CIA Alumni Bio
Can you stand blindfolded, smell a food, and then accurately list the ingredients found within? Kishi Aroora can. Maybe that’s the reason she left her studies at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in India to attend the CIA in Hyde Park, NY. And maybe it’s why she graduated with an associate degree in baking and pastry arts with high honors and the International Student Endowed Scholarship. Whatever the reason, the residents of New Dehli, India are reaping the benefits.
Donuts
It was on a vacation back home to India that she met Lokesh Bharwani. Together they believed that the donut had enormous potential in the Indian market and created Mad Over Donuts (MOD)—now open in the Great India Place Mall. The open-style kitchen allows patrons to watch the meticulous work going on in the kitchen as the donuts are handmade. As executive chef, Kishi worked with food technologists in Singapore to come up with a yeast-based dough that differed from the baking powder-spiked cake mixes usually found in India.
Flavors of India
Flavor development came next. Keeping the unique Indian palate in mind, Kishi sought to create both sweet and savory flavors. Chaat—the Indian word for savory snacks—inspired a line of donuts that includes sautéed garlic on a cheese topping. Sweet flavors bear such enticing and whimsical names as Cinna-Star (cinnamon sugar), Go Man-Go (mango and chocolate blend), Cereal Killer (cereal atop chocolate icing), and the popular Almond Einstein (almond slivers on a bed of white chocolate).
Now a consultant for Mad Over Donuts and Godrej’s Nature Basket, Kishi is owner of her own customized online bakery company, Foodaholics. Her Ask Kishi column regularly appears in the Indian version of Good Housekeeping magazine.
Chef Kishi Arora majored in baking and pastry arts at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. She is a consultant as Mad Over Donuts and the owner of the bakery Foodaholics in New Delhi, India.