What Bakers Crave

 

Nobody knows baked goods better than professional bakers. It’s what they make daily and, apparently, it’s what they crave. Here are the treats they indulge in when they’re not the ones doing the baking.

 

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Breakfast Danish

The Local General Store

Cristina Nishioka  |  Beyond Pastry Studio 

 

 

Only recently has Cristina Nishioka started making laminated pastries, many infused with her signature Filipino flavors, at her bakery in Downtown Honolulu. She’s added banana lumpia Danishes, cinnamon rolls with calamansi curd, and longganisa-feta Danish rolls to her lineup of savory biscuits, fluffy ensaymadas and pillowy-soft milk breads.

 

“[Laminated pastries] require a certain skill level to be able to make well,” says Nishioka, who didn’t eat croissants and Danishes growing up in the Philippines. “There’s a lot that goes into it. You cannot rush the process. … When a bakery masters that, it shows in the pastry. You can taste the difference.”

 

Which is why, on her days off, she’ll seek out the breakfast Danish at The Local General Store. It’s a play on shakshouka with mushrooms, creamy béchamel, Gruyère cheese and a jammy egg inside a skillfully made flaky pastry. “I’m really a texture person,” Nishioka says, “and all of those flavors and textures come together. It’s comforting.”

 

The Local General Store, 3458 Wai‘alae Ave., Kaimukī, (808) 777-2431, thelocalgeneralstorehi.com, @thelocalgeneralstorehi 

Beyond Pastry Studio, 1067 Alakea St., Downtown, beyondpastrystudio.com, @beyondpastrystudio

 

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Fuwa fuwa puff

CakeM

Katherine Yang  | Mille Fête 

 

 

Katherine Yang had been running her successful dessert catering business in New York City when Fête’s James Beard Award-winning chef Robynne Maii, an old friend, convinced her to move to Honolulu to help her open a bakery. It made perfect sense: Yang specialized in classic American and French desserts—and that’s what she does now at Mille Fête, with items like a gorgeous eight-layer POG cake, chocolate bells that read like an upgraded Choco Pie, and Spam-and-cheese-filled baked bao. Bestsellers lately, the executive pastry chef and partner says, are seasonal whoopie pies and a New York black-and-white cookie with fresh liliko‘i pulp.

 

When she’s not working, Yang craves the fuwa fuwa puff from CakeM. It’s a round Japanese-style sponge filled with an airy vanilla cream. “Fuwa fuwa” is onomatopoeia for soft and fluffy, perfectly describing the cloudlike texture. “It’s so lovely, not too sweet, really light; it’s just perfect,” Yang says. “It’s a really grown-up, really delicious version of a Twinkie.”

 

CakeM, 808 Sheridan St., Suite 112, Ke‘eaumoku, (808) 492-1723, @cakem.hawaii

Mille Fête, 1113 Smith St., Chinatown, millefete.com, @millefete 

 

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Kouign Amann

B. Patisserie,  Kona Coffee Purveyors

Niel Koep, Fendu Boulangerie

 

 

Niel Koep opened Fendu Boulangerie in 2009, after 18 years as executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Resort Lāna‘i. His scones, in flavors like mango and cranberry, are unlike the sweet, cakelike ones at other local bakeries—they’re more English style, not overly sweet, for pairing with coffee or tea. “I do have a scone or two a day,” Koep says, “right when they come out of the oven when they’re hot and fresh.” The bakery is also known for its scratch-made breads, gorgeous desserts like a strawberry-guava cheesecake shaped like a rose, and Valrhona dark chocolate domes filled with Grand Marnier crème brûlée.

 

Koep is deft with laminated dough and appreciates when other bakeries do it well. Like the kouign amann, a French pastry that’s labor-intensive and challenging to master, at Kona Coffee Purveyors, which serves the version made famous by San Francisco’s B. Patisserie. While the black sesame kouign amann is popular, Koep prefers the plain one. “It’s sweet but not overly sweet, the dough is laminated very nicely with sugar between the layers, the portion size is nice, and it’s baked just right.” 

 

Kona Coffee Purveyors, 2330 Kalākaua Ave., Waikīki, (808) 450-2364, konacoffeepurveyors.com 

Fendu Boulangerie, 2752 Woodlawn Drive, Mānoa, @fendu.boulangerie 

 

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Orange Cardamom Morning Bun

Breadshop

Hana Quon  |  Patisserie HQ 

 

 

Acclaimed pastry chef Hana Quon moved to Honolulu after closing Café Madeleine in Boston, and for the past two years, she’s been showcasing her desserts at The Curb in Kaimukī. It may seem strange to have such high-end desserts—pandan-infused canelé filled with pandan milk jam, mini pluot tarts that look like sunsets—at a neighborhood coffee shop, but that’s exactly her plan. “Lots of coffee shops do coffee really, really well, but I noticed they don’t have pastries to match their coffee,” the Maryland native says. “It’s nice to be able to provide that and know that my goods are being served alongside elite coffee.”

 

Quon has a passion for viennoiserie, baked goods like croissants that fall somewhere between pastry and bread, so she appreciates the well-made breads and laminated pastries at Breadshop. A favorite is its orange cardamom morning bun. “The cardamom is ground fresh, so it’s just really heady with florals,” Quon says. “Cardamom can sometimes be bad and taste like potpourri. So you can always tell the places that grind it fresh. You can smell it a mile away.”

