Success story of the week - Dav Zalyn - The rising star of pastry making in Cambodia

The food and beverage industry is extensive. Many people decide to start their own business. Mdm. Dav Zalyn decided to start her own business at the age of 17. She makes personalized pastries and viennoiseries for special occasions. She has become a well-known personality in the field of pastry.

We are pleased to introduce you to an inspiring woman entrepreneur.

How did you get into the food business?

"As a 14 year old looking for success, I already created my first business in 2014. It was a birthday decorating business. I decided to expand the service by offering free cakes to my customers who choose my decoration service and introduce them to the new ones.

In the beginning, I didn't make the cakes myself. I was just a middleman. When I learned that my customers liked my cakes, I decided to make them. I had to learn how to make them. After a lot of complications, I managed to find my technique and I was able to get started.

Ms. Dav Zalyn founded The Cake by Dav in 2015. She started in Battambang before opening shops in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap."

In this adventure with 12 shops, 150 employees, a pastry academy, a department of custom-made cakes for weddings, what are you most proud of?

Patisserie & Bakery Salanum classes by Dav.

"This is probably my pastry academy. When I started my business, I had a hard time finding an academy where I could learn pastry and cake making. That's why I thought I could help people not go through the same difficulties I did.

As a woman entrepreneur, I can tell you that the most important thing is to believe in yourself. There is nothing impossible. You build your empire by taking the stones. When people tell you that you can't do it, prove them wrong."

How are you fulfilled in your work? What is your ambition for the future?

"I believe that perfection does not exist. We can always improve. I hope The cake by Dav will become an international brand in the future.

I am always trying to improve and learn new things. By traveling, I was able to discover new inspirations. In Cambodia, I stay informed about global trends through social media.

Mdm. Dav Zalyn has become an inspirational woman for all Cambodians. By challenging herself on a daily basis, she is trying to achieve her dreams."

To conclude, could you tell us a word about a woman who was a role model or an important source of inspiration?

"My first role model is definitely my mother, she represents what "Just do it" means! Sometimes she doesn't want to win or get anything, unfortunately, because there is no hope of improvement (at that moment), but she just does things without any expectations until she enjoys the moment she does them, which is deeper and more important than anything!

For me, this has helped me a lot to succeed.

The second one is Priyanka Chopra, she has a lot to do in life, she is a true example of a woman who can be in many forms! She is an actress, singer, host, UNICEF goodwill ambassador, Miss World winner, writer, producer, precious daughter, mother, wife and many more!

Priyanka Chopra became one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

The way she challenges herself is admirable and makes me want to keep going and believe that the possibilities are endless!"

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• More information about The Cake by Dav- click-here

• b. Consulting is proud to support Cambodian talents, do you have a project? Contact us - click-here

International Women's Day - The success of the female chefs!

When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are. Turn your words into wisdom" - Oprah Winfrey.

Leonor Espinosa (Colombia), Niki Nakayama (Japan), Anne-Sophie Pic (France), Helene Darroze (France), Clare Smyth (Ireland), Mashama Bailey (USA), Angela Hartnett (UK), Nancy Silverton (USA), Dominique Crenn (France), Ana Roš (Slovenia), Elena Arzak (Spain), Pichaya Soontornyanakij (Thaïland), Kimsan Twins (Cambodia), these are the stars of world cuisine, and it is time to pay them tribute.

Starred women, self-taught women or women who want to be nominated for a Michelin guide, we trace the path of several inspiring women managers. Their professionalism and perseverance enabled them to impose themselves in a male-dominated world.

Is there gender equality in the hotel and restaurant sector?

Hélèné Darroze, the 5 Michelin star Chef

Worldwide, statistics show that gender equality is a myth in the hotel and restaurant industry. Hélène Darroze is a Michelin-awarded female chef. She first started her career in her family's restaurant in the southwest of France. A few years later, she opened a restaurant in the centre of Paris. This opportunity allowed her to pass on her family know-how with the best products. In 2015, she won the "World's Best Female Chef" award from "The World's 50 Best Restaurants" and her reputation continues to grow year after year. Recently, she participated in a TV cooking show on one of the most watched channels in France. She is very involved in associations and is the patron of a word association that supports the respect of the rights of Afghan women and girls, "Afghanistan libre".

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A self-taught chef rewarded by Michelin

Anne-Sophie Pic - 8 Michelin star chef! She said : "work hard, have new ideas, push forward"

Anne-Sophie Pic shows us that cooking is above all a talent. She did not study cooking.

To create her dishes, she mainly uses the smells and tastes of the food. Each recipe is developed with her intuition, her sensitivity and her know-how. Her modern cuisine was awarded 3 stars in the Michelin guide in 2007 and reach now a total of 10 Michelin stars in 6 restaurants over the world!

It is important to her to create a real experience for her customers. She creates a universe between the dishes and the drinks to give her customers an emotional experience.

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Talented women in Cambodia, the next stars of the kitchen?

The Kimsan twins are graduates of two of our renowned hospitality schools in Cambodia: Paul Dubrule and Sala Baï

Asia has many renowned women chefs, notably in Thailand with the famous Chef Pam or the no less famous Madame Jay Fai. In Cambodia, it is the Kimsan sisters who are preparing for a bright future.

