The sweetest memory of being a culinary chef?

I was never a dessert person as I was a very picky eater. When I bake my own desserts I would choose what flavours and ingredients in my desserts. For example I would substitute maple syrup for sugar or brown sugar for caster sugar in my bakes.

My biggest motivation to bake is to see my customers indulge in my bakes and appreciate them.

The challenges of being a culinary chef?

I would say sometimes customers’ criticism is one of the challenges being a culinary chef. It is difficult to please everybody.

I would say I’m quite daring in trying and testing out new ingredients in my kitchen. I will try to use it in any way, whichever possible till I get the results that I wanted.

Tell us about how you came out with the idea for each of the Matcha & Houjicha pastry recipes made for this collaboration.

It’s simple, once you have a good ingredient, you can create any dish that you want. For example, I incorporate Houjicha powder in my crème brulee recipe and the results was very intriguing and wonderful to the taste buds.

What do you think of TSUBAKI / Houjicha? How does TSUBAKI / Houjicha work with your pastries?

I loved how the roasty aroma of TSUBAKI / Houjicha is when I incorporate it in my desserts. I can smell it when it bakes and the flavour just explodes in my mouth!

Motivational message to inspire people out there to start baking.

Be adventurous, feel free to try something new, spend a little bit of time creating your own dessert and I can promise you, it’s all worth it.