It was about a year ago when Le Parlour Cafe Studio opened for business. The Liew siblings – Catherine, Desmond and Edmund – started the business with baby steps by only having 2 main dishes on the menu and focusing on drinks and cakes. Presently, the cafe may have expanded their main dish menu but what sets them apart from other cafes is their work of art served along with the cakes.
Customers may note that the establishment is quite known in Kuching amongst cafe-goers especially for the intricate art drawn on the serving plates for customers to admire. Despite that, the artists didn’t always serve up drawings like this.
“It started in June last year. We served cakes with just plain and simple decorations drawn with regular chocolate sauce,” said Desmond. The cakes were originally served with squiggles and dots drawn in chocolate sauce which took no time and little effort to prepare.
“One day, a customer approached us to ask if we could write ‘Happy Birthday’ on the plate instead because someone from their group was celebrating their birthday. The cafe staff discussed amongst one another and proposed the idea of drawing a simple birthday cake for them on the plate to go along with the wish. When the customers got cakes, they were so surprised and delighted that we took the initiative. That night, they uploaded a photo of it on Facebook and that’s when we thought ‘If our art could bring smiles to people’s faces, we should keep doing it!’” Desmond added.
The cafe’s art soon became an attraction on its own. The artists are Catherine and Vivien Law, the latter who happens to be Desmond’s girlfriend. Vivien is the cafe’s barista while Catherine floats between kitchen duty and helping to draw the art pieces. However at present time, Vivien is currently the primary artist in the cafe now.
When the artists first started drawing, they used plain store-bought chocolate sauce. But as anyone who used store-bought chocolate sauce would know, the sauce is too runny to have proper detailing on the artwork to maintain its shape. To rectify the issue, the cafe staff decided to create their own blend of chocolate sauce – one which beautiful art could be drawn with.
“My sister, Catherine, created the sauce through experiment. She worked with Vivien for almost a month to get the right texture,” Desmond explained.
The semi-sweet sauce has a totally different consistency and texture compared to store-bought chocolate sauce. It looks as if the art is printed on the white plate with chocolate coloured ink but upon closer inspection, the lines of the art could be smudged off and looking somewhat like a powdery substance on the plate.
This current texture of the sauce is the best for the cafe to work with, Desmond added. “There are more customers who order cake art for take away cakes to surprise their loved ones. The chocolate sauce makes the art design last longer and be displayed as art before they eat the cake.”
For normal days, Vivien would pick a theme she fancied for the day and draw on the plates before the cafe opens for business. Her theme ranges from pop culture to anime characters. In February, when the Facebook sticker known as “Trash Dove” went viral online, Vivien felt inspired to depict the bird from the sticker pack onto the plate for their customers’ amusement. She would also draw popular anime characters such as Chopper from the “One Piece” anime during regular days.
Although it started out as quite a challenge, Vivien would now be able to complete one artwork in less than 10 minutes, depending on how detailed the art would be. Some customers would walk-in and request for drawings for their special ones and the process wouldn’t be as tough for her as it was before she mastered the techniques. Some would tell the cafe in advance that they want a particular art like the characters from a Japanese anime “Your Name.”
