From Mumbai to Chester Market - The rise of Pastry Pédaleur
"I didn't choose Chester, Chester found me," said Stephanie Peters, Mumbai-born marketer turned pastry chef and entrepreneur.
She says this as we are sat in Chester Market, a few metres away from where she first envisioned her business on a trip to the busy hall.
Formerly a marketing team member for Vogue, she knows a thing or two about good publicity - citing her appearance on the Channel 4 series, 'Aldi's Next Big Thing', as "the gift that keeps on giving".
"It just skyrocketed us into like everybody's hearts," she said, "I felt like I was part of the community now, you know, they were really rooting for me."
Following months of "rigorous" screen tests and numerous pitches, the business owner was handpicked for the programme.
"It would have been life-changing for me. Obviously with my marketing background, I knew what I was signing up for," she said.
However, Peters went home as a runner up on the show, not wanting to compromise on the quality of her ingredients for the sake of creating a product suitable for supermarket shelves.
"They gave us a chance to scale up our production on their shop floors but when I saw that it was margarine being used, I knew that it would not be the same product," she added.
"At the end of the day, I may have not got that fast track into Britain's fourth biggest supermarket, but I know that everyone in Chester was rooting for me.
"I instantly became part of the community; the validation and all the support that I wanted."
Having kick started her career at NewsCorp in India, the psychology graduate often brought her baked goods into the office. After successfully catering for a colleague's party, the orders started rolling in with operations based in the family home.
"There just came a point where, you know, baking brought me more joy," she said.
After moving to Chester to marry her now-husband, she knew she had to rebuild the business model - instead of trying to replicate what worked in Mumbai.
Landing a role as a pastry chef at The Chester Grosvenor is where she picked up much of her skillset, she explained, as she learned how to work on a commercial scale.
"To me it was like the most critical milestone. It's where I learned the tricks of the trade, you know, the whole commercial mindset and how to optimize it," she added.
During a work break, she stumbled across a stall in the old Chester Market that would one day employ her own staff.
She said: "It was like this melting pot. That's when I really knew that this is it. I'll strike gold if I am here, you know, because nobody's doing pudding."
Four years later she took her chance, delivering what she described as an "elevator pitch" to the market manager.
Stephanie revealed: "That's how it really began, you know, literally from that moment. It was just total serendipity.
"If anyone had told Steph in 2017, that this is going to be her little beginnings of the bakery, I would have not believed it.
"It's just so enchanting to imagine how everything kind of worked in the perfect time."
Nostalgia is at the core of every creation, she explained, citing trends as useful for producing innovative concepts but the utility of building and "relying" on what is familiar.
The fusion of french cuisine with her Indian heritage has been a "fascinating" process for Stephanie, as she continually explores different blends of flavours and palettes.
She added: "Being from Goa originally, there's the whole Portuguese angle as well to our cuisine.
"My bakes often stem from me missing what I've grown up on, really. I do like to observe trends and see everywhere, you know, how pastry is kind of changing, evolving.
"I try to keep my finger on the pulse of everything around me."
In the midst of the success of raising a business from the ground, the pastry chef and entrepreneur still has moments of doubt.
"I have them all the time," she said, "It is a very risky time in hospitality in general. I'm always just second-guessing, would it be more efficient in the other way?
"We need to be agile in hospitality right now. You need to be able to zoom in and zoom out.
"There have been moments of doubt, but for every moment of doubt I've had experiences of feeling rewarded. So it kind of balances it out."
The loyal customer base is what makes the struggle worth it, Stephanie explained.
"I feel my heart is so full thinking of all the experiences that I have," she added, "Certain moments stick with you and it just makes it worth it."
The question of improvement and comparison will always creep in, Stephanie says, citing it as merely the burden of someone running a business in a trying economic climate.
"I am so grateful for this community that we have here and their backing.
"Honestly, it's all the validation I need for those moments of self-doubt that creep in, " she said.
You can find Stephanie at Chester Market, on social media or via her website here.
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