Tokyoette: Turning baking into an art form and therapy

When the rough tumble of the corporate world became overwhelming for Eriko Kurosawa, she turned to her childhood fascination with food and baking. As a kid, Eriko would often accompany her grandmother and mother in the kitchen as they whipped up scrumptious and delicate sweetmeats for their constant flow of myriad gusts. The wafting aromas from her family kitchen not only punctuated Eriko’s childhood and teenage years but also lent her unfettered freedom to experiment with what she went on to love the most – baking.   

Today, the highly reclusive baker – she doesn’t like putting pictures of her online and keeps her social media identity a secret from her family and friends - is carving a niche for herself in the ever-growing world of food blogging.  

In conversation with TAL, the mother of a four-year-old calls baking therapy and discusses the difference between western and Japanese approach to confections, and the freedom her online anonymity gives her. 

Before we start talking about your passion for baking, please tell us something about yourself.  

I was born in Tokyo and spent my childhood in America. I used to work in the corporate world, but now, I am a wife and a mother to a four-year-old. I’m going to have to be a bit vague here. One of the reasons I started my online page was because I wanted to escape all my offline relationships. None of my friends or family – except my husband – is aware of my Instagram page or that I share photographs of my baked goods online. This has been incredibly freeing for me, as I can share my baking without being judged.

Other than baking, I enjoy cooking, reading, and taking long walks in the city.

What prompted your love for cooking, especially baking? Can it be traced back to your childhood, or did the interest in it grow organically over the years? 

When I was growing up, my grandparents would often host parties for our relatives and friends, and I would usually help my grandmother in the kitchen alongside my mother and aunt. I loved everything about the process; the ensuing chaos, unbridled excitement, the vibrant chatter between us ladies. What I loved most was the aroma of my grandmother’s delectable signature dishes! But that was about it. I enjoyed helping out but didn’t think of indulging in cooking on my own. 

My love for cooking can be attributed to some important people that came into my life. My best friend from university taught me to enjoy food in all its glory, and my wonderful husband whose insatiable interest in food motivates him to go that extra mile to make a dish as delicious as possible.

I lived in Singapore for a few months and had a lot of time on my hands. That experience and the feeling of isolation forced me to get away from the standards and norms I had grown accustomed to in Japan. The little cultural differences in every day made me re-evaluate my life, and what I wanted to do with it. I also spent an unhealthy amount of time on the Internet, going through blogs which were all the rage at the time. I was interested in fashion then, but I happened to stumble upon the legendary food blog What Katie Ate, and fell in love with food photography, and thought I should give it a shot too. 

How has your Japanese heritage influenced your style of cooking?  

My family has had a history of entertaining people at home. When I was growing up in the States, my parents often invited other Japanese people (mostly my father’s colleagues) over for meals, so my mother cooked a lot.   

My mother is not someone who “loves” to cook, but she’s good with her hands. American sweets proved very sweet for my mother’s discerning palate, so she baked a lot too. She would bake strawberry shortcakes for my birthdays or bake cookies or make strawberry bavarois for snacks. This was before the Internet, so she did all of these using recipes from cookbooks my grandmother gave her to take abroad.

Those are some of the earliest memories I have about baking. I also learnt quite early on that sweets and desserts were not things that you just bought from a store, but could be made from scratch.

My maternal grandmother is a fantastic cook. In my opinion, she is a very modern woman, compared to most women her age. For Christmas, she will cook a huge meal, including roast chicken with stuffing for her family. And for New Year’s she will always cook roast beef with gravy. Even now, that’s not very common in Japan. I think it comes from the fact that she travelled all over Europe and lived in Copenhagen for a few years (due to my grandfather’s work) when she was a young woman.

She also cooks several western-style dishes alongside classic Japanese meals. It’s like a fusion, but not an eccentric one. It’s all very natural and comes together in a very homey and grandmotherly way. Everything she makes is delicious and full of love. I’ve heard people say that the secret ingredient to good food is love, and I am a true believer of that.

