Shalini has had a soft spot for chocolate since childhood. Her mother is from Belgium and each year at Christmas she looked forward to a big package sent from family in Brussels containing a “ballotin” of exquisite Belgian chocolates.

Shalini started to experiment with chocolate making around the age of 14 and hasn’t stopped since. Later she became a pastry chef and had the occasion to make thousands upon thousands of truffles, all hand-made the old fashioned way. She is an accomplished pastry chef and worked in bakeries for over 15 years, including the Bonbonnerie in Cincinnati. In 2004 she published the book The Icing on the Cake by North Light Books. In 2009 she decided to refine her chocolate making skills with a course at the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy. She is delighted to be spending more and more time crafting unique chocolates in her Cincinnati home kitchen. Balance of flavor, shapes and decoration are especially satisfying since it entails tasting each new confection!