Meet Heather Wong | Pastry Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Heather Wong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I think this is a really relevant question to ask during this time since the pandemic has really leveled up everyones work life balance efforts. In my formative years baking in LA restaurants and bakeries, I lived all my waking hours in the kitchen. I think every chef has a long period of their career where they were married to the kitchen. I felt guilty when I went home and often times I would work an early morning shift, go home to nap, and then return for a second shift of baking. I had no outside life and in my 20’s that was ok. But when I became a mom, a single mom, the balance became more of a priority. My baking hours shifted to common office hours to accommodate childcare. And being a very prideful person, asking for help was not an option for me, so I didn’t have a healthy work life balance. I tried to do too much because not doing as much as I did before I was a parent was a personal failure. I developed physical and mental ailments. I didn’t know how to say no. Then the pandemic hit. I was the Executive Pastry Chef of a new bakery and was laid off 3 months after opening, which in hindsight was a blessing. I was forced to stay home, become a teacher to my first grader, and this was an opportunity to rewrite my schedule. I launched a new baking brand, building it slowly to accommodate my upside down pandemic schedule. With the addition of being full-time daycare to my son as a small business owner, there was no way around asking for help. I had an opportunity to start over again, establish an effective team and set healthy work boundaries which has made way for a more productive work life balance. The pandemic is forcing people to face their true limitations and that might be the blessing in disguise needed to find what are our priorities and mold a better balance.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think it’s fair to call baking an art. It takes a balance of culinary know-how and creative wit. Cake is my most common medium and while there are a lot of highly skilled cake artists in the baking world, I pride myself on creating cakes that honor the art of abstract painters while also just being really fun and enticing flavors you want to eat not just take pictures of.

Last year, in an effort to shift the Flouring menu to better serve customers during the pandemic, we came up with a dessert box that included my Cake Bars. Basically petite handheld slices of cake that are just as visually appealing as a full-size cake but in an approachable on-the-go format. We just repurposed the traditional cake slice and it has developed a following and other bakers have offered their take on it which has been fun to see.

It’s been so important for me to be original and true to my own baking style. I limit my culinary sources of inspiration simply because I don’t want to replicate what has already been done by others. I’ve had former chefs tell me to create based on what I know the consumer will like and I’ve also had chefs tell me the opposite. But I have found a happy medium in listening to our patrons and also being wildly inventive. If you bake it, they will surely come, because as I have witnessed this past year, the pandemic has not effected anyones sweet tooth. I am lucky that people give us money in exchange for food that makes them excited.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As a native Angeleno, and in normal non-pandemic times, my favorite spots to take my out-of-town friends always starts with a trip to Griffith Park Observatory. I spent so many childhood birthdays there as an aspiring astronomer. And it’s the best place to view all of LA and the Hollywood sign. The Valley is known for sushi and my favorites are Sugarfish and the Woodland Hills Katsuya, though Kazu Nori in DTLA, by Sugarfish, is also a great quick lunch spot. You can’t have a true LA experience without going for a hike. Since I’m on the east side of LA I hike in Griffith Park on the quieter east end entrance near the pony rides.
I love restaurant hopping where I order one item from each spot and move onto the next venue. It allows me to satiate my craving of multiple foods at once. I’ll go to Via del Mar in Highland Park for the aguachile, then Belcampo for my favorite burger in LA, then grab Turkish coffee Ice Cream at McConnells along with a slice of Key Lime Pie from Nicole Ruckers new outpost Fat & Flour.
What else do you do in LA but eat?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It takes a village to help a working mom. I’m thankful for the constant encouragement and support from my life coach and life partner Gally Cohen, for my business comrade Cortney Moore for taking the reigns when I need to take a breath, for Geoff Bernstein of Urban Palate who has always been my cheerleader and has unknowingly become my mentor, and to my bakers for being the heart of my business.

Website: flouringla.com

Instagram: chefheatherwong

Image Credits
Flouring