Ally Jiang: Baking Wasn’t Part of the Plan
On a spring morning in Chengdu, we biked to the Taikoo Li area, a shopping district where luxury brands meet local culture, to visit Ally Jiang at her small bakery, ae. We arrived with no particular expectations, just hoping for a conversation about her life, but what followed became one of the most memorable moments of our time in Chengdu. She greeted us with big smiles and took us to her favorite breakfast spot nearby to eat, before she returned to her shop to continue with morning prep.
This visit was natural and necessary to us. Ally is a fellow Le Cordon Bleu alumna and a young entrepreneur who recently opened her own bakery. When I first reached out in a group chat of LCB graduates, she was the one who responded and connected with me.
Before meeting in person, all we had were online conversations and glimpses into her life through social media. She came across as outgoing, composed, and confident, someone who genuinely loves baking. When I learned she had opened her own space, I knew I wanted to sit down with her and hear her story.
First: The community is called 福顺里 (Fushunli), a small area that houses multiple independent spaces. | Second: The pictures showed the comparison between before and after renovation, which was completed in May, 2023.
Her bakery, ae, opened at the beginning of 2026. It sits in a narrow alley near Taikoo Li, in an old neighborhood that has recently been renovated for small, independent shop owners from different backgrounds. Many of the shops are niche and trend-driven, drawing in a younger crowd. As Ally showed us around, we passed a Japanese curry restaurant, an anime store, and a café where a neighborhood cat had taken over the seats, sleeping as if the place belonged to it. Ally knew every shop and introduced them with the ease of someone who feels at home there, proud to be part of the community.
ae has a clean, minimal aesthetic built around black and white tones. It reflects Ally’s belief in focusing on one thing and doing it exceptionally well.
The name of her bakery, ae, is inspired by the Sichuanese word anyi (安逸), a feeling of comfort and ease that is hard to translate directly. It also happens to closely resemble the name of another alumna’s restaurant we had visited before.
Snout & Seek
Fellow Le Cordon Bleu Alumni in Chengdu, Wei Yuan, with similarly named restaurant: and e
This coincidence brought the three of us together. From that moment, Ally stood out to me as a warm and lively person, someone who is kind and generous to everyone around her.
“Studying in Australia Changed Everything”
Before Ally was introduced to baking, she grew up between Shanghai and Chengdu with little experience in the kitchen. By her own account, she did not excel academically, and she moved through different industries trying to find her place. She worked in domestic services, spent time in communications, and eventually met her husband, who encouraged her to study abroad and explore what truly interested her.
“For a long time, I felt inadequate because I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, and people often looked down on me for not having studied overseas. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to change that. I didn’t go to Australia to prove anything to others, but to see more of the world and learn something I genuinely cared about.”
It was during her undergraduate years in Australia that Ally discovered she had a talent for baking. One of her friends noticed it early on and encouraged her to take it seriously, pointing out that she not only had a natural ability but also a genuine curiosity to go further. Ally took that advice to heart and soon decided to study pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Brisbane.
It was a bold decision. She left her university program to pursue pastry full time. When asked how her family reacted, Ally answered calmly:
“Some of them felt that working in a kitchen wasn’t a ‘notable’ profession. But I was lucky. My parents and my husband supported me. They might not have fully understood what it meant, but they stood by me and let me follow something I truly care about.”
Soon, things began to fall into place. The pastry program opened a door for Ally, and she threw herself into it. In her first semester, she struggled, ranking near the bottom of the class due to her lack of background and language barriers. But she caught up quickly and began to find her rhythm, growing more confident with each step.
Her chef instructors and classmates formed strong bonds in a short time, which only deepened her passion for what she was doing. It was also during this period that she was introduced to laminated pastry, something that later became central to her work.
“My experience at LCB Brisbane was fantastic. Both the instructors and my classmates were very supportive. They kept pushing me to improve and work harder. There were competition and strict structure, but also friendship and encouragement.”
“At Dior Café, I began to think like an entrepreneur.”
Halfway through our conversation, I realized Ally was more than the warm and soft-spoken person she first appeared to be. Beneath that, she is thoughtful, determined, and clear in the way she approaches her decisions. After graduating from Australia and discovering her passion for baking, she chose to continue her training at Le Cordon Bleu’s Shanghai campus, studying Boulangerie.
“Since I was coming back to China, it felt like the natural next step. I wanted to learn more and do it in a more structured way. With my training in Brisbane, I adapted quickly to the rhythm in Shanghai. I really enjoyed the process, and I ended up ranking at the top of my class and receiving a scholarship for my performance.”
After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Shanghai, Ally returned to her hometown of Chengdu and joined Dior Café in Taikoo Li. She started in an entry-level position but quickly moved up, eventually taking charge of the bakery section. With a strong foundation in baking, she began to expand her skills within a professional kitchen, constantly refining her approach and looking for ways to improve. Her creativity and curiosity set her apart.
In one of the hot dishes served at Dior Café, Ally worked on an oval-shaped puff pastry crust, hollow in the center to hold the filling. When the recipe was handed to her, she noticed that the shape lacked consistency, with edges that felt uneven and slightly off.
Instead of simply following the instructions, she reworked the process to achieve a cleaner, more precise form. Her version caught the attention of visiting chefs from headquarters during their trip to the Chengdu store. When asked how she managed it, Ally answered casually:
“Oh, I just measured the shape and 3D printed a mold.”
It sounded like a simple comment when she said it, but it completely caught me off guard. In a traditional French-style kitchen or bakery, recipes are followed with precision, and few people question the process or try to change it.
Ally approached it differently. She was willing to invest her own time, energy, and even money to improve what others might see as an insignificant detail. From that moment on, it was no longer just a detail. She took ownership of it, made it her responsibility, and that, to me, is what it means to become a master.
It was through this constant drive to improve and her curiosity to learn from everyone around her, combined with her easygoing personality, that Ally was able to take so much from her time at Dior Café. Over time, her focus began to shift beyond the kitchen, as she grew more interested in the management side of the business and started to think about what she wanted to build for herself.
To be continued…
A Tianjin, China native - Chloe has a deep appreciation for all things hotpot. Her appreciation of food and culture runs so deep that after a successful corporate career, she decided to uproot her life in China to attend Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa and Madrid. After working in the culinary industry in Canada, she decided to found Snout & Seek!
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