It was surprising to hear pastry chef Pang Kok Keong say that he does not sit down to enjoy pastries all that often - well, at least not when he is in Singapore.
"Usually, when I eat them here, it's for tasting and quality control," says the 32-year-old, who works at Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie, which is under the Les Amis Group of restaurants.
But things are different when he is on holiday or when friends buy him chocolates and pastries from his favourite
stores in Tokyo and Paris.
"I love sweets. But I just cannot bring myself to enjoy them when I'm working. I think it has to do with the mood and mentality you're in," he explains.
From extra to expert
Chef Pang knew for a long time that he was going to do something related to food for a career.
When he was young, the biggest influence was his mum, a fishball-noodle seller in Jurong East. School vacations would find him working at a variety of dining outlets, from Japanese restaurants to hawker stalls.
In 1993, he enrolled in a food preparation course at Shatec. And it was a 10-month attachment at Imperial Hotel
that shaped his culinary path.
"The pastry kitchen was always shorthanded, so the chef put me there to help out. It was there that I got interested
in things like cake-making," he says.
But it was not as simple as blindly taking what his mentors gave him. To improve his skills and knowledge, he had to do his own homework.
"I think that for anyone who wants to be good at what he is doing, being taught how to do certain things is really not good enough.
"There are a lot of things which you have to research on your own and try out for yourself. Then you become
really knowledgeable and form a strong basis in whatever you do.
"For example, nobody taught me the details, such as the finesse involved in finishing various types of French pastry
and how to make sure the glaze is very thin for a simple chocolate cake," he says.
Today, he is an expert in sweet creations and was crowned the Cacao Barry Pastry Chef of the Year at the World Gourmet Summit 2007.
He credits chef Daniel Tay of home-grown Bakerzin and master pastry chef Francisco Torreblanca at Pasteleria Totel in Spain for giving him a solid grounding in the field.
Integrity counts
Chef Pang is so motivated to keep learning that he spends $3,000 to $4,000 a year on books to upgrade himself.
"We have set a standard in what we're doing in Singapore. We want to make sure we're delivering the benchmark
every other day."
This is despite knowing that most customers may not appreciate the effort he and his staff put in.
"It's like your integrity," he says. "We know what the standard of a very well-made cake is. We want to present the best of what we know to them."
Raising standards
The opening of fine dessert restaurant Macaron, also under the Les Amis umbrella, is another step in that direction.
"It's something that I very much wanted to do as well, which is to bring dessert dining to another level. There's only this much we can do with cakes, chocolates, confectionery and pastries," he says, referring to Canele's offerings, which are not desserts - at least not in his books.
"A cake is a cake. Dessert is dessert," he says. "Dessert usually comprises many elements, including different temperatures and textures."
A simple example, he says, is a warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. "These are things you cannot buy as a takeaway," he explains, since one of the considerations is to make sure everything is at the right temperature.
The Macaron project is an expression of his hope that Singaporeans will eventually no longer see dessert as just an afterthought.
"For example, even if you go to some of the top restaurants in Singapore, the dessert they have there is really
ordinary.
"Here, we want to serve really good food, and finish it off with exceptional dessert."
