- Grace Lee, a 17-year-old student from German Swiss International School, has written ‘Baking Essentials’ with simple recipes catered to Hongkongers’ tastes
- Every week, Talking Points gives you a worksheet to practise your reading comprehension with exercises about the story we’ve written
Every recipe in Grace Lee’s cookbook comes with a QR code that takes you to a video tutorial. Photo: Edmond SoFor as long as 17-year-old Grace Lee Yan-ki can recall, baking has held a cherished place in her life.
This passion led the teen to publish a cookbook, Baking Essentials, in July and found an NGO called Bake a Change in 2021 to share the joy of baking.
“What I really like about baking is I get to share it with the people around me. And especially [since] it’s sugar ... it releases endorphins that make everyone happy,” said the Year 13 student at German Swiss International School.
Though Grace spent her childhood in the kitchen crafting desserts with her grandmother, her craft blossomed in the summer of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic brought her unexpected spare time. The self-taught baker decided to pursue formal education in the field and applied for the diploma in patisserie at the Hong Kong Culinary Academy.
Move to London inspired this Hongkonger to share recipes from home
Although the professional course’s age requirement was 18 years old or above, the teen wrote a seven-page document outlining her love for baking and her aspirations for the course.
Recognising her enthusiasm, the academy’s principal agreed to admit her after a final interview.
After spending two summers completing the course, Grace became the diploma’s youngest awardee in 2021 at the age of 15.
“You have to try all sorts of different areas of dessert,” Grace explained of the programme. “Before, I was only [making] cookies, cakes or brownies. The course really broadened my horizons.”
Accessible recipes
A week before Grace finished the patisserie diploma, she came up with the idea of making a cookbook.
“I was thinking to myself that I have learned so much in the course and also have the recipes ... maybe other people will want to see these recipes,” she said.
Her plan was to publish a cookbook in English that would suit Hongkongers’ palates – not too sweet. She asked the Culinary Academy to write a testimony of her skills to lend legitimacy to her book. To her surprise, the principal proposed a collaboration instead.
The student spent a year writing the recipes, which come with QR codes to video tutorials that she filmed. In July, the cookbook was published and featured at the Hong Kong Book Fair.
“[The book] goes from easiest recipes that require the least tools to the more difficult ones. But if you follow the steps carefully, you won’t mess up,” the author said, adding that the book’s mission was to make baking accessible to everyone regardless of their background and resources.
“Baking inherently is quite exclusive ... Especially for people who cannot afford to sacrifice a lot of their time, effort or money, I think it’s very difficult for them to have baking as a hobby,” Grace explained, hoping that she could use her experience to provide an easy and affordable way to bake.
“For my serradura, that recipe doesn’t even require an oven or fridge ... You could just use a regular cup. Just assemble [the ingredients], and fill it up – it already tastes good,” the baker said of the recipe for this Portuguese dessert. “So I included recipes [like that] to make sure that everyone has a go at this hobby.”
Spreading her passion to the community
To further her goal to make baking more accessible, Grace founded a non-profit organisation, called Bake a Change, to offer free-of-charge baking classes to people of all backgrounds.
“I started this organisation to make sure that I reach out as far as possible, and to reach even the communities that aren’t able to benefit from this cookbook,” the teen shared.
So far, the student-led group has more than 22 members and has partnered with nine NGOs, providing baking classes to more than 200 people. They have also fundraised more than HK$10,000 at school events and craft markets.
The group’s first class was a three-day mini-course for non-Chinese children including those from Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Other classes have seen underprivileged families, single mothers and orphans attending.
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Grace recalled an Indonesian attendee who was overjoyed at being able to bake a miniature cake.
“She told us it was the first gift that she could ever give to her fiancé ... That was her first baking experience, and she said kept watching the tutorials on YouTube before she came,” the teen shared.
“It was really rewarding to see how happy she was.”
As graduation approaches, Grace has aspirations to study business or management abroad, but baking will continue to be a treasured part of her life.
“[Baking] made me more connected to my community ... It allowed me to reach and talk to so many more people, and I’ve been directly learning from a lot of their experiences,” the student said.
“Opportunities weren’t going to come to me naturally, and I had to reach out for that to happen ... to [get] out of my comfort zone to pursue the things I want.”
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