Mickey Zhao baking croissant in saint germain kitchen in CF markville mall Markham Ontario Canada

C hinese bakeries are famous around the world for their unique selection of ‘Chinese Western Pastries’: buns, cakes and tarts that are best described as a combination of Chinese bakers’ imaginations and Western-style baked goods. Colonial life in Hong Kong brought together different ethnicities and demographics whose cultures and ideas inevitably co-mingled over time. Egg tarts, pineapple buns and coconut cocktail buns are perfect examples of this gastronomic mélange and can be credited to the legions of bakers colloquially referred to as ‘beng lou’ or ‘min baau lou’ — this literally translates to ‘bakery men’ or ‘bread men.’

Their breads and pastries reflect a fusion of Western ingredients that conform with Chinese tastes and preferences. Lacking formal training and transferring their knowledge through apprenticeships, Chinese bakery owners figured out how to master their craft and run their businesses through trial, error and hands-on experience.While 'Chinese Western Pastries' themselves are highly-valued as treasures of cultural and culinary heritage, a ‘beng lou’s’ vocation has never been seen as much to aspire to; work in the kitchen is notoriously difficult and profit margins are thin. As with so many businesses of bygone eras, the children of the ‘beng lou’ have had access to higher education and white-collar jobs, so as a result, bakeries close when their owners retire because there is no one to take over.

Proofing croissant and bao inside the saint germain bakery kitchen

In this context, Mickey Zhao’s journey to becoming the Owner and Head Pastry Chef of Saint Germain Bakery, a well-known Chinese bakery chain in Vancouver and Toronto, is both unconventional and amazing. Chef Zhao grew up in a family that worked in a Chinese bakery. After immigrating to Canada, he pursued a degree in Western/European pastry-making and graduated from George Brown College’s renowned Culinary Arts program before going on to become certified as a Red Seal Baker. His impressive resumé includes stints as an apprentice at Toronto’s King Edward Hotel and as a sous-chef at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. In 2008, and in recognition of his talent, Mickey was named to Canada’s International Culinary Olympics Team; they went on to win four gold medals and placed fifth overall against teams from more than thirty countries.

麵粉、水，簡單平凡的材料，在不同人的手中會有不同的變化：木工匠會把它們攪成膠漿；藝術家會將之演繹成藝術品；「麵包佬」則會把它們焗成果腹的麵包糕點；而出色的烘焙師更會

神奇地運用它們來打造健力士世界紀錄，或飲食奧林匹克大賽的金牌作品。對，麵粉加水就是如此妙絕 —— 當落在趙健彬（Mickey Zhao）的巧手之中更令人嘆為觀止！

你可能會問烘焙師不就是「麵包佬」嗎？在華人社會裏，麵包佬即港版烘焙師，五十年代才在香港出現的工種。當年茶餐廳興起，連帶相鄰的港式麵包舖，開創了「融合美食」的模式，港人將英式飲食文化，融入中式烹調及創意，再轉變成適合食店運作和食客口味的香港特色包點。麵包佬每天大清早就負責搓出加大版的西式餐包糰，再放上中式酥皮、或加入口味熟悉的餡料，焗成熱騰騰的港式麵包。在華人眼中，麵包佬不是光鮮高尚的職業，出品只求方便、果腹，沒有特定條理。相對在歐洲國家，烘焙師又或稱餅師，是十七世紀已出現的專業，講求手工、藝術、創意、精準，被視為廚房裏的藝術家。

