WHEN CARRINA Chau Ka-yee returned to Hong Kong about a year ago, she needed a way to continue her pastry career without compromising what she'd been taught in the kitchen trenches of Paris and Toronto.
After years of working in the garment business, she'd followed her sister's suggestion to study baking, which she'd loved since childhood. Chau spent years perfecting the art of cake and pastry making, first in France at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, then as an apprentice at the Hotel de Crillon, followed by time at Toronto's Rahier Patisserie under Belgian pastry chef Francois Rahier.
Fearing that opening a shop in Hong Kong would mean lowering the quality of her work and compromising on the use of premium ingredients to meet high rents, she decided to take the online route to keep costs low while maintaining the highest standards.
Carrina Patisserie was set up two months ago, working out of Chau's workshop in Chai Wan. But through word of mouth her products have already become a fixture at corporate functions. They've been such a hit that she worked all through the December holidays just to meet the orders.
'I was working like Superman over Christmas from 8am until 1am,' she says. 'But I thoroughly enjoy the process of making a cake. I find it extremely satisfying. Cakes are something that can make people very happy.'
Chau's labour-intensive offerings are as extensive as those at any top-notch pastry shop: from classics such as tarte au citron, mille-feuille and apple tart, to more unusual flavours such as the Montmartre (lemongrass mousse with chocolate sponge cake) and Saint-Sulpice (mango mousse, raspberry preserves and berry sponge cake).