By Laura Hou
There are a lot of people in the world that share the outlook that artistic genes must run through the family of artists. This was not the case for Alexis Ong - she hails from a family with no artists in the lineage, nor any traces of artistic leanings. Alexis views art, and especially visual art, as something that the individual has to be born to do, yet she feels that she had never been one of those born artists. Alexis believes however that what really matters is not your natural skills, but instead your own passion belying your endeavors, whatever they may be. As she expressed, “It doesn’t matter how late you start something. If you put 110% into it, it doesn’t matter if you started yesterday, or 10 years ago.”
There are a lot of people in the world that share the outlook that artistic genes must run through the family of artists. This was not the case for Alexis Ong - she hails from a family with no artists in the lineage, nor any traces of artistic leanings. Alexis views art, and especially visual art, as something that the individual has to be born to do, yet she feels that she had never been one of those born artists. Alexis believes however that what really matters is not your natural skills, but instead your own passion belying your endeavors, whatever they may be. As she expressed, “It doesn’t matter how late you start something. If you put 110% into it, it doesn’t matter if you started yesterday, or 10 years ago.”
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Having been born in Hawaii, Alexis noted that food has been an integral part of her upbringing. She was fortunate enough to live in a state with such incredible diversity in both culture and people. This diversity opened up a spectrum of hybridized cuisines; Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and American foods were all combined in ways, which the rest of the world would never experience. This exposure to such a variety of food peaked her interest in cooking and baking. Her love of eating transformed into her a love of creating. Baking and cake decorating quickly became a part of Alexis’s identity. Her advice to artists wishing to explore the realms of culinary arts is to learn how to be patient. As she said, “the world of cuisine is a unique place to live, our only goal as chefs is to make people happy, and there are few occupations that focus on that. The look on a person’s face when you walk in with their wedding cake, or their eyes when they take their first bite of a cookie, make you completely forget how hard it was to get there. Suddenly, you feel like you would do it all over again.” Alexis devotes almost all of her time to baking. She had started baking when she was only seven, and now she bakes four times a week, usually bringing her masterpieces into school to share with her friends. Although just a Grade 11 student at Collingwood, Alexis has already started her own business through her website, www.cakesbylexi.com. She added that she has already, “baked two wedding cakes,” and has certainly market her debut into the magnificent world of baking.
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Outside of her world in the kitchen, Alexis is primarily focused on the art of calligraphy. She adores the look of flourishing ink across paper, which has rendered her fixated with mastering it. Her favorite pieces are the ones that features heavy type work. She finds a lot of her inspiration stems from Pinterest, with it being her, “go-to site for anything artistic”. She enjoys in sitting in front of her screen and scrolling down the page for she yearns for her words to look pretty.
When asked about the future, Alexis shared that she has already set out her path, with her hoping to attend culinary school and work in the best restaurants and bakeries. Best wishes to her in the future as we know she will be successful in chasing her dream of becoming a professional pastry chef!
