BTO: Best in dough

Business Times - 07 Mar 2009

Best in dough

Long queues, rave reviews and creations that sell out on a regular basis: these under-the-radar bakeries are making waves among pastry lovers

 

Patisserie Glace
34 Craig Road
#01-10 Chinatown Plaza
Tel 6400-0047
www.cakeglace.com

 

THERE are lots of Japanese eateries in Singapore where diners are confidently greeted with irashaimasu when they arrive and subsequently thanked with an arigatogozaimasu and a deep bow as they make their way out. But there are far fewer whose service staff can actually carry on a conversation in Japanese. So you know you're at the real thing when, in between the greetings and the goodbyes, the crew rattles on in the language to one another and their Japanese customers.

 

That's how it is at Patisserie Glace, a tiny pastry takeaway counter with three tables inside Chinatown Plaza. It opened in November and is run by two middle-aged couples, with three out of the four owners from the Land of the Rising Sun.

 

The kitchen is helmed by Masataka Yamashita, an established patissier who trained at the respected Tsuji Cooking Academy in Osaka. He is also the owner of a bakery that was voted top in Nara prefecture, where he is from, in 2006 and 2007.

 

Mr Yamashita moved to Singapore last year to set up Glace, where his wife Tsunemi helps him out with the baking together with an assistant. Meanwhile, co-owners Tomoko, Tsunemi's sister, and her Singaporean husband Tan Kay Boon front the bakery.

 

Says Mr Tan, a former airline industry professional: 'I was never a dessert person until the mid 1990s, when I was introduced to cakes made by Yamashita.

 

'I found his different from that produced by other Japanese bakeries - there's a harmony of tastes, it's not too sweet and it's light but not so light that you can't taste the sponge - so Tomoko and I invited him to start something here. That was three years ago. He took a long time to decide because it involved uprooting himself and his wife. But he was interested in venturing overseas, and he likes a challenge.'

 

It's not just Mr Tan whom chef Yamashita's confections have won over. There is a constant stream of people at the shop throughout the day (and queues if you go during lunchtime). While a large percentage of Glace's clientele is Japanese, the bakery is also drawing hordes of locals, the majority of whom would otherwise never have stepped into Chinatown Plaza, a drab building better known for its KTV lounges and travel agencies ('I like this hidden place,' says Mr Yamashita).

 

Adventurers are rewarded with kansai-style French pastries that the patisserie churns out fresh daily. About 15 types of cakes along with several sorts of cookies and tarts are available every day (go before 3pm for more variety), which can make deciding a bit difficult.

 

Fortunately, there's virtually no such thing as a bad order here. Everything from the strawberry souffle ($5.30 per slice) - a vanilla sponge and light cream confection with a generous blanket of large strawberries and a hint of cheese - to a melt-in-the-mouth bitter chocolate and banana Swiss-roll-style creation ($4 per slice) is pretty good. The secret lies in the dough - Mr Yamashita employs a traditional Japanese baking method of using egg whites to make the dough rise so it's extra soft, and no baking powder or preservatives are added. A host of premium ingredients also goes in the making, such as Japanese chestnuts, French butter and Callebaut chocolate.

 

The chef says he appreciates the fact that people so far from his hometown are appreciating his work, and he derives the most pleasure from seeing customers' smiles when they try his creations. 'They don't always smile though,' interjects Mr Tan. 'One Japanese customer almost cried the other day when she tried our strawberry shortcake. She said it was the best.'

 

Barcook Bakery
531 Upper Cross Street
#01-54 Hong Lim Complex
Tel 6533-6588

 

BARCOOK isn't easy to find if you're unfamiliar with Hong Lim Complex, a maze of buildings where you could be in Block 531 one minute and Block 533 a couple of steps later. But the bakery has become so well-known over the 10 months it's been there that you only have to ask any of the Hong Lim shopkeepers where it is, and chances are they'll be able to point you towards it. ('Oh, that one ah,' an elderly lady in a second-floor construction shop replied with a knowing smile when we asked for directions.)

