Nadine Kam photos Pipeline Bakery & Creamery offers one more spot to shop for office goodies in the morning. Gayle Young's malasadas, scones and cake bombs have been an instant hit with pastry lovers.
Have malasadas become a thing? These humble Portuguese confections are popping up in more places these days, having found their way onto the upscale menus of the newly open Stripsteak and Eating House 1849 menus, and they are among the treats baked up by Gayle Young and her crew over at Pipeline Bakeshop & Creamery in Kaimuki. After a soft opening period, the new bakery and ice cream shop held its blessing ceremony this morning, in advance of its public grand opening at 6 p.m. today.
Young said she spent a year perfecting her malasada recipe, and its texture out of the oven is amazing, with a crisp shell and airy, pillowy, and slightly salty, center.
Young received a State Senate proclamation from legislator Calvin Say, recognizing Pipeline's opening day.
Pipeline features a lineup of treats baked from scratch, such as blueberry cream cheese and cherry cream cheese scones ($3.50 each), wicked triple chocolate brownies ($3.25 each) and cake bombs ($3.25 each) in flavors such as blueberry, lemon, matcha green tea, chocolate hazelnut and coconut. Back at the office, people who claimed not to like coconut, loved the coconut bomb.
A tray full of cherry cream cheese scones.
Classic white sugar-coated malasadas are $1. Add 10 cents more for li hing sugar, add 20 cents for cocoa, and add 30 cents for coffee flavor.
During grand opening weekend, there will be giveaways, contests and specials. Grand opening hours are 6 to 9 p.m. today, and specials such as $2 scoops of housemade ice cream will run 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 9 to 11.
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Pipeline Bakery & Cafe is at 3632 Waialae Ave. (across from Coffee Talk). Call 738-8200.
Kimo Kahoano performed an oli before this morning's blessing.
Kahu Kelekona Bishaw blesses the hands of all employed by Pipeline.
Inside the shop.
Energy bars are $1.95 each.
————— Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her food coverage is in print in Wednesday's Crave section. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.
Nadine Kam photos Magnolia Bakery celebrated the launch of its new rainbow-colored Aloha cupcake June 9.
A class in how to ice a cupcake at Magnolia Bakery Cafe turned into confirmation that I should never work at a bakery.
Coinciding with the bakery's launch of its Hawaii-only Aloha cupcake, a coconut cream-filled lilikoi confection topped with rainbow-colored meringue, a bunch of writers and photographers were tasked with recreating the signature buttercream swirl that tops the cupcake.
Pastry sous chef Alison Yokouchi led a session in how to ice a cupcake with an icing spatula she referred to as her "magic wand."
Our initial results were mostly disastrous, and pastry sous chef Alison Yokouchi assured it took her about 20 hours to perfect her skills.
Maybe golfers will appreciate that one also has to be pretty flexible and limber to perfect the swirl that calls for a nearly 360-degree flick of the wrists.
I ended up digging too deep in the icing and scalping my cupcake. Oh well, with Magnolia here, I have no reason to ever do such work myself.
For those who want to try their hand at the task, Magnolia is offering icing classes for private parties, with a minimum of six participants. Each participant will take home six cupcakes they have created, plus recipes for Magnolia’s best-selling vanilla cupcake and vanilla buttercream frosting. The cost per person is $75.
If you can't get a group together, public classes for set days and times are being planned. ———————
Magnolia Bakery Cafe is at Ala Moana Center. For more information on the classes, call 942-4132.
This is the swirl we were aiming for.
Yotaro Takenaka with his cupcake finished with candy sprinkles.
Emi Hart was pleased with her creation, after four tries.
————— Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her food coverage is in print in Wednesday's Crave section. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.
Nadine Kam photo Magnolia Bakery's chocolate banana pudding debuts tomorrow, with free samples while supplies last at the Ala Moana Center shop, no foolin'.
Fans of Magnolia Bakery's classic banana pudding will find a new treat awaits on April Fool's Day. A new chocolate version features layers of chocolate pudding, OREO wafers, banana slices and chocolate shavings.
The chocolate banana pudding launched earlier this month at Magnolia Bakery locations in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicaco, and to mark its arrival in Hawaii, the Ala Moana Center Ewa Wing bakery kiosk will be offering free samples April 1 to 3, while supplies last.
Kiosk hours are 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Cafe hours are 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Nadine Kam photos Magnolia Bakery will bring its renowned cakes, pastries and pies to its Honolulu bakery and cafe operation, set to open Nov. 12 at Ala Moana Center.
