Pooja Dhingra Wiki, Height, Age, Boyfriend, Family, Biography & More

Pooja Dhingra is an Indian Pastry chef and a Businesswoman. She opened India`s first macaron store named ‘Le15 Patisserie’ in Mumbai in 2010.

Table of Contents

Pooja Dhingra`s cafe

She is also known by the name ‘Queen of Macarons.’

Wiki/Biography

Pooja Dhingra was born on Tuesday, 5 August 1986 (age 35 years; as of 2021) in Mumbai. [1] Her zodiac sign is Leo.

Pooja Dhingra as a child

She has done her schooling at Bombay Scottish School, Mumbai.

Pooja Dhingra`s school ID card

Pooja Dhingra with her friends during her school days

She went to Jai Hind College to study commerce, and in 2004, she pursued a Hospitality and Management course at the César Ritz school in Le Bouveret, Switzerland. [2] Pooja hails from a family background that has always been into cooking. Her father and brother own a restaurant. Pooja had learned cooking from her aunt (Bua). She started studying law after she completed her graduation. She lost interest in law and went on to study hospitality. In 2008, she learned to make French pastries from Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris. [3]

Pooja Dhingra with the chefs of Le Cordon Bleu school

Pooja Dhingra during her college days

When she was in Paris, she tasted macarons for the first time. She wanted to carry the taste of macarons to India. Once Pooja came back to India, she started trying her hands on macarons recipe. She failed many times because she had to use local Indian products in the recipe and the weather in India was different than in Paris. [4]

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 7″

Weight (approx.): 80 kg

Hair Colour: Brown

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Pooja`s father is a chef and his name is Jaikishan Dhingra.

Pooja Dhingra with her mother and father

Her mother`s name is Seema Dhingra and she is a Therapist & Healer.

Pooja Dhingra with her mother

She has one brother who is a Restaurateur and his name is Varun Dhingra.

Pooja Dhingra with her brother

Career

Cooking

In 2010, when Pooja made the final recipe for macarons, she started her business by opening the first macarons restaurant in Mumbai. The name of her restaurant is Le 15 Patisserie. She had only two chefs in her restaurant when she started the restaurant but now her staff has increased to more than 100. Her cafe now has three other branches in Good Earth, Lower Parel; Palladium Mall in Mumbai. She had written two cookbooks- ‘The big book of treats’ and ‘The Wholesome Kitchen.’

Pooja Dhingra with her book ‘The big book of treats’

Pooja Dhingra with her book ‘The Wholesome Kitchen’

During the lockdown in 2020, she started her own podcast named ‘NoSugarCoat with Pooja.’

Pooja Dhingra while recording her podcast

She started delivering DIY cake mixes, cookies, hot chocolate mix and Le 15 merch to people during the lockdown. In 2021, she wrote the book ‘Coming Home.’ She has also done advertising campaigns for Kwality Wall`s, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Surf Excel, Oreo, etc.

Awards, Honours, Achievements

In 2019, she won the Mould-Breaker Of The Year Award by Grazia Magazine.
Pooja Dhingra during Grazia Magazine Awards

In 2014, she was listed in the ‘30 Under 30’ achievers’ list by Forbes India.
Pooja Dhingra wins ’30 Under 30′ by Forbes

Forbes India listed her on the list of ’30 under 30′ Asia list.

Facts/Trivia

The first thing she baked when she was a child were brownies. According to her, that was the time she realized how simple ingredients can make difference in a dish.

She loves to eat chocolate since her childhood.

Pooja`s brother also studied in the same college as her brother. [5]

In an interview, Pooja shared what she learned in Switzerland and Paris. She said,
During my first year, I interned at a small family-run hotel (Villa Toscane). I was 18, had never been away from home alone and was doing the amount of work that usually six or seven people would typically do in India. Every morning, I would serve breakfast to dozens of people, wash up and start over again. I didn’t know a word of French and my boss knew no English. It was a nightmare. But by the time I was interning at a five-star hotel (Trois Couronne) in the final year, I had grown a lot more confident. I opted for housekeeping and my job involved changing some 60 beds and cleaning toilets. At some point, they recognised what I was doing and towards the end of my internship, I was going for meetings with my general manager and instructing people much senior to me.”

Pooja used to question herself about why there were no macarons in India, and she came across only one reason that was that no one was aware of the dessert. She decided to build a career by making macarons.

In one of her interviews, she said that the name of the cafe was kept on the building she was living in Paris. She lived in the 15th Arrondissement in Paris. [6]

During the initial phase of her career, Pooja had to face gender- biases while renting a property or purchasing a machine. In an interview, she said that the sellers would often ask her to consult her elders like her father and brother. She further added,
Being a young girl in a male-dominated industry was not easy. Even finding suppliers or real estate agents that wanted to work with me was tough. As the years have gone by the challenges keep changing – from day to day operations to scaling a business. My education in Switzerland, and working in hotels there, gave me a good idea of what working in hospitality would be like, but dealing with the bureaucracy is extremely difficult when starting a business in India.”

According to Pooja, travelling improves the way a person thinks. In an interview, she said that she makes time for travelling so that she could taste new recipes and upgrade her recipes.

Pooja believes that social media has helped or increase her business.

In her podcasts, Pooja invites her celebrity friends and talks about their struggles and their life.

Pooja is friends with actresses Rhea Kapoor (Sonam Kapoor`s sister), Masaba Gupta, Sonam Kapoor, Pablo Naranjo Agular (Chef) etc.
Pooja Dhingra with Masaba Gupta
Pooja Dhingra with Rhea Kapoor

Pooja is often called by the name ‘Macaron Queen’. Talking about the title in an interview, she said,
I have no idea! I think it was a journalist who spoke to me five or six years ago, and who used the term, and then BBC and CNN and other media outlets started using it, and it just stuck. And of course, I didn’t fight it. When someone calls you a queen, you just take it.”

She often posts about her love for Korean dramas. She posts pictures of herself making hearts with her fingers (a sign of love in Korea).
Pooja Dhingra`s heart symbol