ICE stood out because they have a bean to bar chocolate lab and it really draws me
and it just sticks with me.
I grew up in
Hong Kong and it wasn't until I went to the UK
to study that I was fascinated by cooking and
especially chocolate. I studied archaeology
in York, which is also famous for their
chocolate production and one day I
wandered into the York Cocoa House and I
had their famous chocolate drink. The
texture, the body and the flavor of the
hot chocolate drink really amazed me and
that's why I asked them, can I come here
and work for a while and then they said
yeah sure. I had been studying chocolate
making for some time before I enrolled in the
ICE pastry program but it wasn't until I
met chef Michael Laiskonis that I realized
there was so much more to learn in
chocolate making. The chocolate lab in
ICE is one of the main reasons that drew
me over other than ICC or CIA, because
having a bean-to-bar chocolate lab
in the school makes ICE more modern and
forward-thinking. While I was in school I
looked forward to going to school every
single day. The feeling of stepping into
a professional kitchen, it's a little bit
scary but the teachers in here are really
helpful and supportive and you become
better and better and you just start to
love it and you come here every single
day you look forward to each day. In
Mod 1 we have a lesson with chef
Michael Laiskonis and he taught us about
chocolate, his lab and also his work in
school. He showed me as a chef himself
how people can achieve perfection and
that just made me want to learn more
from him and so I did a few recreational
classes with Chef Michael and you learn
things in a way that you can actually
digest and understand it and after that
it just motivated me to learn more
from other different chefs. I love
helping pastry chefs beyond the
classroom at ICE. They always have
recreational classes and also their own
projects going on
and there's always something new to learn.
For example I helped Chef Jeff with
his classes and events. He's kind of chef
that you hope to become: he cares about
his students and he's also very talented.
I love working with him. When ICE hosted
the Top 10 Pastry Awards I was given the
opportunity to work with Chef Stephan,
the executive pastry chef from Disney
World. He gave me the insight of how a
professional pastry chef should be, which
you need to be motivated, encouraging and
also the attention to details. The
education I received from ICE and all
the experience that I've worked with
these talented chefs, I am confident that
I will succeed in the pastry world.