Pol Kimsan and Sok Kimsan offer gourmet cuisine at the Sombok restaurant in Phnom Penh. They first started in the Embassy restaurant in Siem Reap, which will soon be reborn from its ashes.

Twins at heart, one was born in Kampot, the other in Siem Reap, one studied at the Paul Dubrule school, the other at the Sala Baï school. They have been a duo for 20 years now!

They have formed an all-female team in their restaurant to showcase their cooking talents. These two women want to show the world Khmer cuisine and all its specificities. By participating in numerous competitions, they want to conquer the Cambodian and international scene. They participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos to present their culinary creation. This event contributes to their growing reputation.

This international women's day reminds us that equality and access to management positions, even in a kitchen, must be a priority.

Like the ten or so women chefs who are recognised throughout the world, let's hope that Cambodia can find its stars in the coming years.

Our consulting firm attaches particular importance to promoting the place of women in the business. b. Consulting supports women in the food & beverage industry.

Insight - Comparative study of the socio-economic models of Hospitality Schools in Cambodia

A good practice guide that started in Cambodia and is now spread all over the world.

Together with the Fondation Apprentis d'Auteuil and in collaboration with the Association ASSET-H&C, b. Consulting has been working for ten months on elaborating a guide of good practices meant for social businesses wishing to improve and support the professional integration of vulnerable youth.

• This study was conducted in the framework of the FIPESA project, built by Apprentis d' Auteuil and the French non-profit organization Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement (IECD), to encourage and develop social entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia specifically for the hospitality training schools.

A partnership between b. Consulting and one of the most prominent French NGOs, which supports 36,000 vulnerable young people and families every year in 100 schools.

Pauline Preuss & Martin Thiebaut - Apprentis d'Auteuil Foundation, Renaud Fichet Dean of Sala Bai School, Florian Bohême b. Consulting founder.

The Foundation Apprentis d'Auteuil is a social organization dedicated for more than 150 years to welcoming, training, and helping young people with social difficulties in their integration. It has been working closely for years with the IECD that launched in 2016 the Association of Southeast Asian Social Enterprises for Training in Hospitality & Catering (ASSET-H&C), a unique network of innovative vocational training centers that support the social and economic inclusion of vulnerable people in Southeast Asia, through training and professional integration in hospitality & catering.

In this context and as part of the FIPESA project, b. Consulting carried out a comparative study of the socio-economic models of different Social Enterprises specialized in Training and Professional Integration in collaboration with three schools from the ASSET-H&C network :

• Sala Baï,

• Bayon Pastry School,

• PSE (Pour un Sourire d' Enfant).

The main objective of this study was to deliver an action plan for enhancing those schools' models and the production of a guide presenting a series of best practices and recommendations emerging from the work carried out with these schools.

Thus, b. Consulting delivered tools, recommendations, and key figures meant to be adaptable and applicable to as many local contexts and countries as possible.

Among those tools was achieved a salary grid, the result of the collection of more than 1500 data, presenting the levels of remunerations by job category in Cambodia. In Cambodia's context of a meager unemployment rate, this salary grid was meant to reflect the socio-economic inequalities and the impact that graduation might have on career opportunities and salary levels for Cambodian students.

Furthermore, consultants recommended the elaboration of orientation factsheets that would give students a clearer vision of the required qualifications and potential opportunities for various jobs in the hospitality and catering industry. Twenty-three orientation factsheets were produced and delivered in the final study report to illustrate this tool and give incentives for its use.

Presentation to the ASSET - H&C network

b. Consulting was grateful to conclude this year-long work with a presentation of the report in front of an assembly of ASEAN hospitality school directors in Siem Reap, alongside its collaborators who participated in the project. We took this opportunity to highlight an issue we observed during our study: the need for more professional training among professionals of the sector and companies themselves.

As this mainly refers to one of our expertise, we presented the Team Training and Training of Trainers programs developed and organized by b. Consulting. Those programs are tailor-made and aim to provide teams and tourism and hospitality professionals with tools, know-how, and recommendations to succeed in this competitive industry.

Key figures of the report

• A hundred pages of the report with recommendations

• Six different structures, including 4 Hospitality training models, audited

• A toolbox for social business project leaders

• A salary grid dedicated to the hotel, restaurant, and beverage industry.

• Twenty-four orientation sheets to reinforce the attractiveness of the hospitality and food & beverage professions.

Orientation sheets example

A study that complements our field actions.

b. Consulting is a team of consultants who are experts in their field: Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Tourism, FMCG. We adapt to the needs of our clients and their projects.

It is always a pleasure for us to conduct more academic studies, which also allows us to refocus on our daily work.

This study for Apprentis d'Auteuils and Asset H&C has allowed us to see that the need for hotel training is paramount for the Food & Beverage industry but that it is not enough.

As we have started to do, b. Consulting will continue and expand its professional training offer directly for the food & beverage companies present in Cambodia.

Hotel schools plus in-company training will be one of the keys to success for our industry.

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• Contact b. Consulting Hospitality Food & Beverage - click-here

• More information about Apprentis d’Auteuil - click-here

• More information about the IECD and Asset H&C network - click-here