From school kitchen to international arena
In 2017, Nguyen Huu Thien An began his apprenticeship at Saigontourist School of Tourism and Hospitality. Initially, he studied in the hot kitchen, but one day, by chance, he passed by the school's fondant workshop. The smell of butter and milk, the beauty of the colorful, curvy layers of fondant awakened a special feeling in An. He decided to change direction, from the savory kitchen to the sweet kitchen, from the hot pan to the cake molding table to stick with the sweet but laborious material: fondant.
Nguyen Huu Thien An and the work "The Joy of Hat Boi".
Fondant is a marshmallow mixture made from powdered sugar, capable of creating a variety of shapes like clay. However, unlike familiar cakes or mousses, fondant cakes require high technique and creativity, from sketching, kneading, coloring, combining shapes to building the cake base and filling inside to make it beautiful, sturdy, and edible. For Thien An, a fondant cake not only needs to be "eye-catching" but also needs to know how to tell a story and touch the viewer's emotions.
Images of Lac birds and Dong Son bronze drums are depicted on the cake.
Thien An shared: “Vietnamese culture is very rich and I want to convey that beauty into cakes. It is not only a product to eat but also a way to tell stories about my homeland in another language - the language of sugar, color and shape”.
Bringing the art of hát bội to cakes with all the love for national culture.
That pioneering choice was quickly recognized through a series of domestic and international awards such as the Gold Medal in the Wedding Cake category at the Hong Kong International Culinary Classic 2025, the Vietnam Bakery Cup Champion and 2 subsidiary awards: Best Dessert and Best Showpiece, Gold Medal - Artistic Cake Display and Silver Medal for Team at the Guangzhou Culinary Challenge 2024. Especially the double Gold Medal - Modern Style Wedding Cake and Silver Medal - Artistic Display at Battle of The Chefs Malaysia 2024... In addition, Thien An also won many Best Art and Excellent Media awards in professional competitions in Vietnam...
Every line and detail is expressed by Thien An in a delicate and meticulous manner.
However, what makes An happiest is not the number of medals but the eyes of the viewers filled with tears when seeing the image of an old mother, a rustic meal or an old conical hat recreated on the cake in a vivid, sincere, and intimate way, recalling each person's dear memories.
Rustic dishes, closely associated with Vietnamese life.
When cakes become cultural works
One of Thien An’s most impressive works is the wedding cake called “Hỷ sự hát bội”. Inspired by hát bội - a long-standing traditional theatrical form, the cake is a fusion of love and identity, tradition and modern creativity. This work helped him win the Gold Medal for Excellence in the Wedding Cake category at the 2025 Hong Kong International Competition.
The picture of the old lady and bitter melon soup was depicted by Thien An in the work "Memories".
The first layer of the cake is shaped like a opera drum, symbolizing new beginnings, like the opening drumbeat of a play. Interwoven with the image of red lotus - a flower symbolizing enduring, silent but intense love. The middle layer is shaped like a hexagon - symbolizing harmony and balance between the old and the new, between two people entering married life. The top layer is the image of the bride and groom transformed into opera characters: a majestic general and a sharp woman, reminding them of their personalities, roles and bonds in the journey of marriage. Although in the script they are on opposite sides of the battle line, in life, they are life partners, holding hands to overcome all challenges.
Each work is like a painting of the homeland.
An calls the cake a “sugar promise”: “Let love be like an eternal flower - blooming from the roots of culture, spreading its fragrance and never fading in the years ahead.”
The typical cakes of Vietnam.
To create such a work, he had to go through the process of designing, coming up with ideas, hand sketching, choosing a cake base with a solid texture (like butter cake, brownie), making fruit jam filling, covering it with chocolate ganache to increase adhesion, then comes the most important part: Molding the shape with fondant and drawing directly with specialized food coloring.
The work "Memories" was exhibited at the international competition.
Unlike many artists who prefer modern or Western themes, Thien An chooses to tell Vietnamese stories through visual language: From the painting of an old woman and bitter melon soup (work “Memories”) to the Vietnamese Tet meal with banh chung, braised pork and eggs, a tray of jam and Dong Ho paintings… Whether it is a simple object like a bamboo chair or an abstract symbol like a childhood memory, all appear vividly through each layer of sugar.
Cake with images of famous historical sites of Vietnam.
In addition to baking, Thien An also participates in culinary communication activities, collaborating with units promoting Vietnamese agricultural products and local cuisine. Recently, he and the Vietnamese team brought to the competition in Guangzhou a collection of cakes made from nearly 20 types of agricultural products such as: lemon, lemongrass, kumquat, pandan leaves, coffee, lotus seeds, cocoa... combined with chocolate to create delicious dishes that also honor the value of Vietnamese agriculture .
Thien An has won many international awards for its cakes featuring traditional Vietnamese culture.
For Thien An, cakes are not only for enjoyment but also for remembrance, for a memory, a homeland, a feeling that once existed in each person. In the modern world , where everything can be digitized and mass-produced, his fondant cakes are a gentle reminder that: There are values that can only be preserved by hands, by heart and a little sweetness from the Vietnamese soul.
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/thoi-hon-van-hoa-viet-vao-the-gioi-banh-nghe-thuat-a423121.html
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