About Polly Chan

British-born Chinese Pastry Chef and Baker running a micro-bakery in East London, offering freshly baked East-Asian style buns and fresh cream cakes.

My ethos is to create baked goods which are less sweet, contain no preservatives and made with high-quality, natural ingredients whilst embracing nostalgia. Combining nostalgic East Asian flavours with Western baking techniques, the inspiration behind the baked goods derives from my Hong Kong Chinese heritage and British upbringing to create a delicious harmony between East and West.

‘Not too sweet!’ is the highest form of praise for Asian baked goods – balanced flavours with the right level of sweetness is the key to success!

How my small business started: 

Established late-2020 during UK’s first lockdown, my journey began from a simple request from my Mum who dearly missed Hong Kong pineapple buns. We were unable to obtain these as Chinatown was permanently closed and extreme border restrictions meant we could not fly to Hong Kong either. While everyone was obsessed with banana bread, I was obessed with pineapple buns; through many months of trial and error, I finally developed a recipe that resembled soft, fluffy buns from Hong Kong using high quality British ingredients.

With the seal of approval from my Mum, I started to bake more at home, first sending these to relatives, then to friends and as word of mouth spread, more and more people contacted me from all over the UK. From this, I was able to expand my range to what it is now – constantly evolving and changing with the seasons. 

Soon after, it became apparent to me that many others in lockdown were also feeling the same or had relatives/ friends whom they could not see but missed dearly. It is common courtesy to bring gifts or food offerings round to someone’s home in Chinese culture, however, due to social distancing and complete lockdown meant that people were not able to do this; thus my postal bun service was created to send care (and cravings) in a box.

With over 11 years experience having worked in hotels, a Michelin-starred kitchen and independent bakeries, the culmination of knowledge and skills learnt over the years combined with constant development and discoveries, bring refreshing yet classic baked goods to you! 

Thank you for reading and I hope you will enjoy my baked goods! 🙂

Royal Academy of Culinary Arts: Annual Awards of Excellence:

Young Pastry Chef of the Year 2016 Winner 🏆

The Annual Awards of Excellence (AAE), established in 1983, are the most prestigious awards available to young people in the hospitality industry.

Achieving this award with the highest mark was an absolute surreal experience. Taking part in this competition whilst working in Yauatcha (formerly 1* Michelin-star) and attending the Westminster Kingsway Pastry Scholarship course on my day off enabled me to really challenge and push my boundaries through time management, physical and mental endurance and expressing my creativity.

During the Finals, competitors had 5.5 hours to complete an innovative croquembouche showpiece no higher than 60cm containing caramel covered choux each filled with a creme patissiere (pastry cream) of their choice, a nougatine stand (candied roasted nuts), 4 fruit flavoured soufflés with decorated plating and sauce served at a designated time and two 8” decorative Linzer tortes. Judges marked the entries according to presentation, taste, artistic abilities and wastage awareness. 

For more details, please see below: 

• To enter the competition (20-26 years old): Apply here! 
• More Pictures from the my competition: AAE 2016