SWEET
(^) +
PÂTISSIER
085
F
or this session, Chef Kiriko Nakamura went to a
local wet market and got local fruits and spices.
Featuring jackfruit, mango, and passionfruit cream,
biter dark cocoa crumble, and cumin ice cream,
her creation earns astonishment from participants.
“As I’m a chef myself, sometimes I use a litle spice
in my cuisine,” says Chef Kenjiro Hashida of Hashida
Sushi. “Getting the balance right is tough.” In his
opinion, Chef Nakamura’s use of cumin is perfect –
not too much, just an accent. Chef Nakamura also
explained that egg yolks in Singapore have a subtler
scent than those from Japan, which is a good thing
in making ice cream, since they will not mask the
flavour of the cumin. Otherwise, reducing the
amount of egg yolks used also works. Chef Ivy Wong
of Facebook is impressed with how Chef Nakamura
took the time to explore local ingredients. “She is
taking our local fruits, and presenting her own style
with them. Other chefs tend to bring their own
produce over, but she is opening our eyes to new
ways of using our own local ingredients.”
As part of this year’s World Gourmet Summit, Chef Kiriko
Nakamura of one-Michelin-starred Tirpse in Tokyo, is
with us to present her delicate, thoughtful desserts. With
her is Chef Keisuke Matsumoto of Lewin Terrace, whose
creations have a wabi-sabi sensibility underlying their
sunshiny, playful façade.
The 36-year-old Osaka native first became
interested in pastry as a child. “My mother was a
cook at an izakaya (Japanese tavern),” says Chef
Nakamura. Also, because her family was not so
well off, the only times she had a cake was for her
birthday, or on special occasion. So the thought
came to her mind: “If my job allows me to make
desserts for a living, then I’ll be able to enjoy
delicious cakes every day!”
During her time in Paris, she met with some
difficulties. “In the beginning, I couldn’t speak
French at all,” says Chef Nakamura. As she started off
as a trainee, her salary was low. In three and a half
years, she went from trainee to chef de partie, and
eventually, received a Michelin star. “I feel that I was
lucky,” says Chef Nakamura. “At each point where I
needed a job, a kind soul would open a door for me,
and introduce me to someone.” Perhaps, it is also
because Japanese chefs have goten a r eputation
for being atentiv e to details, so people in France
think that if a job needs to be done perfectly, it
should be given to a Japanese chef. To young chefs,
her advice is to experience more. “Don’t stay in one
location. Go and explore other countries; touch,
and taste, their unique ingredients. From there,
you may get new inspirations.” Her time in a bakery
shop in Lima, Peru and in a one-Michelin-starred
restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, had served to
widen her vision.
Some day in the future, she’d like to go to the
countryside in Japan, and open a small guesthouse
with perhaps six or seven rooms. “Whenever
people come, they can stay, and enjoy my pastries.”
The petite, frail-looking chef can be carrying an
armful of heavy ceramic dishes piled up to her
chin, and still burst out in tinkling laughter at
something amusing. “I enjoy what I’m doing, so no
mater what happens, I don’t feel tired,” says Chef
Nakamura. “I’d like to continue this passion of mine
till the day I die.”
Travel! Experience more.
Your vision will widen.
Kiriko Nakamura
jack
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