It is the hippest space in Jaipur, the patisserie and café that “everyone goes to” and “hangs out at”. Dzurt Patisserie is not just known for its divine sweets and savouries, but also for its stunning interiors. The brainchild of a young, beautiful and accomplished Rajput girl, Tejasvi Chandela, Dzurt is delightfully European. Despite being tucked away in Rajasthan’s heritage city, known for its obsession with flourescent colours, pronounced stripes and vibrant prints, Dzurt instead
The Dzurt Patisserie and Cafe.
Bakery items on display.
Tejasvi cooking with Chef Garry Mehigan.
Chef Tejasvi Chandela.
The café is set in a pleasing tone of mint green, interspersed with wall papers reminsicent of the Raj. The café’s atmosphere is like Tejasvi’s creative playground. Where she draws inspiration from her culinary legacy, turning it into turtle to relive the memsaab era of cakes and scones. A chef whose ancestral roots go back to Bilaspur in Himachal and Bagseu close to Bikaner, Tejasvi is able to combine the richness of her legacy with the authentic French, Italian, and English recipes of pastries and savouries. “No one knows their breads better than the French and their pastas better than the Italians,” she smiles. Reliving the era of Manchester florals and colonial raj, when delicately hand painted images of hydrangeas, roses, lilies, marigolds, and dahlias personified elegance and beauty in every format, she also recently launched a line of tableware, porcelain, linen, and home accessories that she calls Wisteria. Each piece, “rekindles the refinement of families like ours who were equally exposed to the finest in Indian and European art influences.” “Each of these pieces are like timeless buds for patrons of craft to pluck.Educated and trained by some of the best schools in the world, Tejasvi runs Dzurt Patisserie & Cafe and All Things. She learnt the art from baking schools in Paris and Barcelona and also worked in KL, Malaysia for a year to explore the local food and learn more about it. As her way of giving back, she each year travels to offer baking classes around the world. “It is my way of going on a discovery of local foods and flavours.” Tejasvi has her own YouTube channel as well as a studio kitchen to teach the art of baking and has been on Masters of Taste season 2 with legendary chef Mehigan.
Young, Tejasvi shares her journey with food and how her cooking is closely linked to her Rajput roots. “I suppose the reason why I chose this career is because I’ve grown up listening to stories of my ancestors and the various things they would cook. I come from a Rajput family.
My ancestral roots are from Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh and my maternal family is from Bagseu which is close to Bikaner. As a child I was always mesmerised by my nana and watching his passion towards outdoor cooking made me want to do the same. I used to hear my nana tell us stories as kids about his grandparents.
Their hunting stories would always catch my interest. I would love to know about the way they would make khad khargosh by digging a pit. Or how junglee maas was made more often on hunting trips because they had to carry ingredients with a higher shelf life and low water content such as garlic pods, ghee, dry red chillies, salt and ofcourse the game meat they would hunt.
I love outdoor cooking now and I did make khad murg for chef Gary Mehigan (master chef Australia judge) when I aired on an episode with him on his show masters of taste season 2, it’s a great one pot meal that brings the family together on the dining table to share a piece of history together. My winter time is best spent making lal maas and junglee maas on a chulha in my garden for my family.
“The reason why I chose this career is because I’ve grown up listening to stories of my ancestors and the various things they would cook. I come from a Rajput family. My ancestral roots are from Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh and my maternal family is from Bagseu which is close to Bikaner”.