 

Alternatively, just watch for the queue snaking out from behind a wall of apple cartons and a curtain of banana bunches - Barcook rents its half-shop premises from a fruit stall.

 

The Taiwanese-style bread counter (there's no walk-in space) is owned by Singaporean Steven Ng and Malaysian Sim Lih Cherng, ex-BreadTalk kitchen alumni who left the company around five years ago.

 

Mr Ng went into multi-level marketing, while Mr Sim returned to his hometown of Sabah to set up a bakery with another friend, a graduate from a Kuala Lumpur culinary school. The two remained in contact though, and when Mr Ng mooted the idea of opening a bakery in China, Mr Sim convinced him that the market was better in Singapore. 'So I told him, if you can do it for under $50,000 then okay, we'll open in Singapore,' says Mr Ng, the financier behind the business.

 

Which the younger Mr Sim could and did, dissolving his Sabah partnership and travelling south to take care of everything from the concept to the baking.

 

What makes the breads at Barcook different is the dough: it's silky smooth, elastic and not too sweet, without any of the stickiness usually associated with sweet buns. This is a result of sponge dough, as opposed to sweet dough, being used.

 

'Sponge dough basically involves a longer two-step process that on average takes about four hours to make, as compared to the hour or so needed to make sweet dough,' explains Taiwan-trained Mr Sim. 'But it makes the bread smell better, taste better and also last longer without refrigeration. If you leave it out for, say, six to eight hours, it won't turn hard.'

 

While the bakery turns out everything from apple-pineapple rolls to puffy cheese-filled domes, it specialises in raisin cream cheese buns ($1.30 each) and multigrain loaves ($3.50 each) - recipes that Mr Sim picked up from Taiwan and his ex-business partner, respectively. The former is a flat, unglazed round studded with juicy raisins and filled with light Australian cream cheese, while the loaves are different from European-style ones in that they are pillowy soft.

 

They're also chock-full of raw oats, raisins, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, wholemeal and sunflower seeds. 'I thought this would really appeal to health-conscious Singaporeans,' the baker says, adding that the loaves are also well-suited to local palates because 'many Asians prefer softer bread'.

 

To sink your teeth into Barcook's signature creations, go before noon to avoid disappointment (the raisin cream cheese buns and multigrain loaves sell out early) or call to reserve what you want if you'd like to pick up your order in the evening.

 

'We can't produce more because we're already baking to capacity,' says Mr Ng. Later this year though, fans will be able to get their fix without having to go to Hong Lim - the owners plan to open another outlet 'once we find the right location'.

 

PS I Love You Nature Bakery
(Shopfront to be set up within the next two months)
Tel 9337-3900

 

'CHOCOLATE is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment.' 'Stress wouldn't be so hard to take if it were chocolate-covered.' 'Chocolate is nature's way of making up for Mondays.'

 

If all those quotes about chocolate were true, it's no wonder Francis Sng's business has been doing a roaring trade over recent months. The chef, who works full-time for a bakery that handles corporate and wholesale orders, specialises in very chocolatey cakes called trovanas that he used to only offer through his employer.

 

But the cakes are proving so popular ('we make about 100 a day and sell out all the time; there was this one time a guy bought seven for himself,' recalls Mr Sng) that he's decided to set up his own brand name, PS I Love You Nature Bakery, and market his signature recipe via that channel.

 

For now, the cakes are only available via delivery ($8 per trip), but a shopfront will be set up within the next 'one to two months' around the Kampong Bahru area.

 

Aside from the plain trovana, there are seven fruit- or nut-infused chocolate flavours. A 500g cake costs $28, a price that Mr Sng - a Shatec graduate who previously worked in a top local hotel - deems 'very reasonable' as the cakes are made with a top-tier French brand of chocolate. 'We tested more than 20 brands before coming up with this formula that's really rich with a hint of fruitiness,' he says.

