The story of O’Baque Jaipur: A Labour of Love

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Meet the Rathore Sisters – Swati and Sanyogita. Though separated by a decade, this entrepreneur sister duo from Jaipur are united with the zeal to bring to the Pink City the best of culinary delights and experiences with their recent venture – O’Baque Jaipur. They recently converted their 50-year-old ancestral home nestled in Jaipur’s Peelwa Garden into an aesthetic cafe and patisserie with rustic European vibes.

While the younger one, Sanyogita possesses massive culinary skills to dish out scrumptious savouries and desserts, Swati brings with her an enormous experience of retail management and leaves no stone unturned in supporting her sister in carrying out the tedious administrative tasks and operations of running an eatery.

Genesis of O’Baque Jaipur

“While growing up I loved watching the popular reality cookery show, Masterchef Australia. I used to note down the recipes and tried to re-create the dishes. After school, I did my graduation in Travel and Tourism from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai and later I did a course in Baking and Culinary Arts from Bangalore’s Lavonne Academy of Baking Science and Pastry Arts”, tells Sanyogita while talking about where her passion for baking and cooking stems from. Right after she finished her baking course, she got a job in the pastry and bakery department of The Oberoi, Gurgaon.

“I was quite keen on Sanyogita pursuing the course and getting professional work experience after that because I did not want her to become just another home baker”, adds Swati. After honing her skills and enriching her professional experience for a year and a half, Sanyogita decided to move back to Jaipur and start her own enterprise in her ancestral house. “The garage, servant quarters and stores of our ancestral house that was built 50 years ago by our grandfather have been revamped to build O’Baque. The vibe of the place is inspired from our travels to Barcelona and Lisbon. We did not want to lose the character of the house so we have tried to retain whatever we could”, shares Swati while telling more about the interiors and decor of the place.

A culinary transition

Curious to know the thought behind naming their culinary project O’Baque, I asked them what it means and found out that O’Baque means a sort of a transition or a transformation. When I looked at their menu, it was quite clear that the sisters are trying to bring about a culinary transition with their offerings in Jaipur. “We have kept the classics like Pineapple and Black Forest cakes because for celebrations people usually stick to these flavours. However, we are trying to slowly introduce new tastes to the palate of Jaipur . For instance, there is lemon and forest berry as well as Blueberry Vanilla. One of our bestselling items is in fact, a re-creation of the flavours of Casatta ice cream and is called Nostalgia. Our Korean cream cheese buns and Jerusalem bagels are also quite popular”, shares Swati.

Challenging yet a rewarding profession

Ask Sanyogita how different is working for oneself from working in a big hotel and she says: “When I was working in The Oberoi, there used to be a designated person taking care of the inventory, store and dealing with the vendors. Now I am that person and at times it is a huge responsibility. While managing these things, sometimes I am not able to be present in the kitchen, which is my happiest place. But slowly I am training my team and delegating them these tasks”. For Swati, the customers’ experience matters the most as she comes from a retail background and believes that the customer should leave happy. “Delivery of cakes and pastries is a challenge and availability of certain ingredients in Jaipur is also a problem at times”, shares Swati.

***Sanyogita and Swati at MGD Girls’ School***

However, within just three months of their launch, O’Baque has managed to be a part of numerous celebrations and the most memorable one for them has been making the cake for the school birthday of their alma mater, MGD Girls’ School. “I stayed up till 2 am to make the birthday cake as it had to be delivered at 7 am in the morning and when I was writing ‘Happy Birthday MGD’ on the cake it was truly a surreal feeling!”, shares Sanyogita.

***The Birthday Cake of MGD made by O’Baque***

What lies ahead

Shedding light on their future plans, the sister duo said that they eventually want to transform their dad’s bar in the ancestral house into a speakeasy with crafted cocktails. A hot kitchen, gelato van and curated food events such as movie nights in the winters with special O’baque boxes, hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows are also on the cards. The young baker also plans to hold baking workshops and a special studio has also been created for it in the premises of the cafe.