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Taste in the time of Covid
What happened when a baker suffered all the symptoms of the virus? Chef Pooja Dhingra talks about her bout with Covid
I’ve been baking since I was six years old. I experimented with recipes every weekend, all through school and college. My favourite part was creating a flavour combination in my head and then actually making it and tasting it.
Through studying pastry and living in France, this sense of taste only heightened and grew. I wanted to try everything and make mental notes on how it tasted. My friends and I would get desserts from different patisseries in Paris and do blind tastings and rate them.
After working in the industry for 11 years and developing hundreds and thousands of recipes for cookbooks, workshops and my menu, if there’s one thing I can rely on, it’s my tastebuds.
Out of your senses
Then early in April, I tested positive for Covid-19. I had severe headaches, fever, the chills. The first two days were rough. My aunt would make me hazelnut butter toast and coffee every morning and I loved the dash of cinnamon she would add to it. On day five of the illness, I could taste the cinnamon but the flavour didn’t feel as strong. Suddenly the coffee seemed very mild and the flavour I was picking up was the sweetness of the sugar.
My mother made me my favourite custard one day – she usually makes it for me when I’m unwell and it almost always makes me better. I took my first bite of the custard and it tasted like nothing.
I knew that the probability of my taste and smell getting affected with the virus was high but actually seeing it happen is a feeling I can’t explain. Over the next two weeks, I ate my food for its nutritional value alone. Every now and then I’d catch a whiff of something, but then it would disappear again. I was anxious at first since my livelihood depends on my ability to be able to taste, but I was hopeful that it would come back soon.
Take nothing for granted
Returning to work and working on new recipes was challenging too, but luckily I have a team I can rely on and we have a community of people from Instagram, who are our official Le15 tasters. I used feedback from 150 Le15 Taste Club members to help me develop a recipe I was working on.
A month after I recovered from Covid, my friend got me bhelpuri. One bite of it and my eyes lit up. I’ve been eating bhel all my life but this bite was life-changing! I could taste every little flavour detail. Later that day, I made myself a strong coffee and I’ve never felt as much joy smelling coffee as I did that day. This experience taught me not to take anything for granted and I’m so grateful to finally have my taste and smell back!
Pooja Dhingra, 34, is a celebrity pastry chef and the owner of Le15 Patisserie, which specialises in macarons and French desserts.
From HT Brunch, May 23, 2021
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