Frosting on the cake

Beef noodle soup. Photo provided to China Daily

Gokson says the fact she is not a trained chef makes it easy to think outside of the box: She's never been in one. Her inspirations come from artfulness she sees all around her: caramel crunch cake with flourishes of white icing that evoke long, slender flower buds; "Lollipop", a fiesta of colors that sings of her childhood; other confections inspired by couture shows and movies (a favorite drink is dubbed "The Wizard of Oz").

While Gokson's creations are delicate and fine, they are not dainty, at least in serving portions.

"I like thick cake," she says, "the kind that would come out of your grandma's kitchen. Fluffy!" She frets about the current trend in cupcakes, which she finds far too fussy. "Do pretty things around it," she says, instead of overwhelming a good piece of cake.

Honesty and quality are her watchwords, which she displays in a dish as simple as beef noodle soup.

"We take 16 steps to get that type of rich broth and noodle," she says of the signature dish that she has brought from Hong Kong for the Beijing event, which also marks the opening of LV's China World Maison store.

"You think: beef noodle soup－so what? They're a dime a dozen. But we've all had bad versions of it, and there's just no excuse for bits of dried-up sour meat in a dull broth."

The menu has many touches that will strike a chord in the capital. Red and gold, popular hues in China, grace many of her creations, for example. Many of her signature dishes are lavishly presented in a 2014 coffee-table book, Butterflies and All Things Sweet: The Story of Ms B's Cakes.

And while she has described her approach as the "East-meets-West DNA of refinement for Hong Kong", she is wary of too much adventurism in fusion.

"I hate things on my plate that I have to guess what they are," she says with a grin.