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PERSONALITY
54 | FireFlyz
A Sweet Life
CelebrityChef RosalindChan, Malaysia’s very own celebrity pastry chef and cake
decorator, tells FireFlyz about her journey to fame.
W
himsical
, captivating and meticulously designed, Chef
Rosalind’s works of culinary art demand attention because of
their beauty and uniqueness. Having scores of achievements
under her belt, she was also recently inducted into the
President’s Club at Wilton USA, which is the second highest
recognition in theWilton Hall of Fame. Besides appearing in
various media and books, she was also awarded the “Best
2013 Cake Designer in Markham, Ontario and Top 10 Best Cake Designers in Canada
from theWedding Industry Experts (Canada). So what was Chef Rosalind’s journey and
philosophy to getting to where she is today? FireFlyz spoke to the humble, cheerful and
extremely talented chef to find out more.
What inspiredyou topursuecooking
professionally?
Since young, I’ve always been drawn to
baking. My favourite subject at school was
also Home Science, and both my mother
and grandmother who are of Peranakan
descent are great cooks and bakers, so I
basically inherited that passion from them.
During my teen years, my mother was my
closest mentor with her cake decorating
skills that further inspired me to pursue
not just the baking side, but also the cake
decorating skills that combines beautifully
with baking.
Were thereanychallenges that youhad to
overcome inyour career?
The biggest challenge I had in my baking
career is trying to balance family life
and commitments between working as a
pastry chef with long working hours and
constantly having to teach in the evenings,
plus having to travel around the world
quite frequently. Besides that, the baking
industry was also very male dominated
back then and as a female, I had to work
a lot harder than my male counterparts to
be recognised.
What are theaccomplishments that
you’remost proudof?
Althoughmy passion started with baking,
my true love, which I found later in my
career, was cake decorating. It was a very
Western thing back then and it was not as
popular as it is now in Asia. I would say
that the TV and social media has a lot to
do with the change of people’s mindset
towards cake decorating. I toldmyself then,
that as anAsian living in theWesternworld
it was not easy to be recognised in this
field. I also told myself very early on, that
to be the best, I have to learn from the best
and it has remained asmy life’s philosophy
until now. If a Westerner can do well in
this, so can an Asian and I always believe
that to excel in anything, you have to not
only be good, but to be the very “first”.