Siew went from home baker to professional pâtissière in 2013 (All photos: Low Yen Yeing/ The Edge Malaysia)
The expression “melts in your mouth” often tends to be just a metaphor. Stewed meat can fall effortlessly into tender strands. Scrambled eggs might settle softly on the tongue. But in the world of gelato — not just ice cream, but the honest-to-goodness Italian confection — it must never be anything other than extremely literal.
“One of the most crucial things is texture. There has to be a slight pull from the sugar and absolutely no iciness — that’s a cardinal sin,” preaches Janice Siew, founder of Jan’s Gelato and Bakes.
Commitment and discipline are the cornerstones of her philosophy. Any dish she explores must be grounded in a thorough understanding of tradition; only then can it become a platform for creativity. Having entered the food and beverage business in 2014 with her pioneering wholesale cake venture, followed by her first café eight years later, Siew goes beyond her original training in French desserts and taps a much more personal connection with this most recent opening.
“I wanted to go into gelato because it is a product that brings everybody joy and which they can very easily connect with — something even my father really likes to eat! At family reunions, I was always tasked with making ice cream with my small machine at home. It was the highlight of the dinner, no matter how full we were,” she smiles.
Established last November on the ground floor of Menara Ken TTDI, Kuala Lumpur, the energetic open-concept eatery features plenty of seating and a display counter generously populated with baked goodies and cylinders of cold confections. Lunch meals and solid coffee make it a hotspot for the upstairs office crowd. “I always tell them, ‘If you’re stressed, get gelato. If you’re happy, get gelato,’” quips the owner.
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The past decade has been an exercise in pursuing passion with patience and prudence, traits she attributes to her earlier career — not as a baker, but a banker. “I had been working in investment banking for seven years. In 2013, an opportunity arose when my colleague, who knew I loved to cook and bake, asked if I wanted to attend a free demo at Sunway Le Cordon Bleu. I went, and they happened to be promoting these scholarships. The cut-off age was 28, and being 28, I knew it was a now-or-never moment,” she reminisces.
Kitchens had long been her haven, so much so that she researched culinary institutes and sent in applications fresh out of secondary school. At the time, her pragmatic side won, leading her to study finance as it was perceived as a safer bet.
As luck would have it, Siew was shortlisted and eventually won the scholarship. She quit her job and returned to school, now dressed in the chef’s whites she had once dreamed of. After nine arduous but incredibly rewarding months earning her diplôme de pâtisserie, she opted to start a venture of her own instead of finding a position at a hotel or restaurant. “Plus, with my business background, I already knew what I should look at financially to set up an enterprise of my own.”
In fact, Siew already had a head start during her classroom days: taking orders by morning, cooking in the evening and delivering at night. All too familiar with risk and cost, she stayed conservative on capital — low-rent lots, second-hand equipment — while steadily observing the market, expanding her team and building relationships. The pandemic hit hard as orders were cancelled and her bakers could not show up to work. With a bare-bones crew, she conceptualised surprise boxes of baked goods for those trapped at home to enjoy. Watching them sell like hot cakes not only validated her efforts to change industries but also encouraged her to go bigger.
“It helped us realise we had the customer base for a retail outlet, which was something I had always wanted to do,” says Siew. In 2022, she opened Petiteserie in Ara Damansara, a neighbourhood spot offering coffee, hot meals and high-quality French croissants as an ode to her “first love” of pastry. Three years later, she fell into her “new love” — gelato.
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“Gelato is very well marketed, which made me wonder, ‘Is it really so special?’” she recalls. That curiosity led her to look up places in Italy that could teach her original methods for making the traditional treat. “I found this little classroom in Tuscany run by a husband-and-wife team that educates people from around the world. They showed us how to make everything from scratch and balance it the right way.”
Specific ratios of sugar, milk and milk solids are required to achieve that signature creaminess. Unlike ice cream or soft serve, gelato has an incorporated air content (or “overrun”) of only 30% due to the slow-churn method used, contributing to its iconic denseness and intense flavour despite a lower fat content.
At Jan’s, steel pozzetti keep every flavour at -13°C, warmer than typical ice cream, ensuring the scoops stay perfectly pliable and dissolve immediately in the mouth. “When it touches your palate, you must never feel numb from coldness. Instead, it should melt immediately and hit you with pure flavour,” says Siew.
Much like how Italian vendors rely on seasonal fruit, she views gelato as a canvas for showcasing the best of Malaysia’s ingredients. “We’re really proud of our banana miso, which uses organic pisang berangan from around Perak’s Lata Kinjang waterfall. Because this is a frozen item, we can take advantage of amazing produce and preserve it without compromising on the integrity.”
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The single-origin chocolate flavour is made depending on where supply comes from, be it Perak, Pahang or Sabah, highlighting that particular region’s unique profile. “We have such good-quality chocolatiers and couvertures. Nowhere in Europe will you find places that can afford to use single-origin, but in Malaysia, we can,” says Siew. She and her team visited several farms to discover local producers, including Poimon Dangkat of Kota Marudu, Sabah, who won a gold Asia Pacific Cocoa Excellence Award in 2021. Tahitian vanilla from Penang and Selangor, Senawang passion fruit and Piedmont hazelnuts are just a few of the other exceptional components championed by Jan’s.
Where to next? The ever-logical Siew contemplates future possibilities with great sensibility. “We’re open to opportunity, and if the location is right, we will consider expanding. Maybe once we have stabilised, we could even go overseas,” she says. “But I will always grow according to my team. If my employees have potential, then I’ll feel comfortable getting bigger, because I can’t do this alone. Having the same philosophy and being dedicated to a shared vision is very important.”
G2-GF, Menara Ken TTDI, 37, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, TTDI. Open daily.
This article first appeared on June 1, 2026 in The Edge Malaysia.