 

Breadshop, 3408 Wai‘alae Ave., Kaimukī, breadsbybreadshop.com, @breadshophnl 

Patisserie HQ at The Curb, 3408 Wai‘alae Ave., Suite 103, Kaimukī, @hanaquon 

 

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Lemon crunch cake

The Alley Restaurant at ‘Aiea Bowl 

Andrew Chun-Hori | Hawaiian Pie Co. 

 

 

The Hori family has been baking since the 1930s, so many items at Hawaiian Pie Co. have been around for generations. “We love taking those classic recipes and giving them a fresh twist, like turning bread pudding into a pie with our signature crust or finishing our tea cake with a drizzle of liliko‘i glaze,” says Andrew Chun-Hori, the fourth-generation lead baker who creates many of the new treats. The bakery boasts more than 50 kinds of buttery-crust pies, but its most popular are the classics: Hawaiian passion pear, caramel apple and pineapple whip.

 

When Chun-Hori wants a different sweet, he goes for the lemon crunch cake at The Alley Restaurant at ‘Aiea Bowl. He tried it for the first time back in high school. “It was one of those simple moments that stick with you,” he says. “The fluffy, light chiffon cake keeps the cake from feeling too heavy, and the lemon curd adds just the right amount of tartness to balance out the sweet crunch from the toffee bits. It really provides a good balance of flavor and mouthfeel when you dig into it.” 

 

The Alley at ‘Aiea Bowl, 99-115 ‘Aiea Heights Drive, ‘Aiea, aieabowl.com/restaurant, @aieabowl 

Hawaiian Pie Co., 508 Waiakamilo Road, Kalihi, (808) 988-7828, hawaiianpieco.com, @hawaiianpieco 

 

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Glazed doughnuts and croissant bites

Donut King

Rodney Weddle  |  La Tour Bakehouse 

 

 

For the past 24 years, executive chef and partner Rodney Weddle has seen La Tour Bakehouse evolve. It started as a bakery churning out crusty baguettes for the popular banh mi at Ba-Le Sandwich shops. Today, thanks to a new automation system, La Tour makes about 40,000 pounds of dough a day for its croissants, sourdough loaves and signature Japanese breads, most of which are sold wholesale. The most recent addition, all-natural taro rolls, are sold at Costco. For La Tour’s new retail shop on Nimitz Highway, the bakery makes breads, chocolate mochi, haupia buns and more daily.

 

Still, Weddle likes to pop into Donut King in Market City Shopping Center, often after brunch at nearby Café Kaila. His favorites include the glazed doughnuts and croissant bites. “Oh my God, they’re so good,” he says. “I was just there on Saturday. My wife always says, “Don’t buy too much,’ but when I go in there, I get a whole box of doughnuts.”

 

Donut King, multiple locations, @donutkinghawaii 

La Tour Bakehouse, 888 N. Nimitz Highway, Iwilei, latourbakehouse.com, @latourbakehouse

 

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Taegu croissant

Breadshop

Harley Tunac Chow, The Local General Store  

 

 

Harley Tunac Chow makes a lot of laminated pastries. It’s what The Local General Store, which she owns and runs with husband Jason Chow, has become known for. Favorites include Tunac Chow’s Danishes featuring local fruits or baked with butter mochi, and flaky croissants filled with sweet char siu made with local pork. When the couple opened the whole-animal butcher shop and bakery in 2023, they didn’t have a sheeter to automate the cutting of dough sheets. Three months in, they invested in a tabletop one, and it’s still going strong. “It’s our little baby,” Tunac Chow says.

 

She loves laminated pastries so much, “On my days off, I just want a croissant,” she says. She’s obsessed with the airy, buttery taegu, spinach and Manchego croissant from Breadshop. “I think it’s underrated,” Tunac Chow says. “[Breadshop] views food in a similar way to us, basing it on nostalgic things like our POG Danish. I grew up eating taegu, and they put it in a croissant. It’s just so good.”

 

Breadshop, 3408 Waiʻalae Ave., Kaimukī, breadsbybreadshop.com, @breadshophnl

The Local General Store, 3458 Wai‘alae Ave., Kaimukī, (808) 777-2431, thelocalgeneralstorehi.com, @thelocalgeneralstorehi

 

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Custard pie

Zippy’s

Jill Yamashita, Chocolate + Vanilla Bakery 

 

 

Desserts at Chocolate + Vanilla Bakery are what you gravitate to at a potluck or after a long day at work. They’re not stuffy or fancy, they’re approachable and fun. That’s exactly the vibe owner Jill Yamashita is going for. The bakery sells colorful scones in playful flavors like Vietnamese coffee and strawberry-matcha, decadent bread pudding squares and mini crème brûlées. Yamashita, an alum of Le Cordon Bleu, recently added ube banana bread with chocolate chips and tiramisu to her menu.

 

The outside dessert she craves most is the custard pie at Zippy’s. This local favorite has been on the menu of the chain’s Napoleon’s Bakery since it opened in 1983, along with dobash cake and the iconic Napples. “It’s so creamy and amazingly good,” Yamashita says. “The flavors are well balanced, in my opinion. I usually eat it once a month—and I’m not usually a dessert person!” 

 

Zippy’s, multiple locations, zippys.com, @zippys 

Chocolate + Vanilla Bakery, 1115 12^th Ave., Kaimukī, @chocolateandvanilla808 

 

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Catherine Toth Fox is the former editor at large HAWAI‘I Magazine and a contributor to HONOLULU Magazine.