Pei Wang grew up in Singapore, the grandson of immigrants from Hainan island in China. He is a Buddhist, with a heritage of Taoism and Confucianism. Food played a central role in his family, and at his mother's knee Pei learned to honour and respect the Five Qualities of aesthetics, taste, quality, savouriness and texture.

In Chinese tradition it is through the medium of food that mothers express their love, philosophers reflect on moral wellbeing and healers cure the sick. This ingrained relationship with food, this deep love of food preparation and consumption, informed Pei's later exploration of other aspects of his complex civilization - its language, myths, literature, ideas and, not least, its culture of tea.

Pei steeped himself in the study of tea in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan. He is a certified Tea Artisan and Tea Assessor, having trained with Prof. Tsai Rong Tsang (Dean of Tea Culture at TenFu Tea Institute in Fujian Province, China), Dr. Zhou Wen Tang (China National Tea Museum in Hangzhou) and tea master Hooi Yoke Lian (author and tea master in Malaysia). Captivated by the profusion of wonderful flavours and styles of Chinese tea, he explored the rituals and history of tea culture, developing a profound understanding of the underlying thinking, as it relates to social order and man's relationship to his senses.

Tea drinking, for him, is both an art form and an evocation of a harmonious connection between people. It has a personal and a social aspect. It is a sensual, an intellectual and a contemplative experience. For Pei, it is a lifelong path.

Pei graduated with an honours accountancy degree from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 1996 and worked in accountancy and IT. He later trained at the renowned classical French culinary institute Le Cordon Bleu in London and is keen to use tea as an ingredient to enrich traditional French pâtisserie and to promote the innovative art of modern and classical tea cuisine.