Page 61 - DAIS - DAISPORA ISSUE 05

FROM PASSION

to Profession

SANA KABRA

CLASS OF 2017

Sana Kabra grew up in Nigeria and moved to Mumbai in the 8th grade, when she
joined DAIS. She now owns her own restaurant in the city, a trendy pizza and pastry
outpost called Bene

Chartered accountant to chef…how did the transition come about?

After I graduated DAIS, I intended to study economics in the UK, but life had other How did you break in to the F&B space?
plans. I ended up staying back in India, and sort of knew that I wanted to work in food.
However, I had visited Dadar Catering College and wasn’t very impressed—I didn’t
see myself there. My mother challenged me to cook a meal every day at home to I started with an internship under chef Kelvin Cheung, who used to run a popular
prove that I could do a career in cooking, but at that point, I wasn’t convinced myself, Bandra restaurant called One Street Over. It was so exciting and the environment
and didn’t really want to cook meals at home. was so energetic, I loved it. After that finished, I went back to baking from home.
I got an order from actor Shilpa Shetty, through a teacher at DAIS actually, who
I was good at math, and a counsellor told my parents that I could pursue chartered was good friends with her. Shetty posted about it on Instagram, and overnight, I
accountancy. At that point, my dad’s jaw dropped, he was excited at the prospect of gained more than 2,000 followers.
his daughter being a CA. He told me to take a few months to try and figure out what I
wanted to do, and if I hadn’t by then, then I could do CA. And so I did. Now I had orders coming in all day, from 7 am to 10 pm. I decided then that I
should get proper professional training and get really well skilled. I was all set to
I took a few accountancy classes and told myself that if I didn’t clear the exams in the go to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) but had my visa rejected a few
first attempt, I would know it wasn’t meant for me. But I sailed through all the weeks before leaving, because they weren’t convinced I was committed to a
levels—and I think the training I had at DAIS made a huge difference. The IB and the culinary career after CA. Interestingly, at the same time, I got a call from another
school teaches us to approach things practically, not theoretically, and that’s what set school in France—this was definitely the best decision. I had incredible exposure
me apart from other students. to the best restaurants, techniques, even chefs. I developed my palate as a chef

When I cleared the second level, I started an articleship [a 3-year-job], working with when I was there, I learned perfection and attention to detail through internships.
asset reconstruction companies… it was all very enriching. But every weekend, I kept I spent about a month traveling and eating in Italy, and realised that even though
coming back to baking. I would take orders from friends and family, and even at the they eat carbs all the time, you don’t feel heavy or bloated, thanks in part to the
end of a long workday, I would love to go into the kitchen to fulfil them. By the time I quality ingredients and the techniques used. My restaurant is called ‘Bene’, which
finished the CA exams and articleship, I was convinced that sitting behind the means ‘good’ in Italian. I want people to feel good when they eat here.
computer, working on accounts, was not for me. That is when I decided to go into
full-time baking.