MARY & TONY

1. Mary saw Tony when she was passing through Chandanwadi on her way to work at a firm in Kalbadevi. She was an all-rounder, accounts, computers, telephone operator and she knew good English; the Gujarati firm preferred the experience of Catholics.

2. Tony was self-taught, making all types of cakes at his shop — guitar, HE-MAN, Donald Duck. Tony would take the cakes down Chandanwadi to a studio on main Girgaum Road to get them clicked. Meanwhile, a friend put an ad in The Times of India for Tony’s matrimony.

3. Mary replied and the rest is history. They have been sitting together at Perfect Confectioners & Caterers since the 1990s.

4. Tony says Perfect was named after Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. His father, Louis Dsouza, returned from abroad, saved some money and opened Perfect in the heart of Chandanwadi.

5. Louis had started life in Bombay just behind in Tadvadi as a young Goan staying at the Club of Corjeum and working at Purohit Restaurant as a waiter.

6. At Perfect, Louis started making plum cakes, wedding cakes and birthday cakes in alphabets and numbers.

7. When Tony took over he introduced Pokémon, barbie doll and anchor; first drawing the cake and showing it to the customer, then preparing the cake in a big tray and cutting it to shape.

8. Then Tony developed the snacks menu from cutlets and patties to mutton pan roll, chicken lollipop, prawn potato chop….

9. Now Tony and Mary’s son, Louis, has joined them with a degree in hotel management.

Perfect
Confectioners & Caterers

No. 48, Sethna Building, Chandanwadi.

26th October, 2021.

Supported by:

Dhobi Talao was mostly a Catholic crowd. And high-class confectioners were aplenty. At Brabourne Restaurant & Bakery the collapsible doors were forcibly shut with the X’mas and New Year rush. There was no standing room inside the shop. Bastani & Co. served the BEST chicken patties and 15 varieties of cakes. John and Gregory, bearers at Britannia & Co., stayed at the Goan clubs in the Jer Mahal buildings.

Dhobi Talao definitely, Chira Bazaar, Cavel, Sonapur…

What happened to Chandanwadi? The Catholics and confectioners of this neighbouring locality?

Perfect Confectioners & Caterers have been serving the Catholic community from Chandanwadi since the 1950s. Catholic schools, businesses and churches, are all clients. For individual customers, Perfect supplies for nuptials, anniversaries, month’s mind mass, death funeral, three-year mass, death anniversary. Mostly these days this box system is running, snacks box.

In those days, Louis and Tony Dsouza were making wedding cakes in royal and fondant icing and birthday cakes in alphabets and numbers. 21 was the last number and a key shaped cake. That is what you know? You can tell me? 21 means that girl and boy are ready to get married, are matured.

Then Tony introduced guitar, HE-MAN, Donald Duck, Pokemon, barbie doll, anchor…

Photos by Philippe Calia.