Chef by Choice and an Entrepreneur by Passion - Lavanya Kotha

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“ Baking is a thoughtful expression. It’s an art that leaves people with warm experiences and a lot of smiles.” Chef Lavanya Venugopal Kotha, a very popular name in the baking industry today, is a distinguished chef and artist known for her dazzling and creative approach towards eggless baking under her brand name “Kruthi Art of Baking”, India’s only eggless baking academy.

Lavanya has amazing culinary skills as a classically trained patisserie chef – first practiced under “Rakesh Saini”, The Master Chocolatier - with new twists on crowd-pleasing dessert recipes. She is a great believer that we can discover our inner creativity and celebrate with our loved ones through the magic of baking. She shares amazing stories from her 2 decades long journey, describing the simple science of baking without eggs.

The Journey & Early Days: Chef Lavanya Venugopal began her journey as a baker at a very young age. Wedding bliss came to her quite early, but as a devout wife and nurturing mother, she enjoyed every phase of her life and gave in her best in every role she played. In the initial days, she took up a job as a preschool art & craft teacher and soon became the Principal for Yeureka Montessori, a job that she resigned, as her daughter was her first priority.

However, being energetic and enthusiastic to contribute her artistic skills in some ways, she started evening craft classes for children and ladies at her residence, while organising summer camps in various schools. Gradually, she progressed to Thai Art-leaf folding, which got her immense recognition and soon, her innate desire to be extraordinary drew her attention towards cakes and desserts.

To give away the right knowledge and the authenticity of desserts, she started travelling the world and learned from renowned chefs, who have made big names in the industry. She took her training under many distinguished Chefs, right from Rachana Agarwal in India to Amaury Guichon, and Toni Rodriguez in Las Vegas and many other popular Chefs from Barcelona, Malaysia, Singapore and France. She constantly devoted time in researching, experimenting new recipes and applying her novel ideas.

She boldly ventured to begin dessert classes for women and soon she set out her in-house studio of baking and cake art, ten years ago, under the brand name “Kruthi Art of Baking”. Her husband Mr. Venugopal has been her biggest strength, inspiration and support for guiding her and bringing her to what she is today. And the journey of breath-taking and brilliantly baked pieces of magic, we call cakes, embarked. Kruthi - Art of Baking “KRUTHI", in Sanskrit means 'Art'. ‘Kruthi Art of Baking’ is the brainchild of Chef Lavanya. The 38-year-old Entrepreneur is a Chef by choice and an entrepreneur by passion. To her, this is a place that fulfils all the cravings of any kind of occasion which calls for a celebration. Since the founding of “Kruthi Art of Baking”, Chef Lavanaya has been driven by what she didn’t know and what she wanted to find out.

She has constantly sought new ways to do the undone, especially without eggs, in the spirit of always doing it better and “out of the box”. She has created rustic, elegant pastries, cakes, macaroons, coffee cakes, French entremets and everything in between, using many of her unique techniques she learnt abroad. “We work and train women each day to deliver the best possible desserts and experiences. We don’t compromise on quality or taste.” – Chef Lavanya.

What made her, she baked every day. She has always believed that it’s her job as a Chef to make it count by making it good and different, every time. For her, the magic is in the endless thought and experimentation that goes into baking; learning to push the boundaries of what she does, so that more and more people can enjoy it.

Today, “Kruthi Art of Baking” is well-known for conducting various classes on cakes, ice creams and desserts, including:

1. Boutique style pastry
2. Short glass desserts and verrines
3. Monogram cakes
4. Gateaux
5. French entremets
6. Geode cakes
7. Cake popsicles and cupcakes
8. Ice cream flavours ranging from tender coconut to red velvet cream cheese
9. Healthy options like vegan blueberry oat muffins

These delicious and delectable cake treats are decorated with Marzipans, biscuits, chocolates and macaroons with a dramatic play of vibrant colours. While the best chef’s in the world simply advocate the fact that there can’t be perfect cakes without eggs, Chef Lavanya sets out to prove otherwise. Her determination to use animal free products adds to her principled nature. All her bakes and desserts are completely eggless and Gelatin free, breaking all the stereotypes.

Milestones

As a culinary consultant, Chef Lavanya has trained many 5-star chefs, big restaurateurs and boutique style patisserie chefs, across India. Conducts training in Delhi for internal Chefs in Eggless dessert Plating.

Invited to judge pastry and live cooking at Ruchi santhe and Super Ruchi Santhe in Freedom Park, Bangalore. Appeared on Suddi TV, a Kannada channel and was featured in the English magazine ‘Bakers Imprint’.

Promotional partner and guest tutor at ‘32 degree studio’, an Indian culinary institute set up by Rakesh Saini, based in Mumbai the institute teaches chocolate and sugar crafts across India. In 2014, under the mentorship of Rakesh Saini, a six member team baked a caricature structure cake of Santa Clause that was displayed at Orion Mall, Bangalore.

The cake won a place in ‘Limca book of records’. Kruthi Art of Baking served as the hospitality partner for Zee Kannada at Kutumba Awards, conducted every year.

The Production Team @ Kruthi Good food comes from committed people.

“Kruthi Art of Baking” is very dedicated to providing their production team with great opportunities for growth and an environment where they are valued and nurtured. “The Production Team”, heart of Kruthi, is headed by Chef Suma Krishna, since 8 years - a strong pillar and also Chef Lavanya’s most trusted backbone. With a desire to travel and discover  new cultures, Chef Suma loves to experiment with new ideas, flavors and techniques. She equally strives to innovate, perfect, educate and contribute her ideas and passion to Kruthi.

1. The academy is affiliated with London based university, City & Guilds, the largest body for governing training and courses.
2. Trained over 5000+ women in the art of baking. Mentored, guided and assisted them in their own entrepreneurial venture in the field of baking.
3. Provides Certifications for Diploma in Baking and Patisserie, where people can take up their career as a Chef, anywhere across the globe.
4. Caters to the corporate world, especially training people who love to bake for their families and loved ones. Conducts offline classes over the weekend in her academy and online classes for people of all ages and from different geographies, around the world. Also provide end-to-end support to students from different countries.
5. We also have a Facebook group for enthusiastic bakers, where we conduct crash courses for free of cost.
6. Follows up on her students, guiding them to set up businesses and consults on the menu plans. Chef Lavanya is not just known for her innovative and beautiful creations, bursting with unique flavors and refinement, but also for an amazing woman-only staff and her efforts towards women empowerment.

The Vision

Recognized in the Indian Pastry Forum for her teaching skills in the eggless baking segment, Chef Lavanya believes that learning to bake is not restricted to any age.

Her vision is to promote more and more people to choose their baking passion as a profession. She aims at taking eggless baking to an all-new level.

“Kruthi” has been setting the Standard of Excellence in Professional EGGLESS Baking Education, positioning itself as one amongst the best Institutes in and across India.

“There’s a world of flavors most of us have yet to taste. But we will. I would love to share my experience and my knowledge on the gastronomic delight of desserts as far and wide as possible and contribute in every way by sharing my knowledge and passion in the ‘sugar arts’.” – Lavanaya V Kotha