There’s a hot new pastry box (where bakers — largely home-based — sell assorted signature offerings in a handy package) on the market, yes another one. And the chef behind it comes with plenty of culinary cred. 28-year-old Maxine Ngooi started out as pastry commis at three-Michelin-starred Les Amis, moving on to pastry junior sous chef in the now-defunct three-starred Joël Robuchon Restaurant at RWS for two years. Her last post was head pastry chef for French outfit, Vianney Massot Restaurant, which had one Michelin star before it closed for good recently in June. She was approached by Ebb & Flow group — which owned Vianney Massot Restaurant and also casual concepts such as ​delivery Malay cuisine concept Nasi Nuri and vegan fast-food joint ​Love Handle Burgers​ — to start a bakery. Coincidentally, Maxine was toying with the idea of creating botanical-themed bakes with a nod towards Asian flavours, and thus a partnership was formed and Tigerlily Patisserie was launched on 29 August.

Maxine currently bakes with a small team from a kitchen facility owned by the Ebb & Flow group. Quantities are currently limited to just 20 boxes (10 each, for sweet and savoury options) per day to ensure consistency in quality. According to Maxine, sales has been increasing each week since their launch and they have been selling out quite frequently. They are also in the process of looking for a space to open a physical store — with seats for dining in — where Maxine hopes to offer a much wider range of pastries for purchase a la carte, as well as in box sets. “I also plan to serve petit gateaux (small mousse cakes) and sell whole cakes for celebrations and events,” she says.

While the pastries she made at Vianney Massot Restaurant and Joël Robuchon Restaurant were more intricate and required loads of attention to detail, Maxine says that the Tigerlily pastries are more rustic and comforting old-school European, with a few Asian flavours. “However, I use the same high quality ingredients and carry over the same attitude to work that one would have at a fine-dining restaurant,” says Maxine.

Atas ingredients include Italian Piedmont hazelnuts, French Pamplie butter and fragrant monofloral Lychee Honey from Madagascar used in a seasonal Sollies Fig Galette paired with caramelised Ginger Flowers.

She also focuses on using ingredients that are in their seasonal prime, something she also did at the fine-dining restaurants. The emphasis on seasonality also means that the items would be updated every month or so.

Fun fact: Maxine studied commerce in the University of Sydney. “I studied in Sydney and lived within walking distance of a large supermarket as well as a farmer’s market. The variety and freshness of the fruits and vegetables there intrigued me and I wanted to cook and experiment with all of them!” So she started cooking and discovered her true calling.

Some of Maxine’s earliest memories were of her Eurasian mother kneading and baking an olive and herb bread. “It was so aromatic and rich in flavour,” she recalls. This matriarch used to run her own casual restaurant when Maxine was a child. Since the Circuit Breaker, she has also started a home-based food delivery business serving her homecooked Eurasian and Peranakan (her mum grew up in Kuala Lumpur, amid Peranakan family friends who would share food and recipes) cuisine. The nameless business, promoted solely through Maxine and her sister’s IG stories, is a family project that all members in Maxine’s family help out with.

So, Maxine’s decision to go into F&B didn’t really come as a surprise to her friends and family.

The four pastries in the box are a presentation of the treats Maxine made for staff meals at Vianney Massot Restaurant during the Circuit Breaker. “Back then, business had slowed down, so I had time to experiment with things that are not fine-dining related, but stuff I always wanted to try,” says Maxine. The box we tried comprised a chocolate babka, a white peach galette, a maple pecan cruffin and a mochi blondie. Each piece is beautifully crafted, and the flavours very accessible. For now, Maxine doesn’t try too hard to incorporate Asian flavours into the pastries (though she has done things like babkas with gula melaka and coconut), for she would like her first box to be more approachable “with flavours that people understand”.

The beautifully braided babka (a braided brioche), laminated with a very generous amount of Valrhona Guanaja 70% dark chocolate is a crowd pleaser with its light texture and rich flavours.

