Any good and well intentioned Daddies with very rigid ideas about what success and their kids should be, will see a child like her as a nightmare. But then again…if people never danced to their own beats and took the journey less traversed, I suppose the internet would never be born. Those daddies would never be able to digest that sweet platter of enlightenment such kids would serve them when they heed their own calling and go left of their parent’s righteousness.

Twenty six year old Janice Wong dutifully obtained her degree in economics from a local university over three years ago and was heading to live that Singapore dream (whatever it is today). Grappling with an inner calling, she then promptly borrowed ten thousand euros from her dad and only revealed the real reason why two weeks before- she was going to France to learn about makan and hopefully run her own eatery. Father- shocked, mother- speechless. After graduating from the grand Le Cordon Bleu institute, which she feels is “the gold standard” qualification in the industry, she thought they suspected she will come back to her senses and go re-invent the world of banking and investments. Wrong. She moved onto a series of challenges to pay her dues –from being wrought with guilt by entering, and losing in a local TV food competition, to struggling in the well oiled operations of Thomas Keller’s Per Se kitchen, to working pro bono (no money) for Will Goldfarb’s Room4Dessert in New York (Will was an outstanding ex-cast member in Ferran Adria’s El Bulli molecular gastronomy “stage” in Spain). From her very focused direction with which she would handle our interview, I sort of realized that her folks, by then, had kinda given up on her ever coming up with a plan to save General Motors from the gutters. She moved to asked Dad for a bolder allowance this time..enough to set up a fancy up market 2am:Dessert Bar, almost two years ago to live out her dream. The place, a second floor Holland Village shop space, was done with the kind of finesse she stood for. It felt very designer Manhattan-esque- with white leather sofa beds, floor to ceiling windows with bold architecturally challenging statements. It did well and still does.

Janice the “sweet chic” ,with a simplified rendition of her stunning entry for dessert supremacy…the Araguani H20 matched with a strawberry wine

But all that can mean nada, like some upper middle class affluent hunger for recognition if she can’t even fluff the soufflé right. But this girl, and I think her creative strategies are crafted into a roll out plan in a spreadsheet, has a clear idea where she is going. Her top pleaser is Chocolate, a 64% Valrhona chocolate tart with a light-as-air crispy crust, with salty and sweet caramel streaks and a blob of blood orange sorbet with choco pebbles. “Can’t do more than 64% as there must be some sweetness” adding also her belief that a good dessert must not be too sweet, yet refreshing. She also sells the notion of paring wines with her desserts.

The most popular crowd pleaser on their menu..the Chocolate, a Valrhona choco tart with blood orange sorbet and caramel streaks and a friendly Reisling.

Then one day, a representative of the Madrid Fusion, a prestigious and respected makan summit and competition which has the legendary Ferran Adria as one of its head judge, egged her to enter it and she rose to the task, overcame her fear for competitions and became Asia’s singular representative to their International Plated Dessert competition. Only one other finalist was selected, Yannis Janssens from the Setai Restaurant in Florida, USA. The final showdown is in January 2010 in Spain. Her entry was an inspiration of something comforting from her childhood, a hot chocolate, but turned into Araguani H20, a stunning choco mousse block done only with chocolate (72%) and Evian water and a neat nitro-blast trick, strictly with no diary. I can eat that all day and not sense that milk and cream lining my walls inside. It was soft, smooth, light, soooo chocolaty, pretty and she justifies her $14 tag with Yuzu sorbet (Japanese lemon), chocolate dust and caramel dots.

She also offer a degustation (tasting menu) at $68 for up to 12 items and can include a wicked salted and sweet popcorn ice cream and an enlivening red guava sorbet. She is looking at hawthorne (san cha) gelatin creations although what I tasted was a work in progress. Her Jambu (apple cherries) sorbet was too polite, it lacked that tang and sharpness but she was still working on consistencies, I was assured, and I know she’ll get there.

So Mr Wong, you have every reason to beam now that Janice is not crunching ROIs and instead crushing ice with chocolate blasted with nitrogen for her award winning Araguani H20 dessert that is doing not just Singapore, but Asia proud. Truly heroic, and she’s only just begun. Bravo.