HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!

2012 has been the year of all superlatives. It seems the stars had their eyes on me at all time… I even won a prize at a Christmas lucky draw! Can you imagine? This never happened to me, ever…

Happy people! :-)

To wrap up the year, here is a little recap of what the stars sent my way in 2012!

One thing is for sure, awards were a big part of the year’s top achievement. Starting with the 2013 Best Pastry Chef in Hong Kong & Macau award which I wasn’t expecting at all, but that makes me really happy about our work as a team. With that, we were glad to learn that we kept our 6 Michelin stars rating; it takes commitment and hard work, no matter how credible one think the red guide is. Coincidentally, just before the Michelin guide released this year, we had the visit of a 3-Michelin Stars veteran, holding them for the last 28 years straight, the legendary Michel Roux. And Last but not least of the awards earlier this year, my two books Got cheese? and La Boulangerie received the World Gourmand Cookbook Award for best bakery book and best cheese book in Hong Kong!

Talking about book, I will definitely submit Layers, my new book on layered dough to the same upcoming award. We have put so much efforts in this book with our team, I think it looks fabulous!

The past twelve month also saw several appearance on TV shows notably on TVB with Master So, NowTV for several episodes of Junior Chef’s Corner and for the famed French TV channel, Escales. I definitely enjoyed those little appearance and look much forward for more in 2013!

Explaining the secret ingredient of a good dough! ;)

Traveling abroad was also a high note for 2012. My trip to New york for the launch of TASTE was a true adventure, stranded in hurricane Sandy for too many days, witnessing the big Apple brought down onto its knees in front of mighty Mother Nature, to later see the self determination New Yorkers are famous for to repair the damages.

Finally, a few matters close to my heart, and on a more local scale, we started giving leftover food to Food Link as well as continuing our support to Giving Bread, which makes every drop of sweat we produce with our hard work worth the efforts. And a final note to remember the strong support to local farmers at the Thank You dinner or the fig harvest day which, while some chefs like to see this as a gimmick to attract attention, I just think it’s the start of a way of life that has to catch on to make our world better. Taking everything for granted isn’t just an option anymore…