Devnaa – The Indian Confectioners of London

For brother and sister team, Roopa and Jay Rawal the journey to Devnaa began at their kitchen table with relatives and friends praising Roopa’s homemade Indian desserts, in particular the chocolate barfi. Roopa’s knowledge of authentic Indian cooking had been learned from her Mother’s superb recipes and also from her Grandmother’s guidelines.

Roopa and Jay knew that if they were going to make tasty treats available to the rest of the world they would have to surpass all expectations people associated with traditional Indian sweets and chocolate, so off Jay travelled to India to research the best authentic sweets; and Roopa to the ‘Slattery School of Excellence’ to learn about artisan chocolate.

A Journey of Discovery

Jay discovered the best fresh Indian sweets he’s ever tasted from Mr Vyas, whose family has been making sweets since they first opened shop in Jamnagar in 1918 and Roopa returned from ‘Slattery’s’ with a real passion for artisan chocolate, and began to master her chocolate tempering, ganache making and piping techniques.

Back together in London Roopa and Jay shared their experiences and ideas and began development of an all new collection of sweets and desserts by combining the authentic Indian recipes with artisan chocolate techniques.

Over 35 recipes later and with the 10 other family members of their household as chief tasters, they created their first signature barfi made with couverture Belgian chocolate, French milk powder and fresh cream. Today the same creativity and dedication goes into developing all of Devnaa’s innovative sweet treats.

Devnaa believe in making tasty creations using traditional techniques and carefully selected ingredients like the finest Belgian chocolate couvertures used in our barfi and truffles or the freshly ground spices used in our bars. But they haven’t lost lost their roots – Roopa still uses her grandmother’s mortar and pestle to crush the spices used to develop recipes for new products.