Chef showcases the quiet power of unsung ingredients
A new dessert tasting experience at the Zen-like Otera in North Point is a masterclass in creativity
I have long felt the TikTokification of food has created a space for excess and indulgence on another level, and it is not one that I wish to spend too long in.
Food and travel vloggers constantly post “must try” this and that, saturating our feeds with the same Instagrammable cakes and pastries from Seoul to New York.
And while I love the over-thetop, fast-paced Instagram reels of insanely talented pastry chefs like Cedric Grolet and chocolatiers like Amaury Guichon creating impossible architectural feats out of sugar and spice, I honestly feel that they cannot taste all that nice.
So when I received a message from Otera – a boutique cake shop I had bought from before – spotlighting its new dessert tasting experience at their North Point premises, I was struck by the simplicity of the name: Unsung.
Otera is the creation of award-winning pastry chef Joanna Yuen, who previously worked at Nobu – at what was previously The InterContinental Hong Kong – and one-Michelinstar restaurant Ando in Central.
Yuen opened Otera in summer 2023, with her unique flan cakes as a flagship item, before expanding offerings to include cookies, brioche and even mooncakes.
Now Yuen is planning to invite customers deeper into her world. The two-hour tasting session seats up to six guests in a small but elegant space, which feels a bit like being inside a Muji catalogue.
The courses are enigmatic, highlighting each “unsung” ingredient by name only: among them are herb of grace (also known as common rue), fungus, cocoa, ume plum and jyounamagashi –a traditional Japanese “petit four”.
Herb of grace is an overlooked flavour that often gives mung bean sweet soup its complexity. She chose to pair it with citrus, specifically hyuganatsu, a hybrid fruit from Japan that has a delicate perfume and an edible, sweet rind, and created a delicate mochi that gently unfurls on the palate.
Yuen’s dark chocolate sourdough served with a miso crumble and garlic butter seems an improbable pairing at first.
Eighty-five per cent dark chocolate is peppered throughout the loaf, which is baked in a kind of double oven – the dough goes into a classic Cantonese vessel normally used for claypot rice, then covered with a steel bowl and placed into a conventional oven. It is a solid beginning, and by showcasing the quiet power of unsung ingredients, Otera is actually speaking volumes.
Otera, Unit 03, 21/F, Technology Plaza, 651 King’s Rd, North Point