Maira Yeo

The Path

Formal culinary training gives pastry its base before the refinement begins. Maira Yeo trained at Temasek Polytechnic Culinary and Catering Management course, establishing practical foundations before entering kitchens where technical confidence had to meet the conditions of place, service and ingredient. Before taking on the role of Pastry Chef at Cloudstreet, Maira Yeo worked through environments where mise en place, timing and restraint shaped dessert as structure rather than ornament. The next stage of that practice moves to EHB Restaurant in Shanghai (from 2025). For Maira Yeo, the move extends an international apprenticeship into another dining context, with the pastry discipline still organised around ingredients first and format second.

The Work Today

Since 2020, the Pastry Chef role at Cloudstreet in Singapore has given this work a defined service context. In Maira Yeo’s hands, the final courses are built to hold clarity after the meal: bright, creamy, herbaceous, sharp or gently bitter when the ingredient calls for it, without defaulting to sweetness as the only conclusion. Her own language around dessert is direct and ingredient-led: "I believe in keeping an open mind when creating desserts and not categorising ingredients as sweet or savoury. Instead, I allow the ingredients to inspire me and create around showcasing certain distinctive aspects of the ingredients." That position is a practical one. Pastry, as Maira Yeo frames it, starts by reading what an ingredient can do before assigning it a sweet or savoury role. Freshness, perfume, edge, softness, sharpness and bitterness become usable properties. The craft lies in letting those properties set the direction of the dessert, rather than forcing the ingredient into a pre-set category.

Signature

Signature work such as Celtuce, Yuzu, Green Chilli, And Yoghurt, CCB, and Caramelised Almond Parfait shows a pastry vocabulary built on contrast and control. In Maira Yeo’s hands, green notes, heat, citrus, cultured dairy, caramelisation and cold structure are not effects added at the end; they are the working materials of the plate.

In Their Words “I believe in keeping an open mind when creating desserts and not categorising ingredients as sweet or savoury. Instead, I allow the ingredients to inspire me and create around showcasing certain distinctive aspects of the ingredients.”

Acclaim

Maira Yeo has received Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: Asia's Best Pastry Chef Award, sponsored by Valrhona (2022). Asia's Best Pastry Chef Award, sponsored by Valrhona (2022), recognises a pastry practice built on focus rather than volume. For Maira Yeo, the award sits alongside a body of work defined by ingredient reading, composure and the discipline to let sweetness remain one tool among others.