CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It’s often said that the sky's the limit when starting a small business, but one Chicago baker has taken a more humble approach.
Jaye Fong is owner of Maa Maa Dei, which, in Cantonese, translates to “not great, just okay.”
“Naming it something like that, I guess, gave me the freedom to be like, ‘It's OK if you make mistakes, we already know that's how it's gonna be,’” Fong said.
Fong started baking during the COVID-19 pandemic after shifting away from a career in engineering and architecture.
She’d make all sorts of pastries for friends and family out of her own kitchen.
“Over the years I tried to teach myself a lot of these things, and that kind of just spiraled into this passion for exploring third culture food and what it means to grow up as an Asian American,” said Fong.
Now, she’s sharing those Asian-inspired pastries through pop-up shops that feature everything from sakura shortbread, matcha milk tea cookies and her famous mooncakes.
“The rainbow mooncakes are really popular,” she said. “That's a Teochew style, spiral mooncake and the colorings are all just for fun. Then the Hong Kong-style snow skin mooncakes are very popular, as well, because they're a lighter taste because they have a mochi skin exterior.”
Most of Maa Maa Dei's menu releases coincide with holidays, including Mid-Autumn Festival, Lunar New Year and Christmas.
Fong said her whole business is a journey of discovery; from traditional foods she enjoyed as a kid to introducing her customers to a new culture.
“Half the people are very much like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven't had this for years at this point. My grandma used to make this,’ or, ‘I'm here for school, but my family's all the way in whatever country they're from,’” Fong said. “They're like, ‘I haven't been back for ages and I've just been missing it so much. Then on the other hand, there are definitely people who have come up to me and said, ‘This is my first time experiencing this.”
Maa Maa Dei — “not great, just OK” — pastries, Made in Chicago.
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