My first kitchen job

One of my biggest concern about this career change was finding my first job fresh out of pastry school. Fortunately, with the recommendations of my chef instructor, I landed a job as a pastry cook at Watermark on Kits Beach, an upscale casual restaurant serving West Coast cuisine. Coming from a corporate environment, working in a kitchen is a completely novel experience for me. For starter, it's physically demanding. I'm on my feet for 8 or 12 hours a day. There are no chairs in a kitchen. It's inherently dangerous. There are sharp stuff, hot stuff, heavy stuff that can cause serious injuries. I must be alert 100% of the time. It's an honest day's work. There's no slacking in a kitchen. :)

In retrospect over the past 9 months, I went from someone who's greener than a steamed broccoli to someone who's much calmer, faster, and more experienced. I learnt a great deal about dessert making, presentation, became better at dealing with stress, curve balls, working with others, and being flexible. Even though there are days that are filled with chaos, stress and a few heated conflicts, at the end of the day, I know that my work brings a delicious and memorable conclusion, an exclamation mark, to many people's evenings, and that makes it all worthwhile. It is a very satisfying and rewarding feeling. I feel very blessed that I am able to do this. I am having fun and getting paid (albeit not much, but still) for it! I am truly happy.

So, how do I know if I made the right career choice? I don't. I'll never find out what my life will be like had I stayed with my old job. Life is about choices and the journey. The destination is the same for everyone. It's how we live the days we have that counts. For now, I sure am enjoying the journey!

The happiest 15 weeks of my life

Pastry school was a blast. It was the best 15 weeks of my life. Every morning as I was walking to school, I thanked God for giving me this opportunity to do something I truly love. The program was fast paced, and I was blessed to have Chef Marco as my instructor. He is truly awesome! We made over 20 types of bread, 10 types of cookies, countless cakes, tarts, torts, pies, and entremets. We also spent a lot time working with chocolate, making showpieces with chocolate and sugar, and had a lot of fun with plated desserts. You can check out the pictures here. In addition to learning about pastry, I also gained other insights. I learnt how I work, how to work with others even if I don't get along with them, how to communicate with others, how to maintain my composure, and how to stay calm under pressure.

Throughout the course, I've had smooth days when everything worked well, and I felt mightily pleased with myself, and I've had disastrous days when I managed to screw up every recipe, and I felt incompetent and deflated. Nevertheless, at the beginning of each day, I was just happy that I had this opportunity to do something I love. Even the worst day at school was better and more meaningful than the best day I've had at my previous work. Regardless of what kind of day I've had yesterday, each day is a new start, and I promised myself that I will make the most out of each day. This mentality really helped me focus on what's to come, instead of dwelling on past failures.

I thoroughly enjoyed my pastry school experience. I'm so happy and relieved I made this career change. I'm truly living my dreams now!

From Cubicles to Custards - in Pursuit of my Passion

'I don't know what I want to do, but I know it's not this'. I struggled with that thought for over two years. I was increasingly dissatisfied with my job as an Information Technology consultant, but I had no idea what I wanted to do in life either.

One thing I do know is that I love baking. What started as a casual suggestion from a friend turned into one of my life's passions. I love the sense of achievement of creating something with my hands, the heavenly smell of freshly baked goods that lingers in my apartment, and the satisfaction I derive from watching people's faces light up when they sink their teeth into something I created.

I don't know why it took me so long, but one day it dawned on me that I should pursue baking as my career. Coming from an engineering and IT background, this is a dramatic change. However, I'm relatively young and single, and now's the best time to be bold and take risks. After much prayers, discussions, debates, and cost-benefit analysis, I quit my job, and three days later, on January 2, 2007, started pastry school.

White Vancouver

Usually when it snows in Vancouver, it only last a few days, before the rain washes it away. This year, however, we're hit by an Arctic front that brought 20cm of snow in 24 hours, and sub-zero temperature for a week. The snow you see in these photos is still here, eight days later ...

The night of the storm


The day after





Me chilling w/ a snowman

Engineering Pilgrimage in Quebec City

Quebec City is located on the North shore of the St Lawrence River. To cross the river, one can take the ferry, or one of two bridges, the newer Pierre Laporte Suspension Bridge, or the historic Quebec Bridge, the object of my pilgrimage.

