The award winning pastry chef behind the successful Singapore restaurant 2am:dessertbar is planning to open eateries in Hong Kong and Tokyo next year.

Janice Wong plans to open Cobo House by 2am:dessertbar, an 82-seat casual fine-dining restaurant in Kennedy Town, on Hong Kong island’s western edge in March. She will also create savoury dishes with an artistic flair for the restaurant.

The 300 sqm restaurant will feature a rooftop garden and she plans to fly produce in from Okinawa, Japan to ensure freshness and authentic farm-to-table fare.

The following month, she will open an 80 sqm, 40 seat dessert restaurant bearing her name in Newoman, a new shopping mall in the upmarket Shinjuku retail precinct in Tokyo.

Wong, 32, opened 2am:dessertbar in Singapore eight years ago.  Now, she says it is time to expand overseas.

“We have accumulated enough signature desserts that can be rotated around menus in restaurants overseas.”

Wong was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2015 and two years ago in the World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence. Her growing profile led to an invitation by property developer Lumine to open in the Newoman mall. All Nippon Airways will partner her in the project.

The fact she is choosing two of the toughest international cities for launching new restaurant ventures is not lost on the entrepreneur.

“It is certainly intimidating,” Wong confessed in an interview. “The competition among pastry shops in Japan is 100 times more intense than [Singapore]. There’s a higher standard of creating perfect pastries every day and that will push me further and grow as a chef.”