Dennis Hew - Everybody Latte Arts!: A Cafe or Home Barista Latte Artist Tutorial Book

Before we jump into the main topic, you may have doubts in your mind, like who is this Dennis Hew? Is he a champion of some sort of latte art championship? What qualifies him to teach latte art and coffee?

Many have this mindset that to be a teacher, one has to be a champion in the field or won some awards in order to be qualified to teach.

This is not necessarily true, and Ill show you some examples. The famous chef Gordon Ramsay and the late Bruce Lee are both well known in their fields. One is a culinary arts celebrity cum multiple restaurant owner, the other is a legendary martial artist cum movie star.

But do they possess any championship titles? No, they do not. Nonetheless, they are respected teachers, mentors or coaches. Its because they are passionate about teaching and spreading their knowledge.

Gordon Ramsay spreads knowledge through TV shows, inspiring millions to learn the culinary arts. Bruce Lee made movies to share his martial arts masterpieces; he changed the traditional Kung Fu film industry and inspired generations.

You may argue that these are rare or exceptional cases in history. Fine. How about your school teachers then? Your science teacher or your English teacher? Are they all winners of literature competitions, Nobel Prize winners or some such? A few might be, but I dont think all teachers are. However, many of them are very skilful in teaching and full of patience, even though theyre not champions in their fields.

So, who is this Dennis Hew? Im an entrepreneur who runs (teaches, designs class syllabi, markets, tends to enquiries, coaches apprentices) a small humble weekend coffee class attached at a caf named RGB Caf located at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My classes started in 2017 and ever since, every weekend class has been fully booked to the present day.

Ive taught over 600 students (no webinar: its either two students or four students per class). Ive had over 1,200 hours in three years of face to face and hand in hand guidance and teaching over many weekends.

How I started the classes harkens back to how I started as a weekend part-time barista.

In 2013, when interest in specialty coffee was booming in Kuala Lumpur, I had my first flat white with latte art on top. I had never tasted such delicious coffee without sugar before and I was intrigued. I asked for a weekend job there and I was accepted.

Fast forward four years: I had working experience with a few cafs yet felt like I had not developed enough and could not move on to the next stage of learning. I felt like I was teaching more than being taught, and was demoralized by minimal wage-earning. I was certain that my time was worth more than what I was earning then.

I had thoughts of quitting my part-time gig at the caf, but then the owner asked me to kickstart a coffee class since her roasting room was vacant on weekends. And she had an extra espresso machine in the room that I could use for teaching.

So I started the class alone and from scratch designing a post, creating a syllabus, handling digital marketing, scheduling bookings and so on.

As it happened, I enjoyed teaching so much that although working all day on weekends made my body ache, but I didnt feel like Im working at all.

Along the way, Ive often received messages from followers from other countries, telling me their country or their hometown has no coffee class.

Since I routinely write about coffee, sharing my knowledge on Instagram (@sinnedhew, @rgb.latteart if youre curious) and tutorials, I started having the idea of writing a book to reach out to a global audience and those I cannot teach personally.