The construction for the Quebec Bridge started in 1904, but due to design errors, it collapsed on Aug 29, 1907, killing 75 people. After a Royal Commission of Inquiry, construction was underway again. Unfortunately, when the main span was lifted into place on Sept 11, 1916, it collapsed again and killed 13 people. Finally, the bridge was opened on Aug 22, 1919 by the Prince of Wales, almost 12 years after the first collapse. To date, it is still the world’s longest cantilever bridge span, and is the westernmost complete crossing of the St Lawrence River.

In order to commemorate the Quebec Bridge disasters, graduates from Canadian engineer schools were given iron rings to be worn on the pinkies of their dominate hands. They serve as constant reminders of our social responsibilities and that our work must be of the highest quality.

When I received my iron ring upon graduation, I knew the history of the bridge, the story of how they melted the iron from the collapsed bridge to make the early iron rings, and the significance of the ring. However, I always wanted to see this infamous bridge in person. You can imagine my excitement when I found out this bridge is only 10km from where I was living in Quebec City.



The suspension bridge in the back is the Pierre Laporte Bridge, built in 1970 to cope with increased traffic. The beautiful cantilever bridge in front is le Pont du Quebec, and the origin of my iron ring.

YQB Jour 24 - Chinese food in Québec?!

With its strong French heritage, it's not surprising that people in Québec pays a lot of attention to food. My stay here has been a gastronomical ecstasy. However, I will not describe the two to three hours dinners I've had most nights, nor the many bread, pastries, cheeses, and wines I've indulged in. All that you can get in France. Instead, I will focus on a few unique Québécois dishes.

There are a few dishes in Québec that has the word 'Chinese' in them. They are not authentic Chinese food, nor do they incorporate a lot of Chinese ingredients. Rather, from what I've been told, they were food commonly eaten by the Chinese railroad workers during the early 20th century. And those names stuck in Québec.

Chinese Pate - In Québec, it's called 'pâté chinois'. In the rest of the world, it's called 'Shepherd's Pie'.

Chinese Noodles - Macaroni, vegetables, meat, and soy sauce somehow make this western food take on a Chinese name.


Poutine - This is an authentic Québécois food. French fries, gravy, and cheddar cheese curd. If you had it for lunch, you can skip dinner, and probably breakfast the next day. There's enough calories in one serving to fuel an athlete for a World Cup final game, overtime, and a few headbutts.

YQB Jour 23 - Winter in Québec

How cold does Québec get in the winter? I have no idea. But if this picture is any indication, I don't want to be here in February.

YQB Jour 21 - Lost in Translations

Funny quotes from Francophones:

- when explaining the word "rotten" in French
"when a fruit gets so old it becomes alive again"

- when referring to checked luggage on an airplane
"put it in the basement of the plane"

YQB Jour 14 - National Road Race weekend

This year the Canadian Road Bike Championship is being held in Québec City. However, I didn't know that until I was walking home from class earlier this afternoon, and I saw this.

YQB Jour 13 - "I climbed my suitcase"?! and other tales from my French class

Today I just finished my second week of class, and am at the midpoint of my stay here in YQB. I will give you a glimpse into the life of a French immersion student.

The school is located in the heart of the Old Town, 30 minutes walk away from my home. I have four hours of class everyday, and I spend the rest of my day wandering around the city, and doing my homework. The course is focused on conversation, and my biggest challenge is understanding what other people are saying. I learnt a lot of vocabularies in the past two weeks, and I can really feel my French improving. I have not dreamt in French, yet . . .

The majority of students come from Switzerland (German speaking), Mexico, and the USA. It's interesting that the Swiss don't go to the French speaking part of Switzerland or France to learn French, but fly all the way to Canada. They told me the French speakers there are not as welcoming and helpful as Canadians. Also, the courses in Europe are twice as expensive. Finally, by coming to Canada, they get to travel around North America before heading home. Sounds like good reasons to me. Besides those three main countries, there are students from all over the world. For example, I met my first Liechtensteiner here. Not surprisingly, she works at a financial company that manage trusts for "really rich guys".

Most of the students are under 30 years old, and one girl in my class is only 17. At the age of 25, I am already the second oldest person in the class. I feel old.

As for climbing my suitcase, it was a case of confusion cased by multiple definitions of a word. The word "monté" usually mean to climb, like to climb up a mountain or climb into a bus, and that was the only definition I know. So when I saw the sentence "J'ai monté ma valise" in my homework, I was thinking "I climbed up my suitcase"?! What were the authors smoking when they wrote that? However, the word "monté" can also mean to lift up something, like lift a suitcase up to the overhead bin. This is one definition I will remember for a long time.

Finally, we have this strange creature in every classroom. Does anyone know what it is?