#11 | ANDRÉA ROCAGEL, FOUNDER OF LUNA PASTRY
Welcome to POING FORT, the podcast that will give you the weapons of self-confidence. In this first season, 10 guests take off their masks to talk to us frankly about the failures and doubts they had to overcome to achieve their ambitions.
Leaving everything behind to become a pastry chef in Hong Kong is the crazy bet taken by Andréa Rocagel, founder of the LUNA pastry shop.
Enrolled in the Beaux Arts, she was destined for a career as an artist, when everything changed. In a medical impasse, she struggled to find a solution. After graduating, she decided to join her aunt in Hong Kong, on a whim. There, she discovered restaurant concepts adapted to her new dietary constraints.
How does it shake up pastry traditions?
What gives him the strength to undertake?
MARGAUX: Introduce yourself in your own words!
ANDREA: My name is Andrea. I founded Luna, which is a pastry brand, 4 years ago now. I studied fine arts. I always wanted to study fine arts. I have always been a creative soul. I grew up doing lots of things, being very curious, experimenting without knowing where it would lead me. It has really always been my identity. Pastry came into my life a little by chance.
DOUBLE KIRA RING AND ITO FINGER RING
MARGAUX: What made you change your life?
ANDREA: There was an event that was quite complicated for me. When I started my studies at the Beaux-Arts, I was almost not at school because I was really very sick. I was wandering around medically.
Right after graduation, I joined my aunt who has been living in Hong Kong for 30 years. I was going for a month but Hong Kong transcended me. There, I started baking differently, making gluten-free cakes. I had done my little experiments during the last years at school.
MARGAUX: During these two years [in charge of pastry at a local restaurant], how did you train in plant-based pastry?
ANDREA: What was interesting in Hong Kong was that I had to learn everything. I didn't have any training. I was just asked to make a list of what I needed. I had no idea. So I really had to learn all the basics: how you run a professional kitchen, with hygiene, stocks, product rotation, production, managing teams...
Making vegan, gluten-free, no-bake cakes, suitable for a restaurant, that fit into a cost grid, I didn't know how to do it. There weren't really any books, there's no cake bible. So I educated myself a lot on American blogs to understand how these cakes work. There was a big creative part in Hong Kong that really allowed me to understand where I was, what I could do, not do.
