From management to the pastry kitchen
Shakeeb Rahim graduated in hotel management from IHM-A in 2013. From there, he went into the pastry kitchen.
In 2016 he moved to Boston to study baking and pastry arts at Newbury College. He spent three years there, studying and working in the city's kitchens, and graduated summa cum laude. It is the chapter he is proudest of. Plated desserts and baked goods became his speciality.
Coming home
In 2019 Shakeeb came back to India. A few months later, the pandemic shut everyone indoors. In 2020 he started Whisk from his home kitchen, and the first thing he sold was cheesecake.
The plan was simple: build a cheesecake brand. Classic New York, Basque burnt, blueberry and Nutella are still on the menu today, and cheesecake is still what CSN knows us for.
Growing up, one kitchen at a time
Whisk soon outgrew the home kitchen. It moved into a small bakery for a few months, then opened its first café in Chikalthana, which ran for two years. Alongside it came a second café in Dashmesh Nagar. In time the Chikalthana café closed, and Dashmesh Nagar became home for three years.
Along the way the menu grew. Whisk was one of the first places in CSN to bake sourdough, and it still makes its own naturally fermented loaves. The menu grew to include breakfast, served on that sourdough, as well as pizza, pasta, curries and a full coffee bar.
A bigger home in Mahesh Nagar
In 2026 Whisk moved to Mahesh Nagar, near Akashwani, into a bigger space with a whole new look. There is more room, a new coffee counter and a pastry case for the day's cakes.
Some things have not changed. We use no artificial colouring. We cook with malai paneer, and Amul butter and cheese. And our bread is baked in-house.
More than a cheesecake brand
Shakeeb set out to build a cheesecake brand. It became something bigger. Today Whisk is a bakery, a café and a kitchen, and the same team also runs Shoyu Ramen and Le Scoops in CSN.
Away from the kitchen
Outside the kitchen, Shakeeb loves fantasy fiction novels. He is completely into sports and adventure activities, and he is a certified open water scuba diver.
Entrepreneur, girl dad, pastry chef: you can follow along on his Instagram, @shakeeb.rahim, and see what the café is baking at @whisk.org.in.
