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Slender patissier aiming for #1 in Japan

“I like Galette de Roi because it is a pastry made to share with everyone.”

Chef de la Panse Ms Zen Miyo

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My dream is to continue baking until become a grandma.

Close to Eizan Electric Railway Chayama Station, a bright red store is standing quietly in a calm residential area. As you slowly turn and push the golden polished door knob, the smell of butter and the warm oven heat will welcome you. This secret hideout-like store – open only on Fridays and Saturdays – is named La Pense.

The store’s best seller is Galette des rois – a pie eaten in France on January 6^th for Epiphany (feast day to celebrate the baptism of Jesus).

It is a simply made pie, but it is not easy to bake

Under the beautifully carved patterns, are the almond cream. Not only it has the pleasant taste, but there also is a pleasant surprise of a ceramic miniature ornament called “feve” hiding somewhere in the almond cream. It is said that the person who gets the sliced pie with feve will become king for the day, and the happiness will last for a year.

The chef Miyo Zen was fascinated and charmed by Galette des rois.

“I felt the beauty in where the pastry is made to share, not for eating alone.” Ingredients used are very simple: flour, butter, almond powder, eggs, and sugar.

“It is a simply made pie, but it is not easy to bake. The most important thing is the taste. Then, the beautiful appearance. Total balance, baking extent, and the beauty of the coupe. Flour and butter is mixed by hand, and I feel it is somewhat similar to raising a child. Neither works if you try to push. You have to listen and communicate with your opponent.”

“Professionals are different.”

Off to training at three stores to conquer herself.

Miyo was born in Aichi and moved to Kyoto after marriage. She started as a student at a bakery class but after her youngest child entered Elementary School, she started teaching bakery as per her friends’ request.

“I love bread and went to many bakeries. There I thought ‘Professionals are different’, and suddenly felt like I lost.” Miyo could not leave herself like that. Flying to France twice, she knocked on the doors of 3 famous stores and worked as a trainee: Bakery named Green Gables Dream, pastry shop named Michel Conti, and another pastry shop named Au Grenier D’or.

“The chef of Au Grenier D’or – Kinzo Nishihara – slowly heats the Crème Anglaise to maximize the flavor of the egg. I was surprised by the way he treats the materials so preciously.” The taste of simply made pastries are directly affected by how careful they were made. You will be surprised by how sensitive Miyo’s Galette des rois taste like. Pie dough and almond cream – all Galette des rois use the same ingredients, but the taste is completely different depending on who makes it.

“Galette des rois is an important pastry for France’s New Year Tradition, just like Zoni in Japan. I play around with the dough all year round to keep my skill up.”

“My dream is to continue baking until I grow old,” says Miyo. True to her words, she stands in the store’s kitchen every day at 1 am – no matter the store will be open for the day or not. You could see an athlete-like burning ambition in her slender body.

1/ Full of pastry and bread inside the store. “Galette des rois is a seasonal pastry only sold from November to January. Other seasons we sell Galette with seasonal fruit.”

2/ Miyo has won twice in the Suciuan division of the Galette des rois contest. “I want to become #1 in the contest’s main division and visit France as the Japanese representative.”

3/ The cute thumb size feve is made in France and the color and shape change every year. In the winter, she hides the feve in each of the slice selling Galette des rois as well. “I want everyone to experience the joy of finding the feve in your slice.”