The galette (a free-form tart) with thinly sliced French white peaches sitting atop a layer of almond frangipane adorned with edible jasmine flowers begs to have its picture taken. We found the buckwheat shortcrust pastry finer in texture than the one from the other popular gourmet bake box by Le Matin’s (its chef used to work at famed restaurant Noma), though it needed a toast in the oven to regain its crisp texture. Peaches are now out of season though, so they are selling fig galettes with jam seasoned with caramelised ginger flowers.

Maxine’s cruffin is crisp and flaky on the outside, with a fluffy yet dense enough centre to hold its creamy filling. However, fans of Bakery Brera’s supremely crisp cruffins might find this not quite as shiok. Meanwhile, the combination of maple cream and homemade pecan praline is easy-to-like, though not the most distinctive or memorable.

We always found blondies (a chocolate-free brownie) a poor substitute for brownies. Then this came along. Made with Valrhona Ivoire 35% white chocolate, the confection is just lightly sweet, and its crumbly texture perfectly on point. The fragrance of the house-made mochi greets you the moment you cut the pastry open.

And please, make like an ajumma and use food scissors, so that you don’t massacre the pastry trying to slice through the thick, super pliable layer of mochi with a knife. Better yet, just eat the piece whole. The combination of tender, fine-crumbed blondie with a sticky, chewy mochi centre is addictive — we'd happily order a whole box of this, if we could. Maxine does accommodate special orders when she can, so call to check.

Maxine puts things that she likes to eat in her boxes — and she likes vegetables. Before all you veg-averse folk run away screaming, know that she incorporates them in the best way possible. Our box had a colourful medley of a focaccia, quiche, sausage roll and dainty vegetable tart.

Maxine is a quiche nerd who spent years trying various quiches, and her definition of a good quiche is one with a very creamy and smooth egg custard base, studded with a substantial amount of ingredients. Her rendition, which incorporates gruyere cheese, is positively loaded with bacon and mushrooms, and the centre the most creamy we’ve had in a quiche. This is all contained within a delicately crisp thin crust. According to Maxine, customers have liked it so much that they ordered large 7-inch portions of this, and we totally get it.

A painfully beautiful tartlet smeared with a bell pepper romesco sauce at the base and topped with the tiniest florets of cauliflower, broccoli, miniature dices of carrots and zucchini, charred halved of pearl onions, and a swirl of tender capsicum slivers. It’s too pretty to eat, yet you will end up gobbling it in one mouthful. We'd so order a 7-inch version of this.

“My first job in F&B was in Les Amis, and I was working at the bread station. Focaccia is one of the breads I made there, and having had no experience making or eating it before, I found myself really liking it,” recalls Maxine. The version she made at Les Amis incorporates confit onions, and she continues to do so in this rendition, also adding caramelised tomatoes and green olives for a very attractive looking slice. The portion works nicely as a base for a sandwich, but is also flavourful enough to enjoy on its own.

Her mum’s curry Kapitan (a dry curry that doesn’t use curry powder in its base) is one of Maxine’s favourite, and is the inspiration behind this glossy, egg-washed roll that looks like a miniature Beef Wellington. The rich flavours of the mildly spicy sausage is given a slight lift by the freshness of kaffir lime. However, we felt the meaty filling totally overshadowed the pastry in this one, and wished there was a little more crisp, flaky texture to counter the unctuousness of the sausage.

While not everything is as memorable as the lovely mochi blondie and creamy quiche (we also like the babka and the veg tart), this bake box is a level up in terms of finesse and ingredients from your usual home-based baker's offering. We like that the chef focuses on elegant, natural flavours, rather than try too hard to wow with outlandish combinations. And prices for what you get are pretty reasonable (its closest rival Le Matin’s box of five gourmet pastries is priced at $59).

Place orders for Tigerlily Patisserie’s sweet & savoury boxes at ​tigerlilypatisserie.com​ before 3pm for next-day pick-up from Hong Kong Street or delivery from 11am - 6pm Tue – Sat; 11am - 3pm Sun.

Photos: Tigerlily & Koh Yuen Lin/8 Days