Birthday Cake for Chef Alan Wong

www.cakelava.com

 The cake was a last minute request ordered as a surprise gift for Chef Alan Wong of Alan Wong's Restaurant and The Pineapple Room by Alan Wong. The woman had called in a panic, "I know this is last minute ..." -- she was so sweet, I would have moved mountains for her if I could, but try and squeeze a cake into Rick's schedule when he is already booked, and my hands are tied, there is absolutely nothing I can do.  Even if the cake is for Alan Wong.  It pained me to say no to our client, she was so excited about surprising him with a cake and I dearly wanted to be able to help her.  She was hopeful and asked when our next availability was.  I told her that we could probably do it for Friday the 12th and she said that would be okay, it would be a belated birthday gift for him.  She called over to his project manager just to make sure he would be in town and it was a Go! 

I went into the kitchen to talk to Rick.  "Okay, now this is for Alan Wong..." and he knew immediately what that meant.  It meant, it better be AWESOME! Chef Alan Wong has long been one of my culinary heroes and consistently wins awards as one of Hawaii's top Chefs.  Alan Wong's Restaurant is considered by many to be the best restaurant in Hawaii and his New Wave Luau Cookbook is absolutely gorgeous!  He's made countless local and national appearances and his food is sublime! As someone who spent 8 years of her life slaving over a hot stove in my previous career, and who had one of her best meals in Hawaii at Alan Wong's Restaurant, it was a huge honor to have my husband make his birthday cake!

Our client wanted a FUN, whimsical wonky cake for Alan that included some of his favorite colors and would really WOW him!  She asked for pineapples (since he owns The Pineapple Room) to be included in the design and possibly a mushroom or two.  On the plaque she asked for the writing "Exceptional Things are worth waiting for.  Happy Late Birthday, Love, (their names)."  After some discussion we selected our Banana Blueberry Mascarpone flavor for Alan.  It's one of our favorite flavors and we thought he would love it.   When we met Alan to present the cake to him, he had a huge smile on his face.  He has a warm disposition and treated us like we were guests in his home. He seemed fascinated by the cake, I don't think he's had a cake like this before and were so honored to make it for him.  He chose the front of the bar area in the restaurant to display the cake during the dinner service.  His pastry team was brought out to see the cake and meet Rick and we took some photos with Alan.  It was a special night that we will never forget!  We want to thank our client for giving us the opportunity, and wish Alan a Happy Belated Birthday! 

www.cakelava.com

www.cakelava.com

Our CSN Stores sponsored giveaway is still running on the blog through Wednesday.  Thank you to those who have entered.  You can earn an additional entry by posting the link to the giveaway on twitter.