Joyce Thong
“A plant based diet should not be about compromising flavour and giving up enjoyment of food. The vegan food I like to create should taste as satisfying as, if not, better than non-vegan food, while at the same time, kinder and healthier.”
Joyce’s interest in baking started after she turned vegan 9 years ago. As a dessert lover, she was not ready to give up on desserts due to her dairy and egg intolerance or lack of readily available vegan desserts option. Hence began her journey of experimenting with eggless and dairy free desserts. Gaining much confidence from friends who tasted her desserts, she started a home based bakery selling vegan cookies and cakes, to share this food option with more people. The response was overwhelmingly good and much more than she could cope operating alone. To reach out to more people effectively, she began teaching in 2016, sharing her knowledge and skills gained through successes and failures in her home kitchen.
Prior to teaching, Joyce worked as an accountant and head of a department but decided to teach baking full time as she found it to be a much more satisfying experience. The joy from creating food that are loved by people and enabling students to re-create food loved by their family and friends after classes, far surpass that of her trained profession.
Not able to find any school offering formal vegan desserts certification in Singapore when she decided to teach full time, Joyce enrolled into Rouxbe Cooking School’s Essential Vegan Dessert Course and learnt online, under the guidance of Fran Costigan, an internationally recognised pioneering vegan pastry chef. With the course as a foundation, Joyce applied what she learnt, over time developing her own style and also adapting to suit the palate of Asians. Whenever possible, she goes for less sugary, yet flavourful desserts.
As a true blue Singaporean that love food, Joyce also enjoys local cuisines, be it savoury or sweet. She acquired most of her local cooking and kuih making skills from her mother, who is a long time vegetarian, experienced with cooking for temples.
Joyce has also been sharing her recipes on Gourmet Living magazine.
Sign up for Joyce Thong's classes here
