By: Ayazhan Kalysbekova

To find your life’s work, you need to turn to your childhood. It is there that true interest is born, which is not imposed by society and prestige. As many people grow older, they forget what used to bring them real enjoyment. But this is not the case with Ayazhan, as she always knew that cooking was her passion and she wanted to devote her life to it.

Today Ayazhan Kalysbekova is the founder of the successful confectionery Patisserie Lala in New York. It took many years of hard work and self-improvement to make this dream a reality.

From an Idea To Opening Her Own Pastry Shop

Ayazhan is originally from Kazakhstan. Since her childhood, she was surrounded by creativity, as her grandmother was a writer and her sister was engaged in fine arts. Ayazhan herself admired her strong mother, who used to run her own restaurant.

Already as a child, Ayazhan realized that she wanted to engage in cooking and undergo training in pastry arts. To achieve her goal, she devoted all her free time to studying the secrets of preparing different dishes and running a restaurant business.

As a result, she enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). After completing the study, she found a job in one of the bakeries in New York. After receiving her diploma, Ayazhan continues to study and constantly improves her skills by enrolling in various courses. So, she took the Introduction to Health and Nutrition course from Stanford Online University, the Gluten-Free Health course from the Alison educational program, and the Science and Cooking course from HarvardX University.

After graduating with honors in culinary arts and interning at a renowned New York City bakery, Ayazhan made the bold decision to open her own business. Despite the fact that she is only 19 years old, she is not afraid to take responsibility, while soberly assessing all the risks. Thanks to this, Patisserie Lala today is a cozy pastry shop, which in a short period of time has become a place where people come back for delicious and healthy desserts.

New Chapter: Gluten-Free Desserts

The market for healthy products and dishes is growing every year, offering consumers more and more diverse options. However, finding a dessert, which is both healthy and tasty is still not so easy.

Today, more and more people suffer from gluten intolerance and celiac disease. The addition of gluten-free baked products to the pastry shop menu has made it possible for more people to enjoy delicious desserts without harming their health.

But bringing the plan to life was more challenging. The textures and flavors of gluten-free foods are often different from regular desserts, but one of the main challenges in preparing them was to find the perfect combination. Without using the binding structure that gluten provides, Ayazhan had to experiment with different ingredients to get the texture she wanted.

It became a real challenge for Ayazhan, and she spent a lot of time figuring out the specifics of working with alternative types of flour. Moreover, she has the experience of her family, where they prepared amazing Kazakh dishes using buckwheat and millet flour.

Today, she continues to explore all aspects of using gluten-free flour. It is necessary to find your own approach to each alternative type of flour, reveal its unique features, think through all the details, including the unique and aesthetic presentation of the desserts.

In addition to culinary experiments and preparing new healthy desserts, Ayazhan is popularizing gluten-free products, as she believes that a more conscious approach to food is the basis of good health, and there is no need to refuse delicious sweets. The founder of Patisserie Lala believes that people should be able to enjoy life even through such small pleasures as gluten-free desserts.

Gradually, the gluten-free baking craze has evolved into a continuous exploration and expansion of the boundaries of traditional baking. A small bakery in Astoria, New York, has become a new milestone in the field of healthy desserts. Ayazhan Kalysbekova managed to find a unique combination of traditional, time-tested recipes, innovation, and joy from the creative process.