This month, Bhavana Rao is heading to California to take up a job as head pastry chef at a newly built restaurant. It is a big step in a journey she nearly did not take, having initially been steered toward the seemingly more stable world of business.
There is also some irony in the destination. When she was in culinary school, pastry was the one area where the 28-year-old Kenyan chef struggled. Her cooking and knife skills were exceptional, and she excelled at savoury dishes, but baking and sugar work often fell short.
Today, after four years as pastry sous chef at two-Michelin-starred Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, she is preparing to take charge of a pastry kitchen in California.
‘I have always had a fascination with food, not just as a product that you create, but also with the ingredients,’ she says. ‘I’ve always wanted to know where they’re coming from, how long they take to grow, and why they are grown the way that they are.’
That curiosity would eventually take her from Cape Town to New York, Singapore, Marseille and now California.
The road not taken
Bhavana’s interest in food began early. In high school, she chose food and nutrition as an elective and later hoped to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Europe. The cost, however, made that difficult, while her parents were unsure that culinary school was the right first move.
Instead, she enrolled in a business programme in Cape Town.
A part-time job as a hostess at a fine-dining restaurant soon changed her plans. Watching the kitchen and interacting with chefs deepened her curiosity about food until she decided she wanted to cook professionally.
She found a culinary school offering a three-year programme, but was told she would have to wait until the following year to apply. Then her work at the restaurant provided an unexpected opening.
Its chef, Luke Dale Roberts, a prominent figure in South Africa’s culinary scene, wrote her a recommendation letter, helping her secure admission.
‘I chose the three-year programme and only told my parents about it after admission,’ she says.
Paying for the course meant saving the money she earned from her part-time job while covering her living expenses in South Africa.
How pastry found her
That transformation began in 2020 when Bhavana started an apprenticeship at Salsify at the Roundhouse in Cape Town under chef Ryan Cole.
She initially worked on savoury dishes. Then one day, when the person responsible for pastry was unavailable, Cole asked her to take over.
‘I basically got thrown into the deep end,’ she says.
The experience forced her to confront the area she had struggled with at culinary school. With guidance from Cole and chef Nina, she began to understand the foundations, concepts and techniques behind pastry rather than simply following recipes.
Her work also brought her into contact with unfamiliar varieties of fruits and vegetables from a farm supplying the restaurant. Seeing produce she had never encountered before deepened her interest in farming and where food comes from.
A farmer noticed her curiosity and recommended a book by chef Dan Barber, whose thinking about food, farming and sustainability broadened her understanding of the relationship between the kitchen and the farm.
Meanwhile, the demands of professional kitchens were becoming clear. Bhavana was working up to 90 hours a week when Cole offered her a leadership opportunity at a new project, Cabo Beach Club.
She became its pastry sous chef, leading a team and gaining experience in weddings, banquets and other large-scale events.
After three years away from Kenya, however, she wanted to return home. She resigned and came back intending to explore private cooking and farming. Instead, an unexpected email changed the direction of her career.
The Blue Hill breakthrough
The message came from the head chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the New York restaurant founded around chef Dan Barber’s farm-to-table philosophy.
The timing stunned her. She had recently read Barber’s book, which had transformed how she thought about food, and had updated her LinkedIn profile and circulated her CV.
‘This opportunity would have me working with Chef Dan Barber,’ she says. ‘I’d just read his book and it had transformed my thinking.’
After an online interview and a visa process, Bhavana moved to New York. In July 2022, she joined Blue Hill as pastry sous chef. The restaurant sits on about 80 acres of a non-profit farm, giving her the opportunity to work directly with farmers and ingredients.
‘I wasn’t just cooking in the kitchen, I was also picking ingredients on the farm and talking to the farmers,’ she says.
Chef Bhavana Rao, who worked closely with farmers to develop dishes, holds up seasonal produce from the farm at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Pool
Four years at Blue Hill also gave her opportunities to develop her creativity. One of her most memorable assignments was a wedding for a bride with Indian roots who wanted her heritage reflected in the desserts. Bhavana turned to her own family for inspiration, calling her mother for recipes from her grandmother.
‘I was calling my mum, asking her to pull out my grandmother’s recipe for desserts we would make when I was seven years old,’ she recalls.
The result was a carrot halwa doughnut, one of the creations she is most proud of.
After four years at Blue Hill, she wanted something simpler and more personal. In early 2026, she and her partner moved to Marseille, France where they worked at Tuba Club, a seaside restaurant supplied by fishermen bringing their catch directly from the Mediterranean.
She also used the trip to explore restaurants and pastries she had bookmarked since culinary school.
Now back in Kenya, she spends her weeks exploring restaurants, talking to chefs and bakers, developing recipes.
What the journey has cost
The achievement has come with sacrifices, including years spent away from family.
‘Cooking is not a job, it’s a lifestyle,’ she says. ‘I’ve had to give up every Christmas in the last seven years, all the festivals, holidays, and birthdays. I even missed my niece’s birth.’
The demands of professional kitchens have also taken a physical toll. After several episodes of burnout and developing stomach ulcers, she has learnt that longevity in the industry requires looking after herself.
‘A professional kitchen is a high-stress environment, but to keep doing what you love, it’s important to protect your body first,’ she says. ‘And sometimes, it’s as simple as taking a deep breath and drinking some water.’
For Bhavana, California is another step rather than the destination. Her long-term ambition is to keep learning, collaborate with people who share her passion and eventually bring that knowledge back to Kenya.
‘Kenya is not lacking in any means,’ she says. ‘We have everything we truly need, including the golden hands of our farmers. The bigger mission is to provide answers to the problems we have through my knowledge and skills.’
The lessons she has picked up along the way now shape the advice she gives.
‘Take up space, don’t accept any disrespect, speak up for yourself and ask for more,’ she says. ‘And don’t be shy about taking credit for something you’ve done or created.’