Goa-born pastry chef Eureka Araujo likes to amaze. Think stunning carnation and caramello entremets, caramelised nutty tarts, flaky croissants with dark chocolate lining, mandarin-rich ganache and crunchy pecans combined in a creamy chocolate mousse dotting the tables and more. And why not? The creative director of Sivako, Mumbai—which turned a year old this month—is on a high. In January this year, she bagged the third position at the World Pastry Queen championship, held in Rimini, Italy. It was the first time India had a podium-finish at the competition, which is the biggest bakery and pastry trade fair in the world.
sweet victory—it came post endless days of tastings, creating flavour combinations, late nights and trials—the 30-year-old is pushing boundaries, working magic in her French-style, takeaway patisserie in suburban Mumbai. Over a month after the win, the feeling is yet to settle in. “It feels surreal,” confesses Araujo, who is keen to start an academy to help talented young pastry chefs find expression in the larger, global canvas. “It was an uphill task reaching Italy—from pouring in personal finances, to clobbering politics, organising visas and reaching fully prepared on time, without any assistance on home turf. I want to change that for the next generation of potential winners,” she says.
Araujo discovered her love for baking watching her home-baker mom at work. What started as role play and kitchen mess, charted her path to becoming India’s Pastry Queen in 2017, just a year after she turned pro. Her Fallen Trone chocolate cake with pressurised smoke of dry ice had the judges swooning. The pandemic acted as a disruptor to her plans of opening a bakery, but finally in March 2022, Araujo along with her sister Nikita set up Sivako.
The business has begun to boom in the wake of her artful win in the world of sugar darlings. The theme for the competition this year was the ‘Genius of Leonardo da Vinci’—a subtle indicator of the finesse and artistry that was expected of the contestants. Araujo stunned everyone with her rendition of the single-serving dessert in a glass with espresso coffee-flavoured gelato. And this, in Italy—the Holy Grail of gelatos.
“There were multiple formats in single-serving warm and cold plated desserts, chocolate and marron glacés, tiny chocolate whispers in ring-shaped mini bonbon dessert tray sculptures, and more,” she shares. The challenge was creating 15-20 plates of the same dessert with the equal amount of consistency.
Shilpi Madan for The Sunday Standard