Chef Chiew See began her profession as a mechanical engineer. She is also known as Autumn Kitchen on Instagram (Instagram A/c: autumn.kitchen) and YouTube and Autumn Baking Diary on Facebook. Her engineering career required her to travel and work on-site a lot, which made it difficult for her to balance work and family obligations. After ten years of employment in the engineering profession, she then considered quitting. She started cooking at home after quitting her job because she wanted to provide her family with healthy, additive-free meals. Baking became a natural progression.
She posted all of the tried-and-true recipes on social media along with notes on her experience. Subsequently, she began receiving a lot of inquiries and support, and she came to the realization that many other home bakers faced same challenges. In order to minimize or completely eradicate failures and mistakes in home baking, she wished to share her knowledge and experiences with other bakers. She knows how painful it may be to have repeated failures because she is a self-taught baker.
Q.) Where do you seek out ideas and inspiration?
Chef Chiew: I read a variety of sources for inspiration. For my followers, I usually have to test and adjust recipes to make a sourdough version.
Q.) Why did you decide to become a chef instead of a mechanical engineer?
Chef Chiew: My resignation from my profession was a logical next step. Eventually, I discovered that baking is a science as well as a lot of pleasure. This made my engineering mind start debugging any baking-related issue I ran upon.
Q.) What would you say about your style of baking?
Chef Chiew: I am a sourdough baker, but I also bake yeasted bread. However, in general, I prefer to bake everything naturally. In all of my baked goods, I try to avoid using additives and colors as much as possible.
Q.) Malaysian restaurants showcase the variety of the nation’s cultures. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Chef Chiew: Since our nation is multi-ethnic, the influences of various ethnic groups have long been incorporated into our regional cuisine by our hospitable and accepting society. Malaysian cuisine is distinct due to its varied flavors and rich cultural legacy. Because of this, it’s a culinary feast that also showcases Malaysia’s diverse identity.
Q.) Which flavors characterize Malaysian food the most?
Chef Chiew: Malaysian cuisine is widely recognized for its robust and piquant taste profile.
Q.) Is bread made with sourdough healthy? Why should one choose sourdough bread?
Chef Chiew: With LAB present in the form of prebiotic food, consuming sourdough bread facilitates improved food digestion, increases nutritional absorption of minerals and vitamins, and enhances gut health.
Q.) Tell us a little bit about your book, “Autumn Baking.”
Chef Chiew: I released a bilingual book about sourdough in both Chinese and English in 2019. My sourdough book was a top ten best-selling (in the nonfiction section) in Malaysia’s major bookshop several times. I actually conducted all of the photo shoots for my book in addition to writing and testing the recipe. Almost half of the book’s pages are devoted to stunning images, which are lovely to look at. I have 31 sourdough recipes in my book.
Q.) What baking advice would you give to an aspiring chef?
Chef Chiew: It is never too late to begin anything in life. Simply be persistent and hold onto your passion.
By: Rida Khan (Aviation Author)
Instagram Account: aviationauthor.ridakhan