BY NADINE KAM
Magnolia Bakery's Chief Baking Officer Bobbie Lloyd was in town a few weeks ago, in the test kitchen at Y. Hata, to make sure recipes she created in New York, would work with Hawaii’s weather and humidity when the renowned bakery opens its first United States bakery and cafe operation at Ala Moana Center Nov. 12.
It’ll be a twofer as there will also be a standalone bakery operation as well, serving to-go clientele so that sit-down customers will be insulated from the crush of patrons lining up for cupcakes, pies and other confections.
“Everything’s turning out perfect,” Lloyd said, as she pulled out pies, brownies and cupcakes from the ovens.
A fan of vintage desserts, Lloyd inherited the baking gene from her mom. “I’m from the midwest suburbs of Chicago. My mom was a baker, and back in the 1950s and ’60s, you wouldn’t dream of showing up at someone’s home without a cake. My mom always had a cake, or cookies, or pie, ready to go.”
Magnolia Bakery's chief baking officer Bobbie Lloyd was in town a few weeks ago testing recipes to make sure they work in Hawaii's climate. She'll be back for the grand opening.
Lloyd received formal chef’s training at Boston’s Modern Gourmet Cooking School, and her passion for the kitchen arts led her to open her own restaurant, American Accent, in 1980s Boston.
“The concept was, if you saw it on the table, we made it. We made our own ketchup, pastas, breads, spice blends, jams and jellies. It was difficult to make money that way but it was such good idea that I had to do it.”
She went on to work as a private chef for Calvin Klein, then service manager at Union Square Cafe before joining Magnolia Bakery in 2007. It was a good fit. Magnolia Bakery had been founded in 1996 with the idea of serving classic American baked goods, opening in New York’s West Village. The little bakery grew a local following, but won international attention from appearances on “Sex and the City” and other New York-based TV programs and films. Magnolia has since expanded its business worldwide.
Locally, patrons will be able to choose from a variety of cafe menu items, including egg skillets, red velvet pancakes, pulled pork biscuit sandwiches and seasonal salads, as well as Magnolia’s renowned handmade desserts.
'Nolia pies will make their debut in Honolulu. Featured here are pear and vegetarian options.
The cafe brings Lloyd full circle to her chef’s roots, as she insists, “I’m not a pastry chef and never call myself that. I’m more of a home-style baker, but I approach my work like a pastry chef.”
Her title of Chief Baking Officer came from an encounter at London’s Heathrow Airport, when an immigration official looking at her travel papers saw her title of President of Magnolia Bakery, and sniffed, “No one’s the president of a bakery.”
“And I thought, ‘She’s right!’ It’s way too serious, so I knew it was time to change that.”
In creating the menu, Lloyd transformed some of Magnolia’s most loved cakes and cupcakes into other forms. The Hummingbird, a Southern classic that seems to be made for Hawaii because of its combination of tropical pineapple and bananas, with pecans, will be available in pancake form. Its sweet cream cheese icing will become a thick syrup.
The company’s first United States bakery and cafe marks a homecoming for chef Jonas Low, who worked at Magnolia’s Lebanon location.
Lloyd had help getting to know the local palate from Magnolia Hawaii’s local born and raised executive chef Jonas Low, who’s returned home after working at Magnolia’s Lebanon location.
Low attended Leeward Community College before studying pastry at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland and going on to work at Gary Danko in San Francisco. Coming home “just worked out for me,” he said. “I’m like a lot of the generation of local chefs that have traveled out, seen what is out there, got the training, and are bringing it back home.
“My role is making sure that what goes out of our kitchen is consistent with the New York brand.”
Though with a few local twists. Lloyd said she was happy when she heard of Hawaii’s love of pork, which inspired two additions to the menu, a pulled pork skillet of creamy grits, jalapeno and cheddar with the pork on top, and a pulled pork biscuit sandwich.
She’s left wiggle room in the menu for Low to play with local and seasonally available ingredients to keep things interesting. A kale salad might incorporate asparagus and peaches in the summer, then switch to butternut squash in the fall.
She’d long desired to add breakfast and meal service at Magnolia, knowing that “People love breakfast and they like eggs all day.”
If they’re lucky, New York might follow in Honolulu’s footsteps next year.
———— Magnolia Bakery and Magnolia Bakery and Cafe will open Nov. 12 at Ala Moana Center. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 1o p.m. daily.
————— Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.
Nadine Kam photos Acclaimed pastry artist Janice Wong in her Singapore studio.
BY NADINE KAM
SINGAPORE-Janice Wong grew up left brain with a mind for math and economics. Then, like a work of classic narrative fiction, 11 years ago, a bump on the head in a car accident awakened the right side of her brain, triggering a quest to find new outlets for her newfound visions and creativity.
Already a fan of sweets and pastries, her new direction entailed using sugar, candy, chocolate and food as media for art canvases, sculptures and installations that have brought her international renown.
The Singapore-based chef counts fashion brands such as Fendi, Tiffany and Kate Spade among her clients, and her art has won her invitations around the globe to set up exhbitions, more than 45 this year alone.
She’s won the World Gourmet Summit Awards title of Pastry Chef of the Year in 2011, 2013 and 2015, and the title of Asia’s Best Pastry Chef award from Restaurant magazine in 2013 and 2014. She’s also the author of “Perfection in Imperfection.”
At home in Singapore, her truffles and edible paints can be found at The Shoppes in Marina Bay Sands to bring home as omiyage, while her dessert confections can be enjoyed at her 2am:dessertbar at 21a Lorong Liput in Holland Village. The dessert bar is open from 3 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, closing at 2 a.m., and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
At 2am:dessertbar, Janice Wong’s Cassis Plum, a cassis bombe with elderflower yogurt foam, Choya (ume plum wine) granite, yuzu pears and yuzu rubies.
Wong with a work of sugar flowers she created for Fendi. The peg board held lollipops for guests to enjoy.
A "living" chocolate table at 2am:dessertbar. The chocolate is under glass and the changing tremperature over the course of the day causes it to expand and contract, changing the pattern over time.
Inside 2am:dessertbar.
On the retail front, a few of Wong’s hand-painted bon bons in salt caramel (top) and whiskey and orange flavors.
At the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, you can mix and match those bon bons to bring home in her beautiful colored boxes.
You can also exercise your creativity by bringing home some of her chocolate paints.
Another of Wong’s works wrapped to travel for an exhibition in Dubai where she was heading the day after our interview.
Wong is the rare cerebral chef and I can't even begin to make sense of her notes in coming up with her dessert creations. Where others take a random, scattershot approach that shows in the nonsensical taste of a final product, her combinations manage to be both multi-dimensional and precise, without a note out of place, and a total joy on the palate. Produce enzymes are her latest passion, as a morning tonic and for the chemical reactions they bring about in the cooking process.
Andy Warhol in Wong’s studio.
Wong created her own stoneware and ceramic ware for presentation of desserts at 2am:dessertbar.
I love green tea so loved her dessert of a Kyoto Tsujirihei matcha tart with jasmine rice sherbet and yuzu drops, $20 or about $15USD.
But my favorite of her desserts was Hoijicha Sesame, a tofu parfait with Hojicha green tea custard, pear vodka sorbet, sesame sauce and ginger. ————— Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.
Nadine Kam photo Banana pie is August’s pie of the month at Hawaiian Pie Co., where the pies will be available beginning tomorrow.
BY NADINE KAM
If you’re among the hundreds who fell in love with Hawaiian Pie Co.’s POG pie, the July pie of the month, you’d better get there today for the last of your fill, before it makes way for August’s special.
Working their way through the compendium of local fruit, the Hori clan settled on a wonderful 3-pound, deep-dish buttery banana pie that will be available through Aug. 31.
While picking up the last of the POG pies today, you’ll also spot Grandpa Yasu’s grab-and-go pastele pans ($3.50). If that’s hard to imagine, think baked manapua with a pastele filling of pork, olives and spices. Yummers, and perfect for a quick lunch. ——————
Hawaiian Pie Co. is at 508 Waiakamilo Road. Call (808) 988-7828.
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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.
Nadine Kam photos From left are Off The Wall Craft’s Kyle Matsumoto, Andrew Mitani and Ed Morita.
In the spirit of fun, Off The Wall Craft Desserts & Kitchen (OTW Craft), tried to get a lover’s quarrel started on Valentine’s Day.
There could be no better opening day to demonstrate its concept than with a Chocolate Lover’s Spat party, a food fight pitting those who opt for #DessertFirst vs. the traditionalists who put #FoodFirst.
