About me
I became a chef because creating joy with my own two hands — through food — gives my life meaning. That simple truth has guided every chapter of my journey.
Food has always been my most natural language. Through it, I express creativity, memory, culture, and care. In my restaurants, cooking was never just about serving a meal; it was about building a space — a canvas — where seasonality, mentorship, and lived experience could come together. My food has always carried the flavors of my childhood in Chengdu, Macao, and Singapore, my travels across Asia, Australia, and Europe, and the life I’ve built in America.
I did not arrive in the United States intending to become a chef. I came first as a student, curious and open. But the freedom and possibility I found here planted a seed. In 2010, I returned to New York City not in search of certainty, but to pursue a calling. Cooking professionally taught me discipline, humility, and resilience — lessons shaped in demanding kitchens and refined through years of building and leading restaurants. The work was intense, exhilarating, and deeply formative.
And then, like many, I reached a breaking point.
After more than a decade of running restaurants, navigating the pandemic, and raising two young children, I found myself exhausted — physically, emotionally, creatively. It was during this season of burnout that chocolate quietly entered my life, not as a business plan, but as a form of healing.
I approached chocolate the way I approach all cooking: as storytelling. In my restaurants, dessert was never an afterthought — it was the final movement of a symphony, meant to resolve the meal with grace. Chocolate became a new canvas for that final note. What surprised me was not just the craft, but the calm. Working with cacao required patience, surrender, and presence. In learning to temper and listen, I rediscovered a sense of rhythm and wonder I thought I had lost.
Chocolate gave me back my voice.
At first, I made chocolates only for my children, friends, teachers, and community — small gestures of care, shared quietly. Somewhere in that simplicity, joy returned. What began as curiosity became a calling of its own.
From Chef to Chocolatier
Chocolate by Chef Simone Tong is an extension of everything I believe about food.
I create chocolate that is thoughtful, playful, and deeply personal. Chocolate that tells stories — of travel, memory, season, and place. Chocolate that invites pause in a world that moves too fast.
Our bar collections follow nature’s rhythms — brightness, warmth, reflection, renewal. They are grounded, comforting, and quietly hopeful.
Our bonbons are love letters in miniature: carefully composed, surprising, and meant to be savored slowly.
Every piece begins with ethically sourced couverture and ingredients chosen with intention — organic, seasonal, or local whenever possible. Integrity matters. Craft matters. So does joy.
Our Philosophy
I believe chocolate can be more than indulgence.
It can be a moment of beauty in the middle of an ordinary day.
A reminder to slow down.
A connection between people.
I make chocolate for those who appreciate nuance, care, and imagination — for people who find meaning in small pleasures and understand that joy does not need to shout to be profound.
At its heart, my chocolate is about belonging. It is about memory, generosity, and the quiet power of sharing something made with intention.
If a single bite can lift the spirit, spark a memory, or offer a moment of calm — then it has done its job.
That is the chocolate I want to make.
And that is the legacy I hope to leave — one bar, one bonbon, one moment of joy at a time.
