---
name: "Priya Sharma"
title: "Pastry Innovation Director"
specialty: "Molecular Pastry & Modern Techniques"
restaurant: "Mithai Modern"
location: "Mumbai, India"
headshot: "speakers/priya-sharma.jpg"
awards:
  - "World's 50 Best Restaurants Star Pastry Chef 2023"
  - "Culinary Institute of America Leadership Award"
  - "Forbes 30 Under 30 - Food & Beverage"
---

Priya Sharma is redefining the boundaries of pastry through her fearless fusion of cutting-edge molecular techniques with traditional Indian sweets. Her work transforms the familiar flavors of mithai — the beloved sweets of the Indian subcontinent — into avant-garde experiences that challenge and delight.

Priya's unconventional path began with a degree in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science before she pivoted to pursue her culinary passion at the Culinary Institute of America. Her scientific background proved invaluable during her time at Alinea in Chicago, where she spent three years on the pastry team, mastering techniques like spherification, gelification, and cryogenic preparations.

She further honed her craft at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, working alongside Jordi Roca in what many consider the world's most innovative pastry kitchen. There, she began conceptualizing how these modernist techniques could transform Indian desserts — imagining gulab jamun as edible perfume, jalebi as crystalline sculpture, and kulfi reimagined through liquid nitrogen.

Mithai Modern, her Mumbai restaurant opened in 2021, serves a twenty-course dessert tasting menu that takes diners on a journey through India's sweet traditions — deconstructed, reconstructed, and elevated through technology. Her "Chai Clouds" — aromatic spheres that burst with concentrated masala chai flavor — have become iconic.

Priya is passionate about making molecular gastronomy accessible, frequently publishing her techniques and teaching workshops that demystify the science behind the spectacle. She believes innovation should honor tradition, not replace it.
