"Billows of smoke rise up as Chika Hanyu eyes a pot of boiling sugar. We're in the narrow side room of a commissary kitchen in Sunnyside with the struggling AC on full blast. As any confectioner will tell you, making caramel is something of a tightrope act - take it off heat too soon and it's an anemic syrup; wait a half-second too long and it's a noxious, blackened mess. For her signature Japanese pudding, Hanyu likes to take it to the brink of ruin."
"For her signature Japanese pudding, Hanyu likes to take it to the brink of ruin. "I wanted this pudding to have a little bit of a bitter flavor, so I take the caramel darker than you usually would," she says, seemingly unfazed by the roiling sucrose-napalm. When the faintest acrid tinge fills the air, she hoists the pot off heat and pours a thin layer into individual molds."
"Despite its lack of a traditional brick-and-mortar space, Hanyu's business, C by C Chocolate & Pastry, has built up a cult following entirely by word of mouth. After seven years of working as the executive chef at Marie Belle, Maribel Lieberman's chocolate company based in Soho, she quit her job in 2020 and went rogue. Among her regular customers are some of the city's top chefs."
Chika Hanyu operates C by C Chocolate & Pastry from a narrow Sunnyside commissary kitchen and deliberately darkens caramel for a slightly bitter edge in her signature Japanese pudding. She monitors the sugar closely, pulling it at the faintest acrid tinge before pouring into molds. Hanyu built a cult following through word of mouth despite lacking a brick-and-mortar storefront. She left Marie Belle in 2020 after seven years as executive chef. Her clientele includes celebrated chefs who praise the depth, balance, and judged sweetness of her desserts; chefs serve her cakes at staff birthdays and favor items like a purple sweet potato mont blanc tart.
Read at Eater NY
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]