Pooja Bavishi: “You Can’t Get More Americana Than Ice Cream”

Food with Mark Bittman

Sweetness and Light

Nutrition, Arts, Food, Culture, Cooking, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.9 • 947 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The up and coming queen of ice cream talks to Mark and Kate about how her ice cream brand, Malai, mimics her childhood; what it means to build your own culture; sourcing intentionally with no shortcuts—and why having a values-driven business is so important to her; and why her parents are the best people ever (and her #1 fans).

The Bittman Project is featuring three recipes from Pooja Bavishi's book, Malai:

Cold Coffee Milkshake: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/cold-coffee-milkshake/

Chocolate Cardamom Sauce: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/chocolate-cardamom-sauce/

Crunchy Ice Cream Balls: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/crunchy-ice-cream-balls/

Read more about Pooja on The Bittman Project: https://bittmanproject.com/q-and-a-with-pooja-bavishi/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to food. I'm Kate Bitman, and we are so glad that you're here with us. If you want more,
0:08.3	remember to check us out online at bitmanproject.com. We've got more than 1,500 recipes with new ones
0:14.4	added daily, plus some really wonderful food writing from some really wonderful food writers,
0:20.1	and recommendations for products and more.
0:23.1	Bitmanproject.com. And as always, email us with any questions or feedback at food at markbitman.com. A few months back,
0:48.6	Kate did a Q&A with entrepreneur Pujabashi on the Bitman project.
0:53.4	Pooja is the founder of Malai, ice cream that you can get in select stores or order online,
0:59.0	but that also now has three brick and mortar shops, one in Brooklyn, one in Philly, one in D.C.
1:05.0	There's more to come.
1:06.5	Malai was in large part inspired by Pugia's childhood.
1:09.5	She's a first generation Indian American,
1:11.9	and employers' favors highlighting the culture and traditions that she grew up with. And, as she
1:17.1	puts it, the magic that she felt in the kitchen at a young age. So, cardamom, pistachio crumble,
1:24.7	rose with cinnamon roasted almonds, which is my favorite actually, sweet corn
1:30.1	saffron. And she created her own ice cream base, which is rooted in cream cheese, and gives
1:35.3	her products a beautiful tang. It's really good ice cream. When Kay chatted with Pooja, Pooja was
1:41.2	celebrating the release of her cookbook, also called Malai.
1:44.4	And she so enjoyed their chat and the ice cream that she tried, that she suggested that we
1:49.2	invite Pooja onto the podcast. I'm so glad she did. And here we are. Thank you for joining us.
1:56.8	Well, thank you for having me. I feel so honored to be a part of this.
2:02.2	So thank you so much.
2:03.8	I'm excited about the conversation.
	...

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