The Imperial Patisserie

The Imperial Patisserie operates inside The Imperial hotel on Janpath (formerly Queensway) in New Delhi's Connaught Place district. The hotel itself was conceived in 1934 by the architect Blomfield and inaugurated in 1936 by Lord Willingdon, making it one of the first hotels built in the new capital. Its eight-acre grounds are lined by twenty-four royal palms said to have witnessed the construction of New Delhi, and its public rooms hold a collection of more than 5,000 works of art from the 17th and 18th centuries. During the years leading up to Partition, the hotel served as a meeting ground for Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Lord Mountbatten, who held some of their discussions on its verandahs. The patisserie is part of the hotel's dining operation, producing pastries, chocolates and wedding cakes alongside The Imperial's other restaurants and bars. Current hotel materials refer to this operation as 'Haute Pâtisserie' rather than 'The Imperial Patisserie,' though both describe the same in-house bakery and confectionery counter serving hotel guests and Delhi residents ordering cakes and sweets for private occasions.