Profile | Pastry chef opened her own bakery in Hong Kong, putting her Joël Robuchon and Heston Blumenthal restaurant expertise to good use
- Mandy Siu Yuen-sang has worked at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Ritz-Carlton, The Peninsula, and St Regis’ L’Envol, which earned two Michelin stars in her tenure
- Her expertise and taste for desserts led her, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, to open her own online bake shop in Hong Kong, she tells Bernice Chan
“In high school, I took home economics and I really liked the class because I like to cook and bake. My family is in the food business, as a seafood supplier.
“When I graduated from high school, I really wanted to pursue pastry and studied at the Vocational Training Council. My parents didn’t want me to go into this field because it’s a tough industry but I wanted to try.”
Where was your first job?
“I learned the basics of baking but also attitude, organisation, timing, meeting his standards. I had to concentrate every minute, otherwise things might not work out and I’d have to make the dessert all over again.
“Every day was stressful. If we made mistakes, chef Tadashi would get mad and tell us to go home. Some of the young female chefs cried and left. I cried, too, but returned to work. He saw that I could take it. I never thought of resigning because I liked the work and didn’t want to give up so easily.”
