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2am:dessertbar

address

21a Lorong Liput

Holland Village

Singapore 277733

 

telephone

+65 6291 9727

 

opening hours

Mon - Sat

4pm - 2am
Closed On Sun

 

2am:dessertbar

Chef Janice Wong’s 2am:dessertbar stays at the forefront of dessert innovation with her repertoire of sculptural sweets that boggle the mind. Chef Janice recently represented Singapore – also the only Asian entrant – at Madrid Fusion’s C3 International Restaurant Desserts competition earlier this year. Not satisfied with just mere baking, Wong’s theatrical works of art either come deconstructed or in forms not commonly associated with pastry as we know it. Throw in a dash of sexy, plating flair and you would be hard-pressed to take the first stab.

Chef Janice Wong (2am:dessertbar)

The culinary landscape in Singapore is dotted with many emerging talents, but perhaps one of the brightest stars of them all is Chef-owner Janice Wong of 2am:dessertbar. Armed with her diploma in pastry from the famed Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, along with a wealth of experience from working at famed sugary hotspots like Will Goldfarb’s Room4Dessert, the 26-year old has been making the news and dazzling her customers with her mouth-watering creations. Singled out by gastronomes such as KF Seetoh for being the next big thing in the local F&B scene, her biggest achievement and accolade by far was to represent Asia at the recent Valrhona C3 competition at Madrid Fusion 2010. Held in Spain, this competition gathers the cream of the crop from around the world and is judged by world-renowned dessert chefs.

We speak to Chef Janice about her experience at the Valrhona C3 competition.

How did you get selected to be the sole Asian representative for the Valrhona C3 competition?
Vincent Bourdin (Valrhona’s regional pastry chef consultant) contacted me last year and I submitted a dessert recipe with his encouragement. Actually, I was working in the kitchens in Chicago when I found out that I was picked and didn't think much of it until I returned to Singapore. It was only then that I realized it was such a prestigious competition! Preparing for the competition was a crazy uphill task as I had to run many events concurrently, as well as Christmas production for 2am’s log cakes. I took about 2 to 3 months to come up with another dessert for the competition, and had to practice through the whole of January this year.
   

Tell us more about the dessert you served at the competition. What was the inspiration behind it?
It was a dessert focused on varying textures of chocolate. As always, I strived to do something different so I worked on a ‘chocolate water recipe’ and made it as pure as possible. It’s called the Macae H20, a chocolate mousse block done only with 72% chocolate and Evian water, put together with a nitro-blast trick (zapping with liquid nitrogen). For an Asian touch, I served it with jasmine gelee, jasmine lemongrass sherbet and kalamansi pastilles.

I have always been intrigued by chocolate and water and would definitely want to develop more techniques with it.
   

There’s not much fanfare about it here, but we know that the annual Madrid Fusion series is one of the biggest and most prestigious F&B events in Europe, graced by the likes of Ferran Adrià. What was the whole competition experience like for you?
It was extremely thrilling with great pressure and incredible exposure. Throughout our preparation, which were four gruelling hours, there were different European TV stations covering our every move. With all the cameras and judges surrounding us, in addition to a ticking clock, it was definitely not easy, to say the least. Nonetheless, the whole experience was a great one and was good exposure for Singapore as well. I felt so patriotic when they handed me a Singapore flag.
   

Any interesting nuggets or memorable incidents to share?
The whole experience does not just start or end with the competition. Backstage, I was star struck! There was Grant Achatz, Elena Arzak and her equally famous father, Juan Mari Arzak, and Paco Torreblanca—arguably the best dessert pastry chef in the world. It was amazing to get exposure at an event with so many great chefs of our time.

But my most unforgettable memory is of Jeffrey Steingarten (food critic from Vogue USA and the ‘Simon Cowell’ of the culinary world) coming up to me, in the middle of the prize giving, just to tell me he enjoyed the chocolate water the most. He also asked me about 2am:dessertbar and gave me big words of encouragement. At that point, the prize didn’t matter to me at all! Looking back, I wouldn’t have done anything differently.