Despite Malaysia’s title as world champions in 2019, a landmark win as it was the first time in 10 years that an Asian country had won, team coach Kean Chuan told FMT that most Malaysians were unaware of their achievement.
Kean said that the team was struggling to secure sponsorship, mostly because the World Pastry Cup was still an obscure event to many and not enough has been done to promote the event to the masses.
“Malaysians don’t really know that it is a big competition within the culinary industry and there is not enough marketing.”
He added that in other Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan, the professional culinary association aggressively marketed the competition, generating enough awareness so that more people contributed financially to the sponsorship. This however was not the case in Malaysia.
Kean said that funding for the event had mostly come from industry suppliers, culinary academies and local businesses. However, it was still insufficient to cover the costs of kitchen rentals and equipment cargo, transportation, accommodation and food.
“I have had to use money out of my own pocket. Our team is looking for sponsorships when they could be using the time to practise instead,” said Kean.
He said that the team would be “very happy” if they received governmental support, but pointed out that this required an official letter written in Malay that he was still searching for someone to do.
When asked why sponsorship was proving an uphill battle, Kean ventured that the culture in Malaysia was different from that in European countries where chefs are held in high esteem.
“Customers in Europe express their appreciation to the chef when they are served, which you don’t really see here.”
Kean explained that the team went through a “tough selection process” to qualify for the World Pastry Cup, as they were required to place in the Asian Pastry Cup first.
Since 2012, Malaysia has maintained its position as top two among Asian countries and top six among countries globally in the World Pastry Cup competition.
Kean said that training for the competition has been tough but that the team members were giving it their best shot despite the excruciatingly long hours of work.
He explained that everyone in the team worked from 9.00am to 7.00pm, then practised for the competition until 2.00am, repeating this gruelling routine on a daily basis.
He added that the chocolate and sugar displays curated for the competition used silicone moulds that the team made from scratch, a time-consuming task that took 13 trials in two months alone.
“There are no off days so we have to work very hard. We must respect everyone and their jobs because every industry has experts,” he said.
Kean added that while negative perceptions surrounding the culinary profession would not change overnight, “we need to push through for the next generation.”