Meet the Bakers - Sara Koshy

I should perhaps title this post - Meet the Expert (or MasterChef) :-). I've been part of a couple of her cooking classes (Desserts Delight and a trial class) and she made some of the complicated desserts seemingly very simple.

So I shot her some questions and here they are!

D: A little bit about your family?
S: Engineer husband but he now works in an university. My son is in the hospitality industry but no, not cooking. They are not just my guinea pigs but also my harshest critics.

D: Cooking / Baking - The how and why?
S: It was the cookery classes in school that got me interested, my mother is a fabulous cook and I learnt a lot from her. The interest in baking was because of a young man with magic in his fingers who taught me the basics and got me interested in chocolate work. I learnt cake decorating from Shyamala Sivaraman and also did a few courses in Singapore.

D: Do you remember the first class you conducted?
S: Yes I do and was so nervous, that I was relieved when it was over!

D: What's your favorite dessert?
S: I love mousse cakes and pralet. And I love to conduct dimsum and Chinese classes.

D: Hobbies (and no, not cooking / baking)?
S: In my past life, I was an English teacher and then a copy editor. Mindless, unlimited TV viewing if I could. I used to be a voracious reader but not anymore. I'm one of those people who can't put down a book until I've finished reading it. Not good for business so now it's only the newspapers.

D: What's your advice for budding bakers?
S: Follow recipes, use the best ingredients and always keep your workspace and kitchen clean.

D: Your shot glass classes are quite famous! 
S: Yes, it took me a year to come up with that class. I needed recipes that could be made round the year. So much trial and error went into this one course. And the tasting- ugh- all that sugar! But I guess the result was sweet.

D: A few words on HBG?
S: One day I found that my nephew had signed me on. My day now begins and ends with HBG. It's resource-centric and absolutely amazing to see the wealth of talent on it.

If you want your wish to come true, don't miss Sara's Christmas Bake classes. One of the recipes, the Christmas pudding, requires everyone in the house to stir the pudding and make a wish. Few months later, two of them called Sara to tell her that their wish had come true! Incredible, isn't it? :)

Sara's blog is at http://www.baketales.com/.

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