 

About six hours' worth of time and effort also goes into making a special sponge for the trovanas, so that no thawing is needed when they are taken out of the refrigerator - you can just slice and eat each cake right away. Notes Mr Sng: 'A lot of the five-star hotels won't even consider producing a 500g size of this cake because of the amount of trouble needed to make something like this.'

 

The result is a gooey treat coated with chocolate to a mirror finish, with thick alternate layers of sponge and chocolate truffle within. The sponge is the teensiest bit dry and crumbly (kind of like freeze-dried food, actually) but it goes well with the rich, creamy layers of chocolate. To draw out the flavours of the cacao and have them linger on the tongue, the chef recommends having each slice of cake with a cup of unsweetened red tea.

 

Once the Kampong Bahru bakery opens, Mr Sng has plans to roll out other treats, too. 'Along with the trovanas there'll be another signature creation called a Jamaica bun,' he reveals. 'I can't explain what it is yet though - you'll have to try it and see.'

 

Le Grenier a Pain
#01-01 Sembawang Shopping Centre
Tel 6752-7627

 

IT'S a common sight in Paris - from chi-chi fashionista to unwashed leather clad biker, clutching a long paper bag with the end of a French baguette peeking out from the top.

 

That scene can be replayed in Singapore too, complete with a proper French baguette that has the requisite crusty exterior and a soft chewy inside. Except that you'll have to drive all the way to Sembawang Shopping Centre.

 

A whiff of Parisian bread culture has taken root in this spanking new suburban mall via the cravings of a young Singapore-based Indonesian national who chanced upon the Le Grenier a Pain bakery chain in Paris and decided then and there to bring it to Singapore.

 

Ellis Noval, a 23-year-old pastry enthusiast, opened the 800 sq ft bakery last December with an eye to educating Singaporeans about the proper crunch of a genuine French baguette.

 

'When I took my first bite of the Le Grenier baguette at a trade exhibition in Paris, I knew it was something completely different from what the Singapore market has,' she says.

 

She soon got in touch with Le Grenier's founder, pastry chef Michel Galloyer, with the idea to open a franchise outlet in Singapore, its first outside of France.

 

If the buns sold at the Sembawang outlet look very close to what you find in other Japanese-style bakeries in town, that's because Le Grenier already has plans to open 12 outlets in Tokyo this year, and Ms Noval got them to develop a similar range of buns for her too.

 

'I gave them feedback on the kind of products I wanted. They were doing a lot of sticky buns and such but I didn't think Singaporeans would like that,' she says.

 

Her mainstays are the baguettes - fragrant and crusty on the outside (the staff advise buyers to always warm the baguettes in the oven first) and with a nice spongy-chewy dough inside which is quite addictive. Given the local penchant for bread dough with savoury fillings, Ms Noval got Le Grenier's bakers to develop mini fougasse stuffed with everything from chicken curry to bacon and onion.

 

To make sure that the quality is there, 'our executive chef is from France,' she says. 'He's a trainer who has worked in Paris for eight years and he's now here to train our local bakers.'

 

The other bestsellers are the mini viennoiseries - bite-sized French pastries like caneles, financiers and madeleines that are sold by weight. And it's already gained a following for some of its specialty pastries like fondant paradiz - a chocolate fondant muffin-like chocolate cake with chocolate ganache or blueberry fillings - and a quaint sounding Carolines cake, which is a sticky chewy chocolate mousse cake layered with chocolate and almond biscuits topped with caramelised profiteroles filled with vanilla praline cream imported from France.

 

Ms Noval picked the Sembawang location for the large French and Caucasian community living in the area, she says. Many of them have since become regulars. The Orchard Road crowd will have to wait until the 313@Somerset shopping mall is opened at the end of this year for her second outlet.

 

Until then, check out the Sembawang baguettes. If you're tired of what passes for baguettes in other bakeries in town, you won't be disappointed with these.