Pastry chef Holger Deh on baking a cake for the king of Malaysia
- The German pastry chef has worked in kitchens around the world before taking the helm at the Rosewood Hong Kong’s patisserie
- ‘I sweated blood and tears,’ he says of the time he had to bake a cake for the king’s birthday
Did you like baking as a child? “I grew up in Balingen, a village 70km south of Stuttgart, Germany. There was a bakery opposite our house, and every morning I could smell the bread. My grandmother lived in a different village so every Wednesday my older brother and sister and I spent the afternoon with her. She was still baking bread in an old wood-fired oven. She did everything by hand.
“I made savouries, sweets and bread with my grandmother and mum. When I was around 12 years old I did a pre-apprenticeship through school and chose a bakery. I liked it and knew this was what I wanted to do. I did another apprenticeship with a pastry chef at 16, in a bigger bakery in Balingen. Then I went back to school to study economics.”
Tell us about your time in the army during your national service. “When I was 21 years old, I went into the army. I had to do three months of training. I had to cook for 50 or 60 officers and those one rank below them. It was just me cooking. I had no idea what to do. I made salads and steaks. But I was interested enough that after I got out of the army I did a chef apprenticeship for 2½ years.”
Where did you go after that? “I went to Spain to work for a three-Michelin-starred restaurant called Tristán, in Mallorca. I stayed there for two years, then went back to Germany before working in several hotels around the world, in the United States, Jordan, Malaysia, China, Macau and Hong Kong.”
Which hotel did you like working at the most? “The Datai Langkawi resort, in Malaysia. We had to order food and chocolate three months in advance because it came by ship from Singapore, and I ordered fruits from Australia. Kuala Lumpur was special because I met my wife there; we married in 2010 and had our son a year later.”
What kind of competitions did you take part in? “In Malaysia we had charity chocolate cake competitions between hotels. I won the competition five years in a row. The cakes were judged for taste and looks, and then they were sold for charity. I was also team captain for Macau’s MGM Cotai at the Dilmah Real High Tea Global Challenge, in Sri Lanka. We won a gold medal for best table decoration.