Anthony Tam has come a long way since 2016, much of which he spent burning the candle at both ends. By day, he worked a corporate job, and at night and in the early mornings, he made labor-intensive mille crepe cakes for his business, Anton SV Patisserie. Today, his cakes are the star of the show at his first brick-and-mortar location in San Mateo and will soon be available at a second location in Palo Alto.

Tam learned the art of the mille crepe cake – cakes made with at least 20 layers of crepes, sandwiched between layers of creamy fillings – in 2014 from his brother in Malaysia. At the time, he says, “I couldn’t find anything close to what he made” in the Bay Area.

He began refining the family recipe for a California environment. Many of the ingredients in these cakes are sensitive and finicky, and the different humidity levels in Malaysia compared to the Bay Area had to be taken into consideration.

After he hung up his shingle in 2016 — from a commercial kitchen in San Jose — the response was overwhelming. “Looking back,” he says, “I think it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”