So, even though my interest in food didn’t start at a young age; all the time I’ve spent with my mother and my grandmother helped me ease into cooking and baking eventually. 

Why baking? Why does it interest you so much?  

For me, baking is therapy. I’m a perfectionist and an over-thinker, which means my mind is always pre-occupied. Doing something in the kitchen lets me get away from that. It’s a way to focus on what’s right in front of me and to be in the present moment. It clears my head, and I get to forget about all the other things that are going on in my life. It’s also an outlet for my creative side since I have always loved using my hands to create something.

I think I also love the hospitality side of food. There is nothing more satisfying than watching someone eat something I have baked and look happy. Or to watch my friends have a great time over a meal I cooked. That is truly rewarding, and it is addictive.

Your Instagram is so aesthetically pleasing. Can you tell us how you go about shooting the pictures, and how do you come up with ideas for framing and the backdrop? What prompted you to opt for such muted, yet beautiful tone and feel?  And, what does Tokyoette mean?

Tokyoette has no real meaning. It was a spur of a moment decision to use that moniker. I was pondering the word Tokyoite, but I didn’t really like it. I decided to add something at the end to make it sound a bit more feminine. Initially, my account didn’t focus on food. I created a separate account for my food-related adventures but came back to my original one in the end.

As for how I shoot my photographs, I am completely self-taught and have no professional training or learning experience. I had to learn food photography the hard way: trying things multiple times and failing over and over again. Frankly, it is an ongoing process. 

As for framing and backdrop, I try to keep an eye out for good compositions and try to mimic it with my props and food. When you try to recreate something good, you realise that there is a meaning to why something is placed somewhere. I’m a bit of a nerd, so I do things like that a lot.

Also, I’m sure many of my followers have noticed, I only do overhead shots (flat lay). After I had my daughter, I only use my iPhone; no fancy DSLR equipment or editing on my computer. And I like it that way. 

Who has been your biggest cooking inspiration, and why?

My biggest inspirations have been my grandmother, Katie Quinn Davies of What Katie Ate, and Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille. I have pored through their cookbooks and blogs and studied their food photography. I admire how they cook, style, and shoot all on their own and have a distinctive style. You can tell, just by looking at one of their photos, that they created it. They are and forever will be my kitchen idols.

Your feed carries an array of baking recipes, both western and Asian inspired. Can you tell us how Japanese baking/desserts are different from their western counterparts?  

I’ve never thought baking in terms of western vs Asian baking. Both sound a bit broad; American baking is different from French or Italian baking, and Japanese sweets are different from Chinese or Korean confections. I don’t have much experience in making Japanese sweets, such as red bean paste or mochi, and my interests are in what most people would call western-style baking.

I think Japanese style baking is very delicate and precise. One of the most significant differences I’ve noticed is how detailed and exact recipes in Japanese cookbooks are. An excellent Japanese cookbook will have everything in grams, even eggs! And sometimes they will not be rounded off, so it might say 32g of whole egg or 18g of cocoa powder. I’m not sure if that’s necessary, but it does make you pay more attention to the details, and I like that.

Another difference is probably the preference for texture. Most bakers in Japan will opt for a soft and fluffy texture, especially for cakes, but sometimes it’s better to have a firm or crunchy consistency, or just more variety in general. I also feel Japanese baking is slightly less sweet than western baking.

Western baking, on the other hand, seems very bold and creative. I love how there are always new flavour combinations, and new techniques (cronuts, cruffins, pearl cream puffs!). I never get bored scrolling through my Instagram feed or reading cookbooks by authors from various countries. There is always something new to learn, and it is all very fascinating to me.

You share so many unique recipes. How do you come up with these, and what is the thought process behind them? Does it take time to create a new recipe from scratch? If you fail in creating something, how do you overcome the challenge?

