“Sharing stories through our food”: the work of the pastry chef

Born in Melbourne, then raised in Singapore, Executive Pastry Chef Kay-Lene Tam blends the traditional with the contemporary – combining classic techniques with current flavours and presentation trends to create new and exciting pastries and desserts. Her passion for pastry has taken her around the world and back to Australia, including stints as Executive Pastry Chef at Melbourne’s Tonka and Coda restaurants, then the Ritz-Carlton, her most recent position.

Given Kay-Lene’s dedication to all things pastry, it’s surprising to learn that this wasn’t her initial career choice. Instead, she spent five years in documentary filmmaking.

“Growing up in a Peranakan household in Singapore, I was always surrounded by great food, and my mother and grandmother were terrific cooks,” Kay-Lene says. “But when I graduated high school I did a diploma in mass communications and went into documentary production.”

This changed at the age of 25, when she had a self-diagnosed quarter-life crisis. “It was one of those situations where all your friends are pursuing careers they’re really passionate about, and you look at yourself and decide to do what’s really going to make you happy.” For her, that was pastry: “A lot of my childhood memories are being in the kitchen with my mother and grandma and they instilled that curiosity in me.”

So Kay-Lene took a left turn, undertaking a diploma in pastry and bakery art at the At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy in Singapore. “I think I fell in love with pastry in particular because it requires so much precision. It’s almost like chemistry: you follow a formula, in our case a recipe, and if you precisely follow all the parameters you always end up with the same result, and that’s something I just love. That kind of attention to detail really speaks to me and my personality.

“It’s an extremely disciplined process: you can’t use too much of anything, you need to understand how the ingredients work together. Different types of flour impart different protein strengths, there are different kinds of sugars you use, and your choices in recipes add and take away from the end result. Understanding those fundamentals is key to being a great pastry chef.”

From Singapore to San Francisco and back to Australia

Kay-Lene has worked for some of the world’s best chefs including Gault Millau’s ‘chef of the century’ Joel Robuchon at his eponymous restaurant, and acclaimed pastry chef Andreas Lara at Pollen, both in Singapore. As the recipient of the 2018 Hostplus Hospitality Scholarship, she had the chance to work with Dominique Crenn at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and Ana Ros at Hisa Franko in Slovenia. Apart from those stints, most of the past 10 years have been spent working in her birthplace of Melbourne.

“When I came back to Australia I was kind of finding my place within the industry – I didn’t really know what I wanted to work. There are so many great restaurants in Melbourne and I ended up working in The European for a year where I met a lot of cool people, then I found my way by luck to Tonka and was there for about eight years. Working with Adam da Silva gave me a lot of opportunities to grow as a person as well as a chef, so I owe much of where I am today to him.”

After being promoted to Head Chef at Tonka, Kay-Lene took up the role of Executive Pastry Chef at Melbourne’s newly launched Ritz-Carlton, in which position she was responsible for all sweet and bakery items available in the hotel, from desserts in Atria and the Lounge to room service, along with functions and events.

Her favourite contribution to the Ritz-Carlton’s menu is a milk and honey lamington, a collaborative effort between herself, executive chef Michael Greenlaw and chef Allan Eccles. This exotic delight features Gippsland Dairy milk jam encased in wattleseed sponge, soaked in milk and honey mixture then coated with dark chocolate crumbs, milk skin and bee pollen.

However, the death of her father two months ago led to her relinquishing the position. “I realised the importance of family and that I needed to put that above and beyond all else,” she tells us.

After a couple of months off, Kay-Lene has some exciting projects planned for next year: “I’m actually going to be starting at a new restaurant that I’m really excited to be part of, and it’s going to be an incredible dining experience. I can’t say more at the moment but when the time comes I can’t wait to share that with everybody!”

Earlier this year Kay-Lene also graced our TV screens as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, then competed in the MasterChef Australia Dessert Masters against Reynold Poernomo and Adriano Zumbo which she describes as a great experience.

Looking at the current presentation and menu trends in pastry, Kay-Lene says: “I think for a long time people have been trying to modernise and make things contemporary, but they are now maybe going back to the classics a little – those elements that taste good and remind you of a simpler time.

“I think the public don’t want so much spark when they’re dining out right now – whether you take a contemporary or a classic approach, at the end of the day it has to taste good. Flavour goes above and beyond the presentation.”

“I think the great thing about being a chef is that you’re telling the story of your journey, so your creations are going to be personal to you. What I like is to create desserts that invoke memories, not just for myself but for people who may have a similar background to me, and making them taste really good.

“We’re surrounded by incredible produce in Australia so this is a wonderful place to work and be part of the industry – there’s so much to choose from and I’m a strong believer in collaboration over competition. I think every chef has their own voice and all have different stories to share through our food.

“You can share another chef’s point of view and be inspired through what they create – that’s the beauty of this industry, there are so many talented people and we don’t have to work in isolation from one another. Everyone’s constantly pushing themselves – we all want our food to look beautiful, because after all you eat with your eyes first, and Instagram has done a lot to drive that and it’s also great for inspiration.

“Being a pastry chef is a great way to keep yourself learning and staying curious about what other chefs are doing because you see such innovative ideas.

“You can give 20 different pastry chefs a list of ingredients but they’re all going to interpret it differently, because our minds work differently – I don’t think you would get the same dessert twice.”