YUAN, FOUNDER & CEO

Yuan is a serial entrepreneur, former diplomat, professional chef, and university lecturer specializing in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. Her life is a testament to a profound and enduring obsession with food—one that began in childhood, when she would fall asleep with cookbooks, a habit she maintains to this day. Her earliest memories are sensory snapshots of culinary experiences: the first taste of ice cream, the anticipation of waffles, making jiaozi with her family, a painful burn from a pot of popcorn, picking berries, and her infamous attempt at baking bread in a gas oven that nearly set the house on fire.

If Yuan is not eating, she is thinking about what and where to eat next. After years of working in international relations and building start-ups, she moved to Paris at age 31 to study at Le Cordon Bleu. It was there that her obsession deepened: she would spend hours after class deconstructing the science of cooking, researching culinary history, honing her techniques through YouTube videos, and sketching plating ideas for the next day until 2am.

Yuan graduated with diplomas in both cuisine and pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, London, and Wellington. She has pursued further professional training in over 20 countries, including 200 hours of private pasta-making classes in Bologna and a one-month chef’s course in Bangkok. To gain hands-on experience, she completed stages in a Michelin-starred restaurant in London, a bistro in New Zealand, and with a cheesemaker in Switzerland. She is also a certified tea sommelier, has studied the art of gelato-making, and maintains an endless list of skills she intends to master next.