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On the Menu | Hong Kong loves Milk Bar cookies and Pierre Hermé’s macarons, but home-grown pastry chefs deserve more of the spotlight. Here’s why

  • Hong Kong has long celebrated foreign pastry chefs, from Dominique Ansel and Pierre Hermé to Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi, whose cookies went down a treat recently
  • Yet the city has plenty of local pastry talent, including a mille-feuille master and a chef whose dim sum-inspired mooncakes merit attention

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Ringo Chan Wing-hung, the pastry chef at Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel, is one of the dessert masters deserving of more appreciation in a city that traditionally celebrates foreign names like Dominique Ansel and Pierre Hermé. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Life wouldn’t be quite as sweet without them. I’m talking about pastry chefs and the creations they conjure – and I’ve been known to declare a lack of a sweet tooth.

In Hong Kong, there has been a history of celebrating imported names who bring their fine patisserie and intricate desserts to our shores, from the great Pierre Hermé and his kaleidoscope of macarons, to the cheeky takes on nostalgic treats by New York-based Dominique Ansel.

This past month, exclusive Tsim Sha Tsui social club Carlyle & Co. played the nostalgia card by bringing in cookies from Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame (if you need a rewind, Tosi was behind cult favourites such as the compost cookie and confetti cookie in the noughties and 2010s; she was also featured in an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Pastry in 2018).

Judging by the excited social media chatter, there’s still a lot of cachet in the Milk Bar/Tosi name.

Hong Kong social club Carlyle & Co. played the nostalgia card recently by offering Milk Bar cookies to its members.
Hong Kong social club Carlyle & Co. played the nostalgia card recently by offering Milk Bar cookies to its members.

Yet there are at least a handful of top Hong Kong chefs who deserve more time in the sugar-spun spotlight, something I was reminded of during a preview for a top-tier gala dinner to be hosted by the First Initiative Foundation, an annual charity event that brings together a star-studded line-up of chefs.

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