Japanese Bakehouse: the art of shokupan & other recipes

About

Japanese Bakehouse: An intimate conversation with Satoshi Narusawa and Harvard Wang

Some book launches are especially close to our hearts, and this is one of them. Satoshi and Harvard are friends as well as customers of ours, and we’re delighted to celebrate their new book, Japanese Bakehouse, at Books for Cooks. We've been priviliged to witness the journey of this book from concept to contract, draft, proof, and finally published.

Satoshi trained as a pastry chef in Tokyo before moving to Australia, where his passion for Japanese bread led him to begin making shokupan. Its popularity inspired him to open Little Cardigan in Melbourne in 2018. His co-writer, Harvard Wang, is a photographer, food writer and restaurant reviewer.

Satoshi’s Little Cardigan bakery has introduced many Melburnians to the pleasures of Japanese shokupan: that wonderfully soft, fine-textured bread that makes such a good sandwich. But there’s a whole world of Japanese baking beyond the loaf, and Japanese Bakehouse is a delicious invitation to explore it.

With more than 80 recipes, the book ranges from breads, buns and sandwiches to French–Japanese pastries. Among them are black sesame croissants, brioche noir and peanut butter and miso cookies, as well as shokupan sandos filled with strawberries and cream or pork katsu. The recipes also explain the techniques behind shokupan’s distinctive texture, with guidance on making the jams, creams and condiments that bring everything together.