From sculptural showpieces to elaborate whole cakes, Andy Yeung turns pastry making into an art form
Compared to the clamour of a restaurant kitchen, with its pots boiling over, pans clanking, plates clacking and cries of “Order up!”, the pastry kitchen is a haven of calm. In the air-conditioned, humidity-controlled space, chefs patiently and contemplatively go about their work, deliberate and precise in the relative peace. It was no wonder, then, that this oasis appealed to Andy Yeung. As a young teenager who had gone from serving on the frantic restaurant floor to pot washing in the busy, bustling kitchen of his parents’ hotel restaurant, he was looking for an escape.
“The temperature and the atmosphere in the hotel’s pastry kitchen were much better. It was clean; it was cool,” says Yeung. It also offered him a creative outlet.
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“I was addicted to drawing when I was at school. However, my parents refused to let me take the art and design programme when I was at secondary school,” he says. But the pastry kitchen presented an opportunity for Yeung to flex his creative muscles. From here, Yeung began to work his way up through the ranks.
Having learnt the fundamentals in that first pastry kitchen, it was at the JW Marriott, where he worked for more than a decade, that he really refined his skills, particularly through his participation in culinary competitions.
“Joining competitions helped me because you are always trying to present something unique, or something new or something special,” says Yeung. These competitions usually revolved around chocolate, where impressive showpieces are crafted from the confection, just as a sculptor might create an artwork. “What I am doing is presenting my art in a different form. I’m presenting my artistic sense in chocolate.”
