By day, Great Australian Bake Off contestant Anirban Chanda works in knowledge management – a field he’s spent almost 17 years mastering – but the rest of his time is spent setting aside the spreadsheets to give way to sugar and spice.
Through Another Whisk, his micro bakery in Sydney, he’s bringing Bengali flavours and family nostalgia to a new home.
Taking a risk
“It’s been almost 17 years of a career built in knowledge management. So it’s very hard, especially through cultural context, to leave a steady job and take such a huge risk,” Chanda says, reflecting on his corporate journey.
“Luckily, it’s working really well so far. And if this momentum stays as is, then I might make it a more permanent career in the future.”
Chanda’s move to Australia in 2020 wasn’t part of some grand plan. “I’d already resigned from my job in India and got my permanent residency, so I had to move,” he says. “It was in 2020, mid-pandemic, so it felt crazy – but my partner and I came with an open mindset. If it works, it works. If not, we go back.”
The leap proved to be a turning point. In lockdown, baking filled the space that routine left behind and Chanda’s business, ‘Another Whisk’ was born.
The Bengali Connection
Chanda grew up between Bengal and Jamshedpur, surrounded by sweets. “I have always been a baker, in a sense. I used to bake for my family and friends,” he says. “Growing up in a Bengali society or a Bengali family meant sweets and desserts were a massive part of our culture.”
“You learn so many things from your grandmothers, moms and aunts that a lot of these ingredients or balancing of flavours start coming to you naturally. It comes intuitively.”
His influences go back generations. “My paternal grandmother is from West Bengal, and my mom’s side is originally from Bangladesh. During the partition, they moved here to India, so we have got a lot of influence from the other side of Bengal as well.
“It was very interesting to identify the subtle differences in their cooking, how they’d each utilise different spices and ingredients.”
Travel shaped what came next. It was Chanda’s international travels, particularly in Europe, that introduced him to French and wider Western baking techniques and lit the spark.
“It gave me several ideas and the motivation to start something, to start learning Western techniques as well,” he says. “Because of my strength with Indian spices and ingredients, I thought I might try to infuse them with the best Western techniques.”
“The philosophy of Another Whisk started from there,” says Chanda.”Now, I make classic French bakes, but infused with Indian, South Asian flavours in addition to Australian native ingredients.”
“And very surprisingly, those elements make an excellent pair.”
The infusion of native Australian ingredients with South Asian flavours seems to be gaining recognition as a harmonious combination on a few other menus this year. One such example is Ahana Dutt’s (Kolkata Social) collaboration with Indigiearth by Sharon Winsor for this year’s Third I Festival.
Familiarity of flavour
Chanda says: “My philosophy is to help people understand new flavours or surprise them, without losing too much familiarity.” He explains that if a dish is too far off from what people are accustomed to, it can sometimes cause hesitation, so it’s important to maintain the balance.
“I don’t want to completely alienate them from their understanding of what dessert is, but at the same time, educate them by bringing new flavours into the same bake they might have eaten in other places, with a new element added in.”
His cakes reflect that thinking. “I recently started selling a cake in the markets inspired by Bengali sondesh. It’s actually selling really well. People are not used to that flavour, but then I’m also infusing that with strawberries because they are in season,” he says.
“I also make a cake inspired by pati shapta, which is basically a sweet that we make during Makar Sankranti [Hindu mid-harvest festival] around that time. It’s a rice crepe filled with either khoya [milk solids] or jaggery with coconut. I used it in the show too, as my first bake and an introduction to my heritage.”
Another favourite has become his signature. “My bestseller from the very first market I started doing is Patali Gur, which is a jaggery from the Bengal region. I make the Basque cheesecake with it. I’ve replaced regular white sugar with the familiar ingredient, and it has absolutely taken off from the very first day. People love it,” he says.
The Bake Off effect
So how does a knowledge manager with a knack for baking finesse his craft enough to get on one of the country’s biggest televised competitions?
Chanda had long admired The Great Australian Bake Off. “I’m a huge fan of the show,” he says. “My friends and my partner would always push me to apply, but I always second-guessed myself.
“When I looked at the standard of the bakers in the show, it would make me question my own skill.”
Even applying to the show was unplanned. “One day, I filled out the form, but uncertainty kicked in and I didn’t submit it – just saved it instead. And I think the casting producer got a notification of an unsubmitted application, which led to them looking up my Instagram profile.
“Luckily, at the time, my Instagram page was already quite active with my home baking experiments,” he says.
That experience changed everything for Chanda.
“Before that, I was just a home baker. I was very confident about my flavour pairing, but not about things like gravity-defying cakes or making a giant biscuit city or biscuit diorama or terrarium.
“These things were so far outside of my skill set, so I really had to up my game,” he says. “It’s equal parts excitement and anxiety, you know, being terrified at the same time being extremely satisfied. We [the other contestants] often joke about it, saying we’re all trauma-bonded.”
After the show, he finally committed. “The show gave me that push to start this business,” he says.
“All the content creation was happening before the show, but the business actually started after the show. My approach remains the same – I know how I can bring in Indian, South Asian and Native Australian flavours through classic Western bakes.”
What’s next for Another Whisk
Chanda still works full-time while running Another Whisk. “As of now, it is more of a hustle for me to tackle the time between my corporate job and the baking business,” he says.
“It’s a balance. Baking isn’t just about the product. You need business skills, creativity and a lot of patience – all the things I learned in corporate now show up in my kitchen.”
His goal is to one day make it his full-time career. “If everything goes well, then probably in the future I will make it more permanent,” he says.
Another Whisk sets up regularly at Ryde Wharf Markets, Kirribilli Markets and is coming soon to Summer Hill Flour Mill Markets, with limited pre-orders available for pickup from Waterloo, Botany and surrounding suburbs.
Find more food and drink features on Crumb Wire.
