Homemaker to home baker

Meet Tanu Mehra, who gave up a career in corporate HR to follow her dream

Tanu Mehra worked in a corporate world for eight years. “I took a maternity break and never felt like going back. I felt the culinary expert within me was suppressed under the pressures of deadlines and meetings.”

Tanu started baking when she lived abroad. “I found solace in baking in that foreign land as it was so grey and it rained all the time,” shares Tanu, who soon started inviting friends to share her baked goods.

“My idea of baking is more like sharing a story rather than just throwing in a few ingredients and making something,” adds the home baker, whose family decided to make Bengaluru their home in 2012 and “that was when I started my baking unit from home and called it ‘Tanu’s’.”

Her journey as a baker has been one of many “chapters of trials and errors, batches of dough going into bins, blackened ovens, while substituting the ingredients with healthier versions,” before her innovations finally hit the right consistency that set her bakes sailing.

“The attempt was to replace refined ingredients with healthier ones. The line between healthy and tasty stuff is a thin one.”

Tanu uses ingredients such as organic jaggery, maple syrup or dates and has come up with a recipe for every kind of foodie as she did “not want to eliminate any kind of eater from enjoying my cooking.”

Tanu’s has oatmeal cookies, granola bars, cheese cakes, chocolate mousse and more, which “also come in Keto diet versions. I never thought of fusion food and never dreamt that jaggery and whole wheat flour going in as main ingredients would work wonders,” she says, adding that cakes and cookies can be enjoyed as long as you “add in more fibres and natural sweeteners as it does turn out healthier. Having one of my oatmeal cookies is like having a bowl of oatmeal with jaggery.”

Tanu normally bakes through the nights after her family turns in. “Mornings I am busy with delivery,” says Tanu, who also says she has a few customers who are regulars and she knows each one’s likes and dislikes. “I personalise their bakes. In fact, I have a board on my counter that has listed out each one’s preference,” she smiles.

Tanu also makes birthday and wedding cakes. “I avoid artificial colours and use beetroot, spinach, purple cabbage and blue berry extracts instead. There is nothing that is sold from my shelf that is not eaten by me and my kids,” beams Tanu.

Does she ever get tired of baking? “Sometimes, I feel I need a break and that is good as I come back with more innovations after a break. Else, baking for me will become monotonous and that is something I dread. A break is always good as it makes me a baker with a difference,” she says.

This column features those who choose to veer off the beaten track.