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Using the flavors and ingredients that were familiar to her Indian culture, Pooja Bavishi built Malai into a nationally recognized dessert brand.
Despite having a background far from traditional culinary training, Pooja Bavishi was able to build a nationally recognized dessert company inspired by her Indian heritage.
She grew up in North Carolina in an immigrant household where food and flavor played a huge role in everyday life. Bavishi often speaks about how her parents’ cooking traditions and spices have shaped her relationship with flavor from a very young age.
But before making moves in food entrepreneurship, Bavishi built an impressive academic resume. She earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.S. from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from New York University School of Business. After attending school, Bavishi was working in urban planning, civil rights, and nonprofit work.
During her time at NYU, she started experimenting with ice cream flavors using South Asian ingredients such as saffron, ginger, and fennel. Once she realized many of the flavors that she grew up with were completely absent from mainstream desserts, an idea evolved and later became Malai in 2015.
Malai’s flavors were original and completely different from traditional ice cream brands. Bavishi’s goal was to make South Asian ingredients feel natural in the American dessert culture. Malai released products like Orange Fennel, Mango & Cream, and Rose with Cinnamon Roasted Almonds, all combining nostalgic flavors with a modern presentation. Since vegetarian traditions are common in parts of India, Bavishi’s ice cream is intentionally eggless, as it also allows South Asian spices to become the focus of the flavor profile.
Malai began serving their ice cream at food fairs and pop-ups, but eventually expanded to nationwide shipping and grocery stores. Bavishi also opened store fronts in Brooklyn, West Village, Washington D.C. and soon, in Philadelphia.
As the brand grew, Bavishi and Malai began to receive major recognition in the food and business worlds. Bavishi was selected as a Tory Burch Foundation fellow in 2018, named to Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 100 list, and won an episode of Chopped Sweets in 2020. More recently, Bavishi has released her very own cookbook, Malai: Frozen Desserts Inspired by South Asian Flavors, taking the brand from ice cream parlors and into anyone’s home kitchen.
Pooja Bavishi helped create a space for South Asian identity in America’s dessert culture and in doing so she transformed Malai from a small ice cream idea into one of the most recognizable South Asian-inspired food brands in the U.S.
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