Janice Wong

Options: Come next year, you will be celebrating two decades in the business. Let’s talk about some key milestones and moments.
Janice Wong: It has to be opening my 2am:dessertbar at the age of 24. I had no playbook, just the instinct that Singapore was ready for a dessert bar that opened when most kitchens closed. Next year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary. Being named Asia’s Best Pastry Chef in 2013 and 2014, two years back-to-back, also made me realise this wasn’t a fluke. It was a voice the region wanted to hear, and it pushed me to take pastry and art further than I’d planned to. Then, of course, there are the chocolate installations — edible art at scale. The Paragon In Bloom piece this year (800kg of chocolate, Singapore Book of Records) is the latest, but every one of them traces back to a single stubborn idea: dessert doesn’t belong on a plate. It defies gravity: on the walls, ceilings and surfaces unimaginable.