Perhaps it wasn’t entirely fair that dessert and pastry chef Ed Morita had a dominant spot in the dining room, while chef de cuisine Andrew Mitani was off in a side room, busily cooking up mocha brisket sliders, mole-sauced BBQ ribs with daikon gratin and rafute-style sushi with braised Kurobuta pork belly and chocolate-peanut butter-miso glaze. Hmm, that sounds a bit like joining the frenemy.
In a battle for supremecy, #dessertfirst and #foodfirst tied on the Valentine’s Day grand opening of Off The Wall Craft. Pictured here are beeramisu desserts, mole sauce ribs and delicious mocha brisket sliders.
In the main room, Morita was slicing his chocolate-filled Twinkies and Nutella-roasted banana sandwich rolls, laid out with chocolate-peanut butter crunches, kabochasadas, and a couple of different S’more tarts.
Also offered were sauteed clams, an assortment of salads, flat breads and raw bar.
The new restaurant concept by Off The Wall owner Kyle Matsumoto and Morita, formerly of Highway Inn, Kakaako, was created to offer local-style comfort food with a twist. It also raises awareness of those individuals who can’t wait until the end of a meal to order dessert, or who won’t risk filling up on other courses before having dessert first. The first time I was with someone who ordered dessert first, I was a little shocked. I admit I’ve become less of a dessert person over time and the less sugar I eat, the less I crave. But hey, people are entitled to dine the way they prefer, and if they want to start with chocolate and sugar or cake and strawberries, so be it.
Chocolate-peanut butter crunch desserts.
It’s probably every pastry chef’s lament that they feel like second-class citizens in the kitchen. (It’s the same in the newsroom when you pit feature writers against news writers, when news simply carries more gravitas than lifestyle coverage.)
About his half of the menu, Morita said, “Every restaurant I’ve ever worked at treated desserts as an afterthought. That is why I knew that if I ever had the chance to develop a dining concept, it would revolve around highlighting dessert first.”
Mitani will ward off competition with familiar local cuisine infused with Japanese, Korean, Italian, and French flavors, and the two will be working together to blur the lines between sweet and savory. It’s an experience that will challenge your taste buds.
OTW Craft is in the former Tsunami Night Club space at 1272 S. King St.
The chefs tested some of their dishes during a preview event that took place Jan. 21:
One of the most interesting aspects of the OTW Craft experience was sampling Morita’s smoked honey that goes into cocktails and desserts. From left are Moscow Mule, Manhattan, Sazerac and Falernum-inspired honey. I urged them to offer a flight so that other diners might better appreciate the work behind the desserts. Nuance is sometimes lost at the table.
Food First: Ahi poke cupcake with sesame-ginger frosting, bubu arare and yuzu tobiko.
Dessert First: Bacon-pecan sticky buns with Manhattan-spiked honey.
Food First: Ozoni pizza.
Bacon goat cheese chive puffs with lilikoi and spice glaze.
A mix of eggplant rolls (back) and Nutella rolls with white chocolate-haupia sauce.
Nadine Kam photos Treats from Kulu Kulu Cake include green tea tiramisu. custard brulee-filled "Diamond Head," cream roll cake and a chocolate brownie. The Diamond Head is also available with rum caramel filling.
Kulu Kulu Cake opens today, Oct. 25 at Shirokiya, with light Japanese pastries that are "not too sweet" and dainty, as described by baker Eiji Kondo in his remarks to media previewing the confection selection a day ahead.
The lightness of a green tea tiramisu ($4.65) might be compared to a Panya dessert.
Kondo appeared teary as he recalled how he used to be a programmer who loved to bake, and eventually quit his office job to follow his passion. It's now been 17 years since he made that decision and he's never regretted it, enjoying his role of making people happy.
As he described the concept behind the bakeshop, he said that in Japan, each town has its own beloved bake shop, and Kulu Kulu aims to reproduce the confections that Japanese living in Hawaii miss from home. It's the same as if we moved away and suddenly found a bakery in L.A. or Seattle, or Paris reproducing Liliha Bakery Coco Puffs or Leonard's malassadas!
It was noted that "kulu kulu" in Hawaiian translates as "to multiply," so their goal is to multiply the number of people happy with their cakes.
Kahu Keale blesses the staff and guests of Kulu Kulu Cake.
Baker Eiji Kondo and company president Yoji Ikeda.
Operations manager Shige Higashi welcomes guests.
Custard brulee is $3.15. A green tea version is $3.25.
More delights.
Multiple flavors of Aloha Busse, spongecake sandwiching creamy centers. I liked the blueberry cheesecake.