Classically Trained, Culturally Rooted

As often happens in life, it took living and working in other parts of the world to bring Mickey back full-circle to his roots. Armed now with both practical experience and years of classical training, he had finally assembled all the ingredients to go out on his own. A quick look at the offerings at his Saint Germain Bakery chain will tell you more about his life story than this article ever could... There are traditional Chinese staples made from age-old recipes using pig lard as the base for items such as wife cakes and preserved egg flaky pastries. Getting equal billing on the menu are the European delicacies he spent years perfecting that use butter as their base. These include croissants, shortbread cookies and even tiramisu! We can think of nowhere else that embraces both East and West so effortlessly; at his bakery there is, quite literally, something for every taste. In recent years, Saint Germain Bakery customers have rejoiced at the expansion of the offerings to include a wide selection of breads, cookies, pastries and cakes not traditionally offered by Chinese bakeries, including macarons. It is exactly by constantly evolving and playing with ‘new’ ingredients like Japanese matcha powder and black sesame that Mickey strives to honour the way of the ‘beng lou’ before him: his skilful combination of the tastes and flavours in this diverse country and his continual fusion of cultures would make his forefathers proud.

Mickey’s expansion plans for Toronto targeted large malls beyond the city’s regular Chinese enclaves; he wanted to bring Saint Germain Bakery to places that are frequented by all the ethnicities that make up this great city. Part of his vision was for Saint Germain Bakery to be a place where Chinese customers could try Western baked goods, and non-Chinese customers could discover and explore 'Chinese Western Pastries.' Unfortunately, COVID-19 put those dreams on hold. His flagship Fairview Mall location and newly-opened stores at Scarborough Town Centre and Hillcrest Mall were all forced to close, leaving his production facility in Scarborough as the only location to remain open during the global pandemic. Alas, not even this or escalating anti-Asian sentiment were able to defeat him; in the face of such loss and negativity, Mickey chose to stay positive and focus his energy on making constructive contributions to the community. He coordinated fundraising efforts which culminated in a $38,000 donation to the Red Cross. He also used his production facilities in Vancouver and Toronto to bake bread and then rallied his wife, friends and associates to hand-deliver the loaves to understaffed retirement homes, ravaged by COVID-19 outbreaks. As he noted, “There were seniors who were starving with no staff left to feed them.” Going even further, Saint Germain Bakery also supported other Chinese-owned businesses who suffered due to the upswing in anti-Asian racism, offering VIP bakery discount cards to any customer who presented a receipt from purchases made at Chinese small businesses.

Looking beyond the events of the last two years, Chef Mickey Zhao remains both optimistic and resilient. He is excited to continue realizing his mission for the St. Germain Bakery chain, whose values reflect the core of who he is: a respect and love of food, always using the best ingredients and combining perspectives from the East and the West. Mickey’s formula for success can be summed up with a phrase that is only two Chinese characters long: “yung sam", which directly translates into ‘using your heart’. Mickey will forever continue to follow the example of his ‘beng lou’ predecessors and share his knowledge openly with his staff in hopes that their collective efforts will allow Saint Germain Bakery to not only scale up, but carry on the evolution of their breads and pastries.

His unique perspective as a son of a Chinese baker who also happens to be formally trained in Western techniques will forever allow him to challenge the notion of what defines Western and Asian baked goods. We know he will do this in the only way he knows how: authentically and respectfully.

sponsored by **Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office**.

世界冠軍的烘焙師

Mickey是一名糅合兩職特點的天生烘焙師。年幼時經常跟着麵包佬爸爸：「那時候，就是特別喜歡與麵包粉糰作伴，總覺得那東西千變萬化。在加拿大讀高中時，有幸被烘焙班老師挑選作培訓，令我眼界大開，發現到烘焙世界原來不只港式麵包西餅，還有很多亮麗可口的餅點，令我更熱愛烘焙。」Mickey的天賦，早已被行內前輩看見。他在喬治布朗學院廚師課程畢業後，就立即被囊括到美國紐約萬豪侯爵酒店當副餅點主廚，更被加拿大廚師協會邀請成為加拿大隊的重要一員，也是隊中稀有的華裔隊員。結果不負眾望，出征德國《飲食奧林匹克大賽》，分別在2004年贏取三枚金牌、在2008年以領隊身分率領加隊獲得四枚金牌，並在卅多個國家隊伍中排名第五。麵包糕點以外，Mickey的朱古力手藝也非常了得，曾在世界各地的朱古力大賽奪標，戰績彪炳。

