How did you fall into a culinary career? 'I started my career when I was born. My grandfather and father were both chefs. That's why I've never thought of [having] another occupation. For me, now, it's not really work. I feel happy. It's not like people who go to the office and don't feel happy. For me, I need to work; I need to focus on money, but it's about pleasure ultimately.'
What is your first memory of pastry making? 'I was very young, four or five years old. My father asked me to put the fruit on the cocktail petit four. It was a simple thing but I remember it.'
What attracted you to pastry? 'I can't really explain it but it's a life. It's my life. That's it. My life is not in computers or in cars or anything. My life is in pastry. I feel happy in [any] pastry kitchen in the world. Why? It's sweet and we're talking about the pleasure of the food. It's also an art.'
Tell us about the pulled and blown sugar for which you are famous. 'Sugarwork is one part of pastry making. You can be a very good pastry chef without having a passion for sugar work. It is something you like or don't like, or you burn your fingers and you stop doing it. Or you may prefer to work with chocolate. The challenge is making a pastry display. We can play with colour, shape and a lot of artistic techniques with sugar, that's why I really like it. But we also need to think of how to display the pastry, the dessert. It's not an art where I can do a showpiece and put it in a museum, not really. I worked in the sugar museum in France for 10 to 12 years. It's one of the few places - there are maybe two or three in the world - that displays sugarwork. The most important thing, however, is the quality of the dessert. The sugar art on it gives us a surprise - it makes pastry more fun and attractive.'
What inspires you? 'Everything. Inspiration is from every second, every minute. You have to be open to everything and the ideas will come. You don't know really how.'
Why the collaboration with Hotel Icon? 'Because chefs like Danny [Ho, of Hotel Icon] really appreciate all the knowledge that we share. And, of course, they ask you more and more and you'll give more and more, because these people are there to see you. That's why this week for me is very hard. Those who have reached a high level of pastry making will ask more, and I give a 100 per cent. It's also an exchange, as I learn about the way they do things in this country, the spices and the flavours they use. I mix everything in my 'computer' here - my brain. I gain something every time.'