Born to bake

What is a renowned Belgian Michelin star chef and top pâtissier doing on a sunny Malaysian island, Langkawi to be specific? For starters, he is not on holiday. Maybe later, after an intensive week of dessert master classes, there’ll be time for some relaxation. But first, it’s all hard work: not only sharing knowledge and techniques with chefs at this Four Seasons Langkawi, but also showing participants his style of desert making over four masterclasses.

Roger Van Damme has travelled from wintery Belgium to Malaysia together with his Dutch pastry chef Marieke Harkema. And these chefs don’t travel light: think tens of kilos of French Valrhona chocolate and other sweet stuff. “After the workshops I’ll return to Belgium with an almost empty suitcase. But hopefully many experiences richer.” Van Damme is not earning his spurs through the exchange of ideas and techniques in Asia. He has already travelled several times to Japan to create special, molecular dessert menus for some hotels. In 2009, he travelled with fifteen other top chefs who worked at elBulli to Tokyo. “These meetings give me so much inspiration and I’m still learning a lot in terms of new techniques,” he says.