It is a sweet start to the year for home-grown freelance actress Jeanette Aw.
The 44-year-old opened the first pop-up booth of her patisserie brand Once Upon A Time in Nagoya, Japan, on Jan 16.
Aw posted a video of the opening day on Instagram with the caption: “Such a humbling experience. I’m so grateful.”
Another video, captured by her manager, showed the star shedding tears of joy.
Located on the 10th floor of the JR Nagoya Takashimaya department store, Aw’s booth is part of a 28-day chocolate fair called Amour du Chocolat, which will run until Valentine’s Day.
According to Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News in September 2023, although Aw worked with a team, including a Japanese pastry chef, for her pop-ups, she remained the “main baker” and developed the desserts herself.
Aw will reportedly head to Osaka and Tokyo next with her pop-up.
Apart from chocolate bon bons, the Once Upon A Time stall will sell its famous What The Fudge brownies. There is a special Japan-only orange flavour brownie, retailing for 3,456 yen (S$31).
Aw, who completed a patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu Tokyo in 2019, started Once Upon A Time in 2021.
“This is the biggest event in Japan, so I really didn’t know what to expect,” she wrote on Instagram Stories. “I’ve been working on this for two years and there were challenges along the way. Today is the launch day in Nagoya. Finally.”
She added that to put up the “sold out” sign meant a lot to her. “It also made me a little emotional.”
