South Asian spices meet native Australian flavours
From a childhood surrounded by Bengali sweets to currently starring on The Great Australian Bake Off Season 8, Sydney-based baker Anirban Chanda is sharing his unique bakes with Sydneysiders through Another Whisk baked goods.
Launched in early 2025, Another Whisk is an evolving small-batch bakery venture that reimagines classic desserts with a deeply personal lens. Anirban’s signature is a blend of nostalgia, storytelling and flavour, with bold uses of South Asian spices and native Australian ingredients.
Anirban launched via pre-orders in January with collections from Waterloo, Botany & surrounding suburbs, and he made his market debut at Ryde Wharf in March, expanding to the Kirribilli Markets in August.
“Everything I bake tells a story – of home, of migration, of seasons and place. Through Another Whisk, I’m trying to connect people to flavours they might not know, but will feel familiar,” says Anirban.
The seed of Anirban’s baking journey was planted during his childhood in Bengal, a region known for its rich dessert culture and the ritual of sharing sweets during festivals. He grew up immersed in the rhythms of celebratory food, each carrying its own significance. Baking, for Anirban, has always been about more than just ingredients – it’s a language of care, of memory and of identity.
After moving to Australia in 2020, Anirban found himself returning to this language during the stillness of COVID lockdowns. Baking became a way to stay rooted — a creative outlet that brought comfort, connection, and purpose during an isolating time. He began posting his creations to Instagram, rediscovering a voice he had first explored back in India, and slowly grew a following drawn to his distinctive approach to flavour and form. Now, Anirban continues his baking journey as a ‘side-hustle’ to his full-time job as a senior knowledge manager. While his roots are Bengali, the spices and ingredients used are diverse and drawn from across Indian culinary traditions, including rose, saffron, jaggery, cardamom, black pepper, curry leaves and more.
Signature Another Whisk items include the Patali Gur Basque Cheesecake, made with Bengali date palm jaggery, and Pistachio, Rose and Raspberry Cake, both quick to sell out. Other highlights include a Chocolate, Wattleseed & Coffee Cake and Ruby Chocolate Madeleines, balancing refined technique with layered, memorable flavours. Anirban’s passion for chocolate work plays a big role in his baking, using chocolate in different forms, whether it’s flavour, texture or structure.
Anirban brings a detail-oriented, flavour-first approach to his baking. The Great Australian Bake Off adventure (Season 8 airing now on Foxtel and BINGE) helped accelerate his abilities during filming in 2024 and led him to completing a short patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney to formalise his skills and deepen his understanding of technique and structure. Both experiences gave him the confidence to launch Another Whisk and share his creations.
“The Great Australian Bake Off gave me the push to take this seriously,” he reflects. “But Another Whisk is about more than just beautiful cakes. It’s about reimagining traditional ingredients, honouring memory, and creating something that’s deeply personal and meant to be shared.”