A tea ceremony reimagined: Betty Fung’s art of dessert pairing

In the heart of Macau, an exclusive culinary dialogue unfolded — one that reimagined the ancient ritual of tea drinking through the lens of a modern pastry artist. The limited two-day event, “Tea Ceremony And Dessert Pairing,” brought together Ring Zhao, founder of the acclaimed Bar Choice, and Betty Fung, the Le Cordon Bleu-trained culinary force behind Café Bonbon and LanovaB, in a collaboration that felt less like a tasting menu and more like a poetic correspondence between two kindred spirits.

Fung, a Macau native who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and holds professional diplomas from the Disciples Escoffier culinary institute, has built a reputation for exquisite French desserts with a distinctly Eastern sensibility — each creation treated as an art piece, a philosophy shaped through years of global culinary exploration. This collaboration with Zhao, whose bar specialises in intangible cultural heritage tea-based cocktails, represented a natural convergence of their shared reverence for tea’s storytelling power.

The tasting menu unfolded as a geographic and sensory map of China’s tea heritage, beginning with a cold-brew Milky Ya Shi Xiang from Phoenix Mountain, Chaozhou, paired with a Basque cheesecake infused with the same oolong’s signature milky, floral notes — a study in harmony where the tea’s delicate creaminess echoed in the burnt cheesecake’s rich custard heart, creating a dialogue between scorched earth and mountain breeze.

From there, the journey ventured to Yunnan’s Lincang region, where an ancient tree white tea was transformed into a gin-based cocktail with passionfruit and citrus, accompanied by a Cookie Quartet featuring lavender lemon, Phoenix Dancong, shiitake mushroom, and chilli — a playful, savoury turn that challenged conventional dessert expectations and proved that Fung’s creativity knows no bounds.

The third course paid homage to Hangzhou’s West Lake Longjing, reimagined as a cocktail with gin, house-made ginger lily syrup, and bergamot, paired with a rose, raspberry, and lychee jelly that offered a bright, perfumed counterpoint to the tea’s grassy clarity — a combination so balanced it felt almost inevitable.

The ceremony closed with a hot-brewed sun-dried Pu’er from Nannuo Mountain, Xishuangbanna — deep, woody, and grounding — alongside tea-infused cannelés whose caramelised crust and umami-rich interior provided a perfect farewell, bringing the journey full circle.

Originally slated for City of Dreams’ sky-high suspended venue, the event was relocated to the intimate setting of Lan Bar due to typhoon weather — a shift that, serendipitously, brought guests closer to the creators themselves, allowing for an intimacy that a grander, more theatrical setting might have diminished.

Attendees were treated not just to flavours, but to the narratives behind each pairing: Fung’s rigorous technique, Zhao’s reverence for tea heritage, and their shared commitment to elevating Chinese tea culture through contemporary gastronomy. For Fung, whose culinary journey began with a leap of faith — quitting a decade-long administrative career at the airport to study in Paris with nothing but determination and a dream — events like this represent the culmination of a lifelong pursuit of beauty, balance, and creative expression.

Her desserts, like the teas they accompany, are never merely sweet; they are compositions of texture, memory, and place, each bite carrying the weight of terroir and the lightness of artistic intuition. In an era where tea is often rushed or reduced to a commodity, this ceremony was a quiet rebellion — a reminder that the leaf, like pastry, deserves to be savoured, contemplated, and celebrated, and that in the hands of artists like Betty Fung, even the oldest traditions can find new ways to speak to the modern soul.