INFO
| Name | Cathy Fan (she/her) |
| Also known as | Fankery |
| Born | 2000 |
| Country of Birth | Aotearoa |
| Place of Residence | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland |
| Ethnicities | Chinese |
| Artform | Culinary arts |
| Decades Active | 2020s |
ABOUT
Fankery is an Auckland-based Asian fusion bakery run by Cathy Fan, specialising in mochi-filled burnt basque cheesecakes and cookies. Fankery’s products celebrate Asian flavours and ingredients such as matcha, pork floss, black sesame, ube, pandan, yuzu and lychee. Glutinous rice is the signature ingredient of Fankery products as it reminds Fan of her upbringing in Shanghai.
Fan was born in Tāmaki Makaurau and was raised by her grandparents in Shanghai for the first six years of her life, before returning to New Zealand for schooling. She says she “didn’t have a lot of free time or fun time growing up as a child”, as she was consumed by extracurricular activities like dance, piano and competitive chess.
Fan left school after year 12 and started studying for a Bachelor of Engineering at 16 years old, specialising in electrical and electronic engineering. During university, Fan sold pineapple buns and mooncakes she and her mother had made through an Instagram account. After graduating, she started a job in electrical engineering, while doing amateur bikini bodybuilding and working as a personal trainer on the side. She said in The High Frequency Club podcast, “I always cared so much more about my hobbies.”
While recovering from hypothyroidism during the 2022 lockdown and working full-time as an electrical engineer, she baked as a creative outlet. The vision for Fankery began when she first experimented with baking mochi into chocolate chip cookies. Its success led to incorporating mochi into a batch of brownies and then into a cheesecake. The operation started as baking for friends, then to selling baking on Instagram. Before long, orders rolled in.
In mid-2023, Fan quit her engineering career and started leading Fankery full-time. Fankery now operates in a commercial kitchen with a team of six and sells online and through pop-ups, collaborations and takeovers in borrowed venues. Fan has involved her mother in the operation, particularly to make mooncakes leading up to Mid-Autumn Festival.
