his festive brownies and his rainbow cake-inspired pastry titled ‘Wow Pastry’.