"The 'burnt' here refers to the layer of deeply toasted honey custard that shines like amber," Park wrote of the dessert. "It sits atop pasta frolla, an Italian sweet pastry dough seemingly too delicate and flaky to provide such architectural support. But that's the mind-boggling sorcery that Ms. Chou enables in each of her pastries."
Over in Oakland, the Times also praised Bake Sum. Started in 2020 by Joyce Tang, a former Silicon Valley worker, the bakery offers "nostalgic" pastries with global influences, such as aloo matar, a savory pastry with thin slices of potato under a pea mornay and jalapeño garam masala and topped with cilantro min chutney, yogurt and paprika.
Chou is a born-and-bred San Franciscan whose pastries are "informed by" her childhood in the Sunset District, as well as her adult life in Oakland. She cooked at Quince, which has three Michelin stars, before making a name for herself at Aziza, and in 2016, she helped Brandon Jew open Mister Jiu's, now one of San Francisco's most coveted reservations.
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