機緣巧合， Mickey於溫哥華遇上人生另一位伯樂 —— 加拿大中文傳媒大亨馮永發先生。馮先生看中Mickey對烘焙的熱誠，在2005年特別聘請他出任旗下Saint Germain麵包連鎖店的行政總廚，以擴展業務、擴闊種類、打入主流。被問到師承西式烘焙，並一直在酒店餅房工作的Mickey，當年毅然回歸麵包佬的世界，可有挑戰？他憶述：「這兩個職種十分相似但又不完全一樣。當年的最大挑戰，是要用最短時間穩固團隊。港式麵包世界與西式烘焙，在手藝、工序及材料上確實是有差異，我必須把兩者取長補短，令店舖可以更有系統地運作，更多樣化地擴展，這樣才不負馮先生對我的厚望。」

Mickey的夢想樂園

「用心創作」是Mickey的信念，只要用心凡事都可以變成真！於 2016 年，為慶祝店舖30週年紀念，並提升主流社會對港式麵包的興趣，Mickey與團隊用了一個多星期烘培了全世界最大的紅蘿蔔蛋糕。這個重4,574磅、闊6尺、三萬多人基準份量的作品，當場被列入健力士世界紀錄大全，紀錄至今未有人打破。

Mickey相信餅點是世界共通的語言。2018年，他與老闆馮先生、幕僚謝振漢先生，決定擴展加東版圖的時候，選擇先進駐西人主流商場 —— 旗艦店選址Markville Mall，然後Fairview Mall、Scarborough Town Centre、Hillcrest Mall，目的是希望讓不同族裔可以隨時品嚐到港式麵包及中式餅點。或許，很多老行專認為那樣擴充過於冒險，甚至以為港式麵包只會受華人擁戴，但店外

的人龍卻證明了，麵包西餅是無國界之分的。

當進入Mickey建造的夢想樂園，不難發現，在琳琅滿目的餅櫃裏，除了菠蘿包、蛋撻、拿破崙等港式經典外，也會有中式糕點如老婆餅、香芋酥、合桃酥等，更不乏牛角包、馬卡龍、提拉米蘇等歐式餅點，中西兼備，樣樣皆精。Mickey分享說，「傳承不能忘本，創新不能守舊，挑選材料必須一絲不苟，我們的心思，顧客一啖便感受到。」傳統的老婆餅他堅持要用豬油、提拉米蘇不會吝嗇意大利軟芝士、新派的黑芝麻戚風蛋糕必然選材味道濃郁的日本黑芝麻。難怪Saint Germain店舖車水馬龍。

取諸社會，用諸社會

天有不測的風雲！原本這兩年是Mickey擴展版圖的關鍵時刻，奈何遇上新冠疫情，令計劃放緩。可是他與團隊卻沒有把腳步放慢，選擇保持積極的態度，為社區做多點建設性的貢獻。他在店內進行的慈善義賣，為加拿大紅十字會籌募了加幣$38,000善款。還在溫哥華和多倫多的生產

廠房製作新鮮麵包，然後召集他妻子、朋友和同事協助運送到長期護理中心，讓護理人員及年老長者有方便飽餐。他指出：「在一些疫情嚴重的長期護理中心，因為人手極度短缺，不能夠按時提供食物，但願我們的麵包可作暫時性的舒緩。」另外，反亞裔主義影響了無數華裔小商戶，

Mickey亦在電台呼籲，鼓勵社區光顧華裔小店，凡出示購物收據到他的店就可獲賞貴賓折扣卡，這雪中送炭的舉動感動了社群。入行超過廿載的Mickey 笑言，從沒有想過轉行，每天在廚房裏仍然有新奇的發現。當很多人說，麵包佬是夕陽職業，Mickey完全不認同。他認為只要提供一個健全的培訓平台，麵包佬也好，烘焙師也好，絕對可以薪火相傳，而他其中一個未來大計就是開設烘焙廚藝學校！聽彬一席話，勝讀十年書，趙健彬說明了「心有多寬，世界就有多大」！