Just desserts: why four young chefs chose baking over any other job, and where in Hong Kong to find their stunning takes on pavlova, panna cotta and more

Joanna Yuen feels that pastry-making is her destiny. “I’ve been put on Earth to make desserts,” says the pastry chef at Ando, a Michelin-star restaurant in Hong Kong’s Central district on Hong Kong Island. She is among a crop of young talent wowing patrons with sweet sensations at the city’s most acclaimed dining establishments. Although she can’t imagine doing anything else, a career in the kitchen wasn’t always a given. Yuen knew from age 12 that she wanted to become a pastry chef, but “I was raised in a traditional Asian family, and my parents wanted me to go to university”, she says. After completing a political science degree in Australia, she returned to Hong Kong to work in advertising. “I was glad I went into advertising because it taught me the importance of storytelling and emotion, which still guides what I do,” she says. She started baking as a hobby when she was transferred to Singapore, and posted her creations on social media. Buoyed by feedback from her followers, Yuen decided to pursue her passion, securing an internship in 2017 at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong. “It was a steep learning curve, with lots of late nights, but the effort was worth it,” she recalls. ‘I want to make a difference’: Michelin-star chef on sustainability She moved to Nobu, by celebrity Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa (now closed), and then Ando, which she joined in 2020. In just a few years, Yuen has developed a distinctive less-is-more approach to desserts, which fits in perfectly with chef-owner Agustin Balbi’s fusion of Spanish, Argentinian and Japanese cuisines. “One of most important skills, apart from technique and flavours, is to know when to eliminate anything that doesn’t add value to the dish,” she says. For her, “it’s more important to under promise on presentation and over deliver on taste and texture,” a virtue she feels is overlooked in the age of Instagram. That’s not to say Yuen’s creations aren’t eye-catching. A crystal-clear cube of grapefruit panna cotta is as elegant as it gets, and provides a pre-dessert contrast to Balbi’s signature rice soup dish, which concludes the savoury courses on the tasting menu. And a ball of Japanese-inspired wagashi, made of pecan praline, maple ice cream, plain chocolate shell, sea salt meringue and nerikiri, the glutinous rice flour outer layer, is art on a plate. As with the rest of the menu, desserts are seasonal and change quarterly, with tweaks in between depending on ingredients. Fruit, chocolate and nuts star regularly, and extend to the mignardises, a selection of four bite-sized delights that cap a meal at Ando. Like Yuen, Tia Cheung knew she wanted to be a pastry chef, but was discouraged by her parents from doing so. Nonetheless, she became a kitchen hand at the Shangri-La hotel in her home city of Shenzhen, in southern China, which led to a junior pastry role. Stints followed at 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana and The Tasting Room, both in Macau, before she made a splash at two-Michelin-star French fine diner Écriture in Hong Kong, and now, Locanda dell’Angelo, an Italian restaurant in Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island. For Cheung, “a good dessert has familiar flavours and brings back happy memories, while incorporating a chef’s own style”. She has the freedom to make what she wants, working with Locanda’s executive chef, Steve Chiu, to create up to five classic-with-a-twist treats that complement the rest of the menu. Each has a different profile and will include “something that is light and fruity or rich, warm and chocolatey, because there always has to be something with chocolate”, she says. On the current menu are osmanthus cream-filled choux pastry puffs resting on a bed of 70 per cent vanilla chocolate sauce, and her take on pavlova, served with vanilla Chantilly, red fruit sorbet and jam. Cheung, who was inspired by cooking bloggers to get into pastry making, finds that while Hongkongers love dessert, they prefer it to be light. She points out with a laugh that praise for a dessert often comes in the form of a customer saying, “It’s not too sweet.” It’s an observation that Cyrus Yan agrees with, which is unsurprising given the two worked together at Écriture. He believes that Hongkongers can usually “find a second stomach for sweets, no matter how full they are”, and that “no meal is complete without dessert”. Yan is still in charge of pastries at Écriture and says that because the restaurant only serves tasting menus, “you need to finish with something lighter, or people will be uncomfortable”. However, he can’t resist lavishing diners with his creations, such as peach sorbet with elderflower panna cotta, and a chocolate sorbet with buckwheat and caramelised nuts. The mignardises may include freshly baked madeleines, saucer-sized tarts, flaky kouign amann (think caramelised croissant), chocolate rocher balls, and premium fruit. There is no shame in asking to take them home with you, should you feel defeated by the sugar-coated temptations. It’s not just dessert that Yan enjoys making at Écriture; the restaurant is gaining a strong reputation for its bread, too. In addition to sourdough, diners are served a brioche that would be easy to fill up on, it’s that good. Eane Wong’s parents wanted her to become an accountant, because they thought that life in the kitchen would be too tough. Instead of going to cooking school, she went to America to study business. While there, she worked part-time as a cashier for her uncle, who owned a Cantonese-style bakery selling pineapple buns, egg tarts and other favourites that reminded her of home. Returning to Hong Kong in 2010, Wong found her passion for pastries undiminished, and got an entry-level job at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Central. She started at the bottom of the culinary rung, washing, cleaning, grinding almond flour for the macarons, and learning the basics of French pastry. It was months before she was even allowed to whip cream, let alone go near an oven, except to clean it. How Hong Kong fine-dining chefs survived pandemic, on Discovery Channel Wong credits her mentor there for teaching her technique. “Attention to detail at every step is essential, and calculating portions correctly is critical. Even a slight miscalculation can spoil a cake,” she says. After three years at Robuchon, Wong joined Leading Nation group, where she is executive pastry chef for the chain of Elephant Grounds cafes, whose ice cream sandwiches are popular. The group also owns Margo, a modern European restaurant in Central, where Wong is responsible for its cakes and desserts. She works with German chef de cuisine Mario Paecke to make classic pastries that stay true to their roots while displaying creativity. Among them are bienenstich kuchen, or bee sting cake, a traditional Bavarian confection filled with cream and topped with a delectable crunch of honeyed almonds; opera cake, infused with tea for an Asian twist; a finely layered millefeuille that is Wong’s favourite item; and the bestselling apple tarte Tatin, with puff pastry made in-house. So good are Margo’s desserts that it’s almost worth going for them alone, though you won’t want to miss Paecke’s refined cooking either. Ando, 1/F Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central, WhatsApp: 9161 8697 Locanda dell’Angelo, 10-12 Yuen Yuen Street, Happy Valley, tel: 3709 2788 Écriture, 26/F H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central, tel: 2795 5996 Margo, Shop 6, The Galleria, 9 Queen’s Road Central, Central, tel: 2130 7731 Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 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