“The more I’m in this business, the more I understand why brands have to do things in a certain way,” she says. “It definitely makes me wonder how I should expand.”

Yuen previously worked for fine-dining restaurants including Nobu (now closed), at what was the InterContinental Hong Kong, and the one-Michelin-star Ando, in the city’s Central business district. Sometime into her second year at the latter, she decided to strike out on her own.

As a pastry chef and entrepreneur, she’s on a steep learning curve, determined to take the path of constant self-improvement – which is what Otera is about.

“The concept is harmony and, in my mind, emotional equilibrium that you reach. It’s important for me because when I reach that stage, I am calm and know what I need to do to excel,” she says.

11 best new Instagram bakeries in Hong Kong for cakes, pastries and more

“The problem with the word harmony is that it’s hard to visualise, so it’s a space to experiment, to improve, and that place is otera, which is ‘temple’ in Japanese.”

Having started her career in advertising, Yuen did not seriously pursue pastry until she was 26 and readily admits to only having about eight years of experience in the industry.

Nevertheless, she is keen to take desserts to another level, focusing on Japanese pastry and using it to give people a sense of harmony.

She wants customers to also be able to enjoy her creations at home.

“In a restaurant you can only have dessert on the spot and I feel that’s limited. The hallmark of [a] fine-dining dessert is that it means something, there’s a story to it, there’s emotion to it. So my job as a pastry chef is to bridge this gap in the market and apply the technique and story to make it takeaway,” she says.

To help do this, Yuen wanted a location from which she could ensure smooth and prompt delivery to customers on Hong Kong Island. It took her six months but she eventually found a suitable space in North Point.

Later, she plans to open Otera for intimate tasting events for six diners at a time as another way to showcase her delectable creations.

One of the desserts Yuen is becoming known for is her soy sauce caramel flan.

“I tend to choose something my audience is familiar with, like flan. It’s the oldest dessert there is,” she says. “[This flan] is 80 per cent familiarity and 20 per cent novelty, which is the soy sauce in a very soft and fluffy mousse. The texture and the flavour make it so memorable.”

Another signature at Otera is the banana whiskey flan with candied walnut. Yuen discovered salted banana a few years ago through Filipino friends who would cook bananas in a pork broth.

She’s satisfied with the umami notes in this creation; however, if the dessert isn’t consumed within the day, the banana starts to turn black, another item on Yuen’s improvement list.

She is keen to explore many more Asian flavours, particularly those that people tend to overlook, such as pears and wampee, or wong pei in Cantonese, a small, yellow, grape-sized fruit with a tangy flavour and extremely short season.

She says the fruit tastes like a lemon but with a “herby, licorice touch … [but] because it’s cheap, and it’s not the prettiest fruit on Earth, people don’t think it’s worthy for Michelin-starred restaurants,” she says. “But I think the taste and smell are amazing.”

Currently she is also making ume (Japanese plum) syrup, and will later infuse the juice with kombu, which she says goes well with dried salted plum.

“It’s like ripe nectarine dipped in salt water,” she says, explaining that the idea came from an organic white wine from Slovakia she tried that tasted like stone fruit, which was paired with a seafood pasta.

She is also exploring more umami-led ingredients such as fish sauce and mushroom, as well as cocoa powder.

Yuen also likes to consult a book called The Flavour Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, when exploring intriguing flavour combinations. The book helps explain how unlikely pairs of ingredients that contain overlapping characteristics could work well when combined together.

She also looks to different experiences for inspiration; past ones include a perfume-making workshop. However, she actively stays away from cookbooks and cooking channels.

“Originality comes from two to three unrelated ideas and you combine them together,” she says.

She adds that meditating two or three times a week is another way to imagine new desserts.

“I focus on what makes me calm, and imagine in my mouth what combination makes me feel harmony. If I can taste it in my mouth, it gets so vivid.”

In the meantime she’s researching the legend about the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast, a grand banquet that was supposedly held during China’s Qing dynasty. The story goes that the Kangxi Emperor wanted to resolve disputes between the Manchu and Han peoples with a three-day feast that also celebrated his 66th birthday.

“There are manuscripts on how the feast was conducted and what ingredients were used. Basically there were delicacies from the Manchurian and the Han and I realise that some of the pastries they did were interesting and I want to try to recreate a modern version of them,” she says.

“It’s fun. To me that’s what inspiration is – you never know where it comes [from].”

The Hong Kong sushi chef breaking rules with his ‘more fun’ omakase menu

Packaging is also important and she thinks through the entire process from the customer’s point of view. When it comes to the boxes, she has the environment in mind.

“We chose biodegradable paper so it has no lamination, no ink, and even the glue is made from cornstarch,” Yuen says. As a result, the name “Otera” is embossed, which costs more to produce, while the box is folded like origami. She includes a complimentary metal cake cutter in the hope that customers will reuse it.

Since leaving Ando and launching Otera, Yuen says her parents have been supportive of her career path.

“They realise this is what I believe in. For me it’s very different from working in a restaurant or a company, because you actually get to do what your purpose drives you to do, and self-improvement is essential to this concept,” she says.

“If I fail in the end, I still feel like I’m growing, I’m improving. That’s what drives me.”

Otera, Unit 03, 21/F, Technology Plaza, 651 King’s Road, North Point, tel: 5506 5310