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| Melissa Young, Tricia Tensuan, Margaux, Karen Yang, Aleth Ocampo (not in pic Cyrene dela Rosa) & Enderun's Louis XV |
I was lucky enough to be introduced to Karen Young by her good friend Melissa Young at a dinner featuring Chef See's Malaysian homecooking at Enderun. That evening, Karen brought a jar of santol jam that I had been craving for since that dinner almost a year ago! We paired it with some very good cheese (I forget the cheese now). I was ecstatic when last week she texted that santol is back in season and a jar had been reserved for me :)
I love this because it is both sour and sweet, perfect with hard cheese and crackers. But to top it off, Karen aka Chez Karine also threw in a few santol tarts!
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| Santol tarts! |
Karen opened her bakery around a month ago. Wrote about it in Menu for Lifestyle (story also below). :) My friends thought it was a franchise. It's all her own!
Congratulations, Karen!
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Archives | MENU for Lifestyle (as published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer 26 July 2012 Thursday)
“My dad found his passion for singing
when he was 60,” said Yang. “That also inspired me to pursue my passion
(for creating desserts). My family didn’t think I was serious about it
but now they’re very supportive,” she adds.
We were in her month-old bakery in
Serendra. Her parents and brother were at the next table and his
brother’s wife was tending the store, still fashionably chic in the
bakery’s uniform.
Yang didn’t dive into this business
unprepared. While studying and working, she found time to fly off to
Paris to learn the art of baking. She enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu where
she got a Diplome de Patisserie, or a Pastry diploma. After finishing
the basic cuisine and pastry course, she spent some time at Marriot
Hotel on Champs Elysées assisting the pastry chef.
“Every time the chef shouted
‘Migniardises pour un! Migniardises pour deux!,’ that was my cue to hit
the ground running. Aside from migniardises, I worked on plated desserts
as well. This was probably the beginning of my love affair with
patisserie.”
Impeccable creations
AMBROISIE
Yang also interned at Pierre Hermé
patisserie in his commissary in Rue Vaugirard, working with the
“macaroniers,” making macarons seven hours a day; and in his boutique on
Rue Bonaparte, where she was in charge of making the “Ispahan,” one of
Hermé’s signature desserts—two large macarons filled with rose
buttercream, lychees and raspberries.
Back in San Francisco, she continued to
do her homework, going through the recipes in her set of Williams-Sonoma
cookbooks one by one. She further honed her skills through a catering
business in San Francisco called Chez Karine Patisserie.
It’s no wonder that her creations at
Chez Karine Bakery, now open at Serendra, are impeccable. Her macarons
are soft, proof that they have not been on display for too long; not too
sweet, with definite but not overpowering flavors, and so beautifully
balanced.
“I didn’t like the macarons here so I had to make my own,” she admits.
Her signature item is turning out to be
the pudding. They come in these adorable miniature bottles and in three
flavors: vanilla, muscovado and chocolate. The vanilla pudding at first
reminded me of a cross between crème brûlée and leche flan, but it is
far lighter, like Thumbelina pirouetting on your tongue.
A must-experience is Honey Toast, a
six-inch (or so) cube of bread that has several strips of bread inside.
It is apparently a kind of birthday treat in Taiwan. The Banana Nutella
toast, meanwhile, is like a childhood indulgence, with Nutella, slices
of bananas, a chocolate macaron and ice cream on top. Yet it’s not
nakakaumay at all.
Signature cake
My personal favorite is Ambroisie. This
was actually the signature cake of Hidemi Sugino, a master patissier
from Japan, whose mousse cakes (entremets), said Yang, are the best she
has tasted.
It reminded me of really good silk
and made me think of Zhang Ziyi's dance scene in House of Flying Daggers
- graceful yet on point, colorful yet exquisitely streamlined. At the
outset it looks like a chocolate ganache, with a rich, velvety chocolate
coat. But it is more appropriately categorized as an entremet because
inside is a chocolate mousse.
The joy of it doesn’t end there.
Alongside the mousse are pistachios and—surprise, surprise—strawberry
jam! Of all the joyous, delightful cakes out there, this is The One.
More desserts await Chez Karine’s
guests. Santol is in season now and the chef is playing with creating a
santol dessert. But whatever Yang creates, I am willing to bet that,
like her other creations, this will be well-balanced, fresh, not too
sweet and absolutely delightful.
She is the daughter of McDonald’s tycoon
George Yang, by the way. But this time, it’s the father’s turn to be
proud of the daughter. His contribution here was simply to pass on the
wisdom that, yes, above all, you must follow your passion.
Chez Karine is at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City; tel. 0917-3232845. Open daily 11 a.m.-
10 p.m., Friday-Saturday until 11 p.m.