I don’t think I have ever created a recipe from scratch. I am a self-taught baker and have learnt everything from cookbooks, online recipes and through all the talented bakers and people I have discovered in the online food community. Sharing recipes is something I have only started recently, so I’m no expert in this area.

I think what I do is put pieces together. For basic recipes, like a good tart crust or a chocolate cake, I will search for recipes that look good and try it out just the way it’s written once and then decide what to do after that. Do I lessen the sugar, add almond flour, change the size or baking time, so on. Then, when I have the dish the way I want it, I will try to write it down so I can recreate it again. 

Another thing I do is search for images of baked goods that look interesting and use all the elements I have to recreate something similar and more tailored to my taste.

As for failing to create something, I’ve had plenty of experience. My husband has come home to find me crying on the kitchen floor (more than once). I’ve dropped a whole tray of lemon tartlets before getting a decent photo. But I’m not one to easily give up, after crying it out, I will definitely get back up and start over again.

What advice would you give to up and coming cooks who would like to carve a niche for themselves as you have?

I hardly think of myself as a person capable of advising someone from the culinary world. But if there’s one thing I learnt through my own experience, it is the importance of never giving up. Just keep going! There will be times when you feel like you are not making any progress, and that there is no point in doing what you’re doing, but I think everybody goes through these phases and the important thing is not to opt out. In Japanese we say “keizoku wa chikara nari” which roughly means “continuity is the father of success”. By continuing, you will keep moving forward no matter how small the step is. There will always be a breakthrough point in the future.

What’s your favourite recipe to make? Please share the recipe with us. 

One of my favourite item to bake is bavarois, as my mother used to make them quite often when we used to live in the States. My recipe is based on the exact recipe she used to use, which was in a very old Japanese cookbook by Miyuki Iida, who was a very famous cooking expert/lifestyle guru at the time. The original recipe uses strawberry flavored bavarois instead of the chocolate flavored one I’ve created here. There have been a few other minor adaptations, but it tastes like something my mother made; it is a taste of my childhood.

Ribbon bavarois

Use 8cm×21cm×6cm loaf tin, or 13.5cm×15cm mould as in the original recipe

(both sizes are a bit odd, so if you can’t find anything close, find a rectangular mould that holds about 750ml)

 15g powdered gelatin

3 egg yolks

pinch of salt

90g granulated sugar

300ml milk

1 tablespoon rum

200ml whipping cream

1/3 vanilla bean, with the vanilla beans scraped out of the pod, or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water

1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, dissolved in 2 tablespoon of hot water

Prepare the mould by spraying it with a light coating of non-stick oil and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

 1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of water and set aside to let it soften and dissolve.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and salt. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until pale.

3. In a small saucepan, heat the milk to a simmer. Pour the milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously to make sure you don’t cook the egg yolks.

4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and stir continuously with a spatula over medium-low heat. Once the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spatula, remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl set over an ice bath. Add the rum and stir until the mixture is slightly cooled. (Take care to remove the bowl from the ice bath or the gelatin will set.)

5. In a large bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Pour the cooled custard mixture into the whipped cream and stir until completely combined.

6. Divide the mixture into three bowls. Keep two of the bowls in a shallow pan filled with warm water. This will prevent the mixture from setting. Add the vanilla beans (or vanilla essence) in the remaining bowl and stir well. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and chill in the refrigerator until completely set.

7. Meanwhile, remove one of the bowls from the warm water and add the coffee. Stir well until completely combined. Pour into the prepared mold, over the set vanilla mixture and place back into the refrigerator to set completely.

8. Remove the last remaining bowl from the warm water and add the cocoa. Stir well until completely combined. Again, pour into the prepared mold over the set coffee mixture, and place back into the refrigerator to set completely.

9. Once the bavarois is completely set, unmold onto a large plate. You can do this by placing the plate over the mold and inverting it. Slice and serve cold.

 Follow Eriko’s food adventures on her Instagram