My New Journey

As you knew, I’ve graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Wellington, New Zealand. I gained my Le Grand Diplome in June 2014 and was rewarded as one of the top 2 students in both Patisserie and Cuisine class.

My life was so perfect in Wellington. I loved my life there, it was like a dream come true. However, life has ups and downs. I was accepted into Le Cordon Bleu Paris. It’s Paris, it’s everybody’s dreams. I was so excited to continue my culinary journey and have another awesome experience. I was supposed to start in September 2014, so I had time to spend a few months back home in Jakarta, Indonesia for holiday. During these few months, so many things changed my mind about my plan going to Paris. I saw many opportunities to work overseas or even in Jakarta and I thought it was better to gain some experience first before continuing my studies. So I CANCELLED my september course in Paris.

In October 2014, everything started to go wrong, I couldn’t work overseas, I started looking for a job in Jakarta but the food was just not up to a good standard, even in a 5 star hotel. I was so upset. I got depressed. I didn’t do anything all day, I didn’t talk to anyone, I couldn’t sleep at night, I cried. I refused to learn or try anything new. My parents suggested that I had an online business and I was really really uninterested. I loved french pastries and those products were difficult to be sold online, especially in jakarta, I couldn’t even get the proper ingredients. It was like my worst nightmare came true. I was planning to go to Paris AGAIN, but then my dad didn’t let me. He wanted me around. It was so difficult to leave him just like that knowing that he would be sad if I left, and also, I have a boyfriend, he’s my high school sweetheart and we’ve been in a long distance relationship since 2009. I didn’t feel like leaving him as well.

So I stayed, but it was so difficult to adapt to this new environment. I’m a proud Indonesian. However, I’ve been living overseas since I was 13. I was a Le Cordon Bleu alumni with a great chance to become a successful professional chef and I had to change that dream of mine that I had since high school. I had to lower my expectation. I was confounded, I didn’t know what to do. I took a lot of short courses, more than 5 classes. I got another 2 diplomas but still I wasn’t sure what I was doing with my life. I felt like I was useless. Then one day, my mom asked me if I wanted to take this one particular course. This course was about how to make flowers with buttercream. So I joined the class and it changed my life. These are some of the photos of the flower cake that I made.

These cakes might have not been the best you’ve seen but it was special to me. I fell in love while making the cake. Making the flowers, arranging it, playing with the colours, it was a wonderful feeling. A feeling that I haven’t felt for a long time. So I created my own boutique and it’s an online business for now, but I was planning to open a shop at the right time. It’s called Nana Cake Boutique. I know it’s not big but it’s something that I’m proud of, so my dream of Paris didn’t come true but I had something better. My dad is happy that I’m around, finally I’m able to do something that I love, I’m not in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend anymore. It’s going pretty well. I guess everything you planned is not always going to be the best decision even though you think that it is. Sometimes you have to change your plan, it sucks, but you’re gonna get something better eventually. Even the sky couldn’t rain forever. Thank you for those who always support me.