CHENNAI : Subhatra Priyadarshini expresses her creativity through an unusual medim: chocolate. “I refer to myself as a chocolate artist rather than a chocolatier because I am a person who enjoys cooking and is interested in art. It is in fact a medium to express myself,” says Subhatra.
The sweet journey
Subhatra founded Choc of the Town in New Delhi on August 4, 2010, and moved it to Teynampet, two years ago. “Immediately after graduating with a B Tech degree from Anna University, I got married and moved to Delhi. I finally managed to land a position at an IT start-up after plenty of struggle,” says Subhatra. She later realised it was not the pursuit she wanted to follow, and quit her job. It was not an easy move, and she had no idea how to go forward.
That was when she enrolled at an IIM-Bangalore program for women entrepreneurs. “During a break at the program, my friend and I visited a home baker. I observed individuals handling chocolates while clad in gloves and caps. That’s when it dawned on me that I could make a career out of this,” sayd Subhatra.
She stopped by a book store and bought a book of chocolate recipes, and took up a foundation-level chocolate-making course. “Bringing art into chocolate is the core of my idea. At that time I didn’t anticipate it would be this long. I just knew I would love doing this,” recalls Subhatra.
She wanted to think of something original that would make her business stand out. “Chocolate is widely available. I made the decision to create chocolates that could be personalised for various events and clients. It could be made especially for weddings, gifting, etc. I worked through the night making chocolate diyas for Diwali the year I launched my venture,” she adds. Subhatra soon began receiving orders for weddings, birthdays, and other events.
The initial years were arduous, and Subhatra was overburdened with work because she had to handle each aspect of the business. “During that time, I operated a website from which customers could place orders from all over India, since I did not have a physical shop, my home served as my office. Finally, it was almost impossible to separate the two,” she says.
According to Subhatra, making chocolates from scratch, moulding them into shapes, and drawing portraits on them takes a lot of patience and attention to detail. It involves days of planning, sketching out ideas, deciding on ingredients, and trial runs and executing those plans will take a day or two depending on the size of the order. “Small products like lollipops only require fifteen minutes since they set quickly. The longest order I ever worked on was for a week, of which five days were devoted to planning and testing. I needed an additional two days to complete it. It was a wedding-related recreation of the Tanjore Temple. I am incredibly proud of that,” she states. Subhatra has also made replicas of jewellery, pasta, noodles, biryani, sushi and more, completely out of chocolates, which became a hit earlier this year. She loves challenging orders and enjoys the thrill of completing a seemingly impossible one.
Planning and taking orders often take up the first part ofher typical business day and baking along with packing takes up the rest of the day. She prefers a week’s notice for large orders, which are usually placed over the phone or in person at the Untangle-House of Puzzles Cafe, which includes her kitchen. Managing a growing business, alone, takes time, effort, hard work, diligence and persistence. But the most important is the presence of passion that fuels one to do their best and persist.
“This is what I wanted, and I spent sleepless nights dreaming about the success of my venture. I took care of chocolate production, completion of orders, accounting, social media management, and the logistics involved in packaging like ice boxes, that ensure the chocolates don’t melt. I just tired myself out,” she continues. For her, time management is challenging. “You can be good at something but you can’t just sit all day doing it. Another challenge I faced was getting contacts. With respect to my business, word of mouth is crucial and it’s generally how I get customers, ” she says.
She definitely realised the value of a well-trained team at this stage. “I understood I couldn’t accomplish everything by myself. To reduce my effort and concentrate on my passion for curating artistic chocolate, I had to delegate roles. I now have a fantastic team of three people,” she concludes. According to Subhatra, success may not necessarily come from simply holding a degree. She has next set her eyes on making international premium chocolates like bonbons and pralines.
To place your order, contact: +919840457056, Instagram: @chocofthetown