Kit Chan stars in new baking series: Feeling like a domestic goddess

Singer-actress Kit Chan, who stars in a new baking series, says she likes making cookies and storing them in glass jars as they look really good

Kit Chan stars in Toggle Web series Patisserie Fighting as a biomedical researcher who leaves her job to pursue her passion for baking.
Kit Chan stars in Toggle Web series Patisserie Fighting as a biomedical researcher who leaves her job to pursue her passion for baking. PHOTO: TOGGLE

Local singer-actress Kit Chan headlines the Toggle Web series Patisserie Fighting, but during filming, she had to wait around for a bigger star.

She tells The Straits Times: "Whenever they filmed the food, that's when we knew we had to wait, because they had to get the lighting just right.

"And did you know that foods produce sounds too? There's a scene where I use a fork to pierce a cake, and the guy puts the mike very, very close to the cake because he says it makes a sound - it goes 'jrrr'."

In the show, Chan, 44, plays a biomedical researcher who leaves her job to pursue her passion for baking; her male co-star is Taiwanese model-actor Chris Lee, 35, who plays a talented pastry chef.

A new episode premieres on www.toggle.sg every Monday and Friday until May 12.

This is her first series since Cash Is King (2002), the 40-episode Channel U drama on the stock market crisis.

The earlier show's gruelling production schedule meant she got only three hours of sleep a night for five months and it scared her off acting in more television shows.

She said yes to Patisserie Fighting because it is a "very manageable" eight episodes of 13 minutes each.

Also, she adds with a laugh: "I realised my co-actor was going to be a handsome young man. Chris is so easy-going and funny. I'm like a big sister, sometimes I bully him, but it's all in good fun."

The show's subject matter of baking appealed to her as well.

Her speciality is tiramisu, which she makes once a year for Christmas Eve, and her secret is Cordon Bleu cognac.

"People think I'm crazy and that it's such a waste. I buy it, I don't drink it, it just goes into the tiramisu. Each time I make it, I use a quarter cup."

She also likes baking cookies and storing them in glass jars.

"They just look really good, right? Just looking at them makes you feel like a domestic goddess."

Apart from the new show, Chan also has a new song - a duet called Waiting For A Possibility with Hong Kong veteran singer Alan Tam. The Mandarin electronica track is on his album of duets, Appreciate.

Learning to relax and have some fun is how she characterises her recent projects.

"I tend to tackle very heavy material, whether it's singing or musicals. (Patisserie Fighting) is the first time I've tackled something lightweight and I really enjoyed it. It does not always have to be about suffering and angst."

At any rate, there will be more than enough angst for her to tackle when she reprises the title role of Empress Dowager Cixi in the restaging of the musical Forbidden City - Portrait Of An Empress in August.

She says: "Whenever I do a musical, it's very taxing and I'm very careful. It'll be a few months of very disciplined living."

• A new episode of Patisserie Fighting premieres on www.toggle.sg every Monday and Friday until May 12.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 28, 2017, with the headline Kit Chan stars in new baking series: Feeling like a domestic goddess. Subscribe