Award-winning pastry chef Thomas Lui came to baking quite by chance. At 14, it was a baptism of fire among bad-tempered chefs in a high-speed hotel kitchen. Now, almost 40 years on, Lui is considered a master-craftsman and still has dough between his fingers. His newest venture, Tin Hau patisserie Thomas Trillion, showcases his flair for extravagant and ethereal desserts.
You adore working with chocolate. Apart from the obvious, what is it you love so much about it?
Because I don't want to wait too long! When I do pastillage (sugar-based dough for decorating), we have to roll it out and then wait for it to dry out the next day before we can put it together. With sugar, I have to wait, and I'm not really the type of guy who can wait. With chocolate, I can work non-stop through lunch and dinner, right to the finish.
You're impatient, then?
Chocolate can be hard to control because of time - that time between it being liquid and solid. Sometimes I joke that me and chocolate are best friends. I know it very well. You have to be best friends to get it to work.
You're all about colour, flavour and texture. Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere. When you see a tree or a leaf - the green with the yellow with the brown - these can all give you a feeling of how to match the colours on a cake. It really depends how you see things. Sometimes, when I go with my wife to a mall, I see things that I can use for my pastry cooking. Maybe a bowl, maybe some furniture, maybe the mannequins showing off new designs - these can stimulate my creativity. Design is quite important to me. I look to art and design to make what I produce more interesting and more exciting.
