Chef John Robin Pecson never dreamt of becoming a pastry chef.

When he was a child, he was interested in the arts, it’s true, and he loved drawing and building things. But that was it. When it came time to pick a college course, he even chose to enroll in Nursing. But then his true calling started manifesting.

He shifted to Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM), got into baking classes, loved them, met an inspiring young pastry chef named Edward David Mateo, who was his instructor at Centro Escolar University (CEU), and realized his true calling. So sure was he that he wanted pastry arts to be his career path that he applied for apprenticeship with Chef Edward when he was in second year college. The amiable chef must have seen tremendous potential in him, for he accepted the challenge of mentoring Robin and hired him even when he was still in school.

For this rare opportunity given him, Pecson responded with hard work and dedication to the job, managing his time and effort between work and studies so well that he later on became Chef Edward’s assistant general pastry maker.

Bigger opportunities opened for Chef Robin from there, and after two years with Chef Edward under the latter’s La Royale Patisserie, Chef Robin decided to work abroad and left for Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where he worked as general pastry maker and cake decorator at La Perla Dolce.

In November of 2018, which was three years after his productive stint in Saudi Arabia, Chef Robin returned home to Manila, but only to apply for work in a cruise ship. Royal Caribbean Cruises hired him and he sailed on board Radiance of the Seas. He made delicious pastries for passengers of the luxury liner as a Commis I Pastry Chef and enjoyed the experience as much as he learned a lot from this part of his career journey.

But then the pandemic happened. Luxury cruises took a backseat for the safety and protection of everyone, and Chef Robin had to come home to Manila while the world reeled from the serious health threat brought about by the Covid virus and the uncertainty of the future. No one knew how long the pandemic would remain, but life had to go on.

“My wife (Paula Patricia Pecson) and I needed a source of income that would let us work from our home in Quezon City. So we decided to start a home-based business, offering custom-made cakes and other pastries because that was what we were good at. That’s also the business I longed to have since I graduated. So given the chance to do so, we put up RobinsCakeMnl even with very limited capital,” Chef Robin shared.