84 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM melt-in-your-mouth deliceglace.com {food coloring} in her Peninsula community. It’s a community she’s been part of for a while now. After leaving her native Pakistan for college at age 18, she spent time in England and New York before moving to the Bay Area 20 years ago. “This is the longest I’ve lived anywhere,” Pavri reflects. “That makes such a difference as an immigrant. You always feel like: ‘Where do I belong?’” But indisputably, Redwood City is now her home. She supports her culinary neighbors, enthusiastically recommending the biscotti and focaccia at nearby La Biscotteria, and the glass-cased goodies at the shop we’re in now, Cocola Bakery. She pays it forward, too. The industrial space she works out of used to be home to a natural popsicle company; she gave that entrepreneur advice. “We try to help each other,” she shares with a smile. Just as other small business owners can learn from each other, Pavri hopes her kids are learning from watching her work (and working themselves!) at Délice Glacé. “One of the most important things I’m able to teach them is just to put your head down. Get it done. Sometimes, you’re not going to love that,” she notes. Even in a very hot kitchen, even when you’re tired, the batch has to come out just right. And the batches do. Because of Pavri’s expertise, because of that laboratory training, but also because of the most important ingredient of all. Not egg whites. Not super-fine sugar. “This is passion, really,” she sums up.
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