Inspiring Young Future Pastry Chefs

Wednesday 22nd of April 2020

Inspiring Young Future Pastry Chefs

‘The most important thing is to love what you do and work towards your goal. We have numerous resorts and hotels in the Maldives, with many new properties also set to open this year. There are a lot of opportunities in the luxury hospitality industry. My advice to young hoteliers would be to never lose your focus in what you do. Keep learning and loving life at the same time.’

These were the words of Aminath Hameed, Commis One Pastry Chef at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, in an interview by Hotelier Maldives. Aminath’s story started in 2012 when she decided to take cake decorating classes while working as a corporate sales officer. Now, she works at the five star resort in the chocolate section as a chocolatier and also in the dessert section when required. ‘Every day is a new challenge for me and a learning experience. We use the best chocolate in the world and there is so much to learn and practice on a daily basis.’

She says that the best part of her job is the freedom to be creative and learn new practices every day. ‘Working for such a luxury brand as Waldorf Astoria, each day the operations are extremely busy and there is no room for mistakes as our guests expectations are sky high.’ Aminath, who achieved a handful during her 4 years in the hospitality industry, got her first big achievement in the 17th Seoul International Bakery contest in South Korea in 2015 while she was still a student.

She won several awards in the dessert and young chef categories in FHAM and Hotel Asia 2016 and 2017. She was also awarded 1st place in the HILTON SEA Food and Beverage masters dessert challenge at the hotel level and 1st runner up in the country level competing against seven different hotels from three countries in 2017, the awards were held in Sri Lanka. In addition, Aminath was awarded the most promising talent award in the Asian pastry cup in 2018 held in Singapore.