If Baking is her first love, teaching too is close to Minal’s heart. She has always been passionate about baking and making delicious pastries, and when she completed her education she converted her passion into profession by working in 5 Star hotels. When everything was going great, fate has some other plan for Minal, she met with an accident and had to quit her job. It was during those crisis times that she discovered her love for teaching when she briefly worked at Hotel Management Colleges. And in due course, she started her independent workshop as a Bakery & Patisserie Trainer in May, 2014. Since then there is no looking back, Minal had spread the joy of baking to as many students as possible and her students are equally happy to have joined her exciting classes.
Full Name: Minal Kailash Gupta Category: Baking Education: Craft Bakery & Patisserie from Mumbai Profession: Pastry Chef Location: Mumbai
A warm and hearty congratulations to Minal Kailash Gupta!
Here is an excerpt of the interview with Minal:
Q1. How and when you started to work as a Baking Trainer?
Ans: After my specialization degree in Bakery and Patisserie, I worked for a number of 5 Star hotels in Mumbai as a Chef reaching higher ranks very fast. However, due to a sudden accident I had to quit my job for several months. After that I worked briefly at Hotel Management Colleges, which made me realize how much I love teaching but also realized that there was so much more to be taught than what the colleges covered. Thus, I started my independent workshop as a Bakery & Patisserie trainer in May 2014.
Q2. What do you think makes a great Baking Trainer?
Ans. There are many things a Bakery Trainer needs to know but most importantly a trainer needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of her students and work on them. As a trainer your knowledge about basics of baking as well as current trends have to be up to the mark. Baking and pastry need a lot of patience as everything you create is a work of art but you need even more patience to help your students reach the same level of knowledge and expertise as yours. And there lies the biggest challenge of guiding your students in the right direction. Only a tutor who has passion, perseverance and patience can turn novices into pastry chefs and I am glad to have these qualities.
Q3. How you came across UrbanPro?
Ans. When I came across UrbanPro, it was known as ThinkVidya.com which was an online platform of connecting students and teachers. I wanted to put myself out there so people know about me but I wanted to do it professionally. Social media are a great platform but they don’t really show all the aspects of a true trainer. Thus, when I came across ThinkVidya.com I was glad to have found a platform which portrayed everything about the tutor, gave right information and was a simple one to one point for students and teachers to get in touch. Thus, it’s been 2 years and I still continue to use UrbanPro without any issues.
Q4. How UrbanPro platform helped you to expand your Baking Classes?
Ans. Initially, when I began teaching there were too many blockades. For e.g., I did not know how to reach out to people beyond my geographical area, I did not know if people wished to travel that far, also people do not know that bakery is a specialization course and is not associated with cooking so they unknowingly kept asking me for cooking classes and I did not know how to filter them out. But UrbanPro made that easier for me. It made only students who were willing to travel and knew exactly what I was going to teach to reach out to me as my entire profile was out there for them to see and choose. UrbanPro has been helpful not only in terms of getting students to reach me faster but also saved a lot of time and energy for me and students.
Q5. What percentage of your work comes from UrbanPro?
Ans. Around 15-20% of my work annually comes from UrbanPro.
Q6. One advice that you would like to give to new Pros on UrbanPro?
Ans. Patience is a virtue and would request all pros to be patient with getting students. Make your profile as precise and as transparent as possible so students can know you better and approach you faster. Do not make any false claims as they will only lead to negative reviews thus hampering your chances of getting good students.
