Today we’d like to introduce you to Paris Shrestha.
Hi Paris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve loved cookies for as long as I can remember. Every December, my family would bake around 200 sugar cookies from my great-grandmother’s recipe, then decorate them with royal icing my mom guarded like gold. Eventually, my husband Yug joined the tradition too, and over the years I became the person baking hundreds more cookies for friends, coworkers, and basically anyone willing to eat them. Yug was always right there packing boxes, tying bows, and making my baking chaos functional.
Baking was also a huge hobby for me outside of the holidays. I collected baking books, participated in online baking challenges, and spent years learning from bakers I admired. Eventually I started wondering what a cookie would look like if I built something completely my own.
What became Paris x Puff was a completely different style of cookie from the sugar cookies I grew up making. We developed thick, stuffed cookies built around brown butter doughs, fillings made from scratch, layered textures, and carefully balanced sweetness, salt, acidity, and richness.
One of the ideas that really shaped our approach was a Mango Lassi cookie. I realized pretty quickly that simply adding mango and cardamom to dough would not capture what I loved about the drink. It needed creaminess, tang, texture, and balance. That sent me down a rabbit hole of developing fillings, studying structure, and testing recipes obsessively. Some flavors have gone through more than 20 versions.
My corporate background made me naturally analytical, so I brought the spreadsheets and recipe testing. Yug brought his design eye, sourcing skills, operational brain, and his own perfectionism. Together, we realized there was an opportunity to create something DC did not have, and Paris x Puff became DC’s first stuffed cookie company, with the two of us as 50/50 co-owners.
We started with home preorders and grew through farmers markets, pop-ups, collaborations, festivals, and events across the DMV. Along the way, our approach became more intentional too. We became interested not just in creating unusual flavors, but in how a dessert, drink, memory, or experience can be thoughtfully translated into a cookie.
Today, Paris x Puff is built around the belief that cookies deserve the same imagination, technique, research, and care as any other dessert, while still being joyful and approachable. What started with a family cookie tradition has grown into something entirely our own.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. A lot of building Paris x Puff has been learning by doing, usually in real time.
We have dealt with last-minute ingredient shortages, production nights that stretched far later than planned, long days on our feet, freezing outdoor markets, recipes that failed after hours of work, and events where we prepared for a crowd that simply never showed up. There have also been plenty of moments where something worked perfectly in a small test batch and then behaved completely differently once we tried to scale it for production.
Recipe development has probably taught me the most patience. Some flavors come together quickly, while others take version after version before the texture, filling, sweetness, or structure feels right. There have been batches we were excited about that ultimately never made it onto the menu at all.
The business side has had the same kind of learning curve. We have had markets that sold incredibly well and others that were nearly dead, which forced us to get much better at understanding where our customers are, what kinds of events make sense for us, and how much product to make. We have learned a lot about production, equipment, sourcing, logistics, and honestly just how physically demanding a food business can be.
But every difficult market, failed recipe, and late night has made us better. We are much more thoughtful now about how we develop flavors, plan production, choose opportunities, and build the business. A lot of the progress people see publicly came from things going wrong behind the scenes first.
We’ve been impressed with Paris x Puff, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Paris x Puff is DC’s first stuffed cookie company. We specialize in thick, brown butter-based cookies with fillings and components we develop from scratch, often inspired by desserts, drinks, memories, and flavors from around the world.
What sets us apart is the way we approach flavor development. We are not interested in simply taking a familiar flavor and putting it into cookie dough. We think about what makes the original experience memorable, whether that is creaminess, acidity, spice, aroma, texture, or contrast, and then figure out how to translate those qualities into a cookie. That might mean developing a custom filling, grinding spices fresh, adjusting the dough itself, or testing a recipe over and over until every component feels balanced.
That approach has led to cookies like Mango Lassi, Cà Phê Muối, Ube, Masala Chiya, and many others inspired by desserts, drinks, travel, family, and food experiences we genuinely care about. We make everything with the goal of creating something recognizable enough to feel inviting, but different enough to make people curious.
Brand-wise, I am most proud that Paris x Puff has grown into something that feels distinctly ours. Our recent rebrand finally gave a visual language to the way we have always approached the food: playful and colorful on the surface, but very intentional underneath. Puff, our mascot, keeps the brand warm and fun, while the food itself can still be technically ambitious.
At the end of the day, we believe cookies deserve the same imagination, research, and care as any other dessert. We want people to enjoy them without needing a culinary vocabulary or a “right” opinion about what they taste. Some people come to us because they love discovering unusual flavors, others just want an incredible stuffed cookie, and both are equally welcome.
You can currently find Paris x Puff at farmers markets, pop-ups, collaborations, and special events throughout the DMV.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think determination has been one of the most important qualities behind our success. I care deeply about what we are building, but passion only gets you so far. There have been failed recipes, long production nights, ingredient shortages, disappointing events, and plenty of moments where something simply did not work the way I wanted it to.
My instinct is usually to figure out what went wrong, adjust, and try again. Some of our recipes have gone through more than 20 versions before I felt comfortable putting them in front of customers. I am definitely passionate about Paris x Puff, but determination is what turns that passion into something real.
Yug brings a different set of strengths that are just as important. He is incredibly hardworking, very good at time management, and always thinking outside the box. He is constantly looking at the way we do something and asking how we can make it faster, easier, or more efficient without sacrificing quality. I can get very deep into the details of a recipe or idea, while he is often the person figuring out how we actually execute it.
I think that combination has been a huge part of our success. We are both willing to work extremely hard, but we also challenge each other to find better ways of doing things.
Pricing:
- Stuffed cookies: $7 each
- Custom orders and catering available, pricing varies by quantity and scope
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.parisxpuffcookies.com
- Instagram: @parisxpuffcookies
