Kenta Takahashi gives new meaning to “architectural digest”
The Vancouver pastry chef—Canada’s best—brings a designer’s mind to desserts
Kenta Takahashi was not about to spend his life doing an office job. Photo by Leila Kwok.
TO ENTER KENTA TAKAHASHI’S world is to get a glimpse of how architecture takes form on a plate. Sugar is shaped into structural beams, fruit becomes clear panes of glass, and chocolate acts as curlicues, friezes, and facades.
Kenta is executive pastry chef at Vancouver’s Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar. Known for desserts that are as playful as they are precise, he has been named Canada’s best pastry chef for 2020 by Canada’s Best 100 Restaurants.
A father of two young children, Takahashi discovered his desire to design food in his home city of Shizuoka, Japan, where both of his parents are pharmacists.
“I was trying to search for my path after high school and was seeking other options besides attending university,” Takahashi says. “I couldn’t imagine myself in a suit, working in an office doing repetitive work.
“I knew I needed to explore other options,” he says. “I love working with my hands.”
So, it was off to the Tsuji Culinary Institute, Japan’s leading pastry school, where Takahashi studied at both Tokyo and Osaka campuses. His style is rooted in classical French rigour and technique. He gained experience at Tokyo patisserie la Vielle France, dating back to 1834; Ohara, a one Michelin-star French restaurant in Tokyo, and Vancouver’s Thierry, under the mentorship of Thierry Busset.
Kenta Takahashi thinks about structural integrity in making desserts. Photo by Leila Kwok.
In addition to the exquisite desserts he makes at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Takahashi introduced a bonbon tray, which comes out following diners’ final course. As if at a tableside candy store, they get to pick among dazzling rows of chocolates and pâtes fruits; macarons and ropes of marshmallow in flavours like raspberry and peach; rose and ruby-red berlingots (hard candies), and countless other colourful and delicate mignardises.
Glass chips made of mango; crystallized shiso leaves and rose petals; translucent rhubarb shards; and purple ribbons concocted of pure sugar that could decorate a luxury gift box: these are just some of his touches.
Takahashi is also contributing to the restaurant’s new Table 72 series. It’s an intimate, elevated COVID-19-friendly six-course meal by Boulevard executive chef Roger Ma for six people in one of the restaurant’s private dining rooms under a magnificent chandelier. For these luxuriously private dinners, he’ll continue to draw on rules of structural and aesthetic integrity for guests’ sweet finish.
“I see myself as an architect and designer, as everything I create has a meaning, a reason,” Takahashi says. “I seek for the perfect balance, whether it is texture or colour. Everything is well planned out.
“I sometimes face creative block, but I seek inspiration from what’s around me, whether it is seasonal ingredients, the design of an interior space, or the people I work with,” he says. “Everything has to be done in such precision that often each of my creations requires a deep thought process. I have a complex mind.”
Here, Takahashi shares his thought process behind a handful of recent creations.
Photo by Leila Kwok.
Poached Pear
With “ginger ale” (citric acid and baking soda), tonka-bean ice cream, and sugar-blown pear, served on a sugar-glass plate
I wanted to make something surprising but still comforting, because to me, pear and spices represent the holiday season. It was hard to mix those opposite feelings—surprising and comforting. The plate made of sugar is clear and see-through yet still has a hint of subtle colour. Keeping guests curious and engaged and seeing their eyes widen as they explore the dish and finally taste it—with the explosion of the sugar-blown pear—is truly satisfying to me. I love witnessing and experiencing guests’ reaction.
Photo by Leila Kwok.
Strawberry Napoleon Pie
With strawberry, rhubarb compote, vanilla cream, strawberry curd, white chocolate crunch, and lime semifreddo
This is a summer dessert, and the original idea was mille-feuille (a thousand leaves). My main focus with mille-feuille is the texture of puff pastry—both visually and in the mouth. To embrace the beautiful berry season, the dessert has to be bright and refreshing. I wanted to create a contrast with lots of different textures in each layer. There’s texture of colour, with red (strawberry), white (cream and white chocolate), green (lime), and black (the dish).
Photo by Leila Kwok.
Chestnut Mont Blanc
With freshly made chestnut cream, tonka bean poached pear, pear bavarois, Cassis, and chestnut meringue
I like seasonal ingredients and colour while respecting classic French technique. My chestnut Mont Blanc has a classic shape yet is surrounded by leaves made with chestnut paste and fall colours. I try to seek inspiration from the main ingredient. To me, chestnuts represent warmth, comfort, and calm, and those are how Japanese people feel about chestnuts in fall and winter. I like my guests to feel that while enjoying my chestnut dessert. It wouldn’t make sense if my chestnut dessert was very sharp in shape and bright colour. Trying to push the characteristics of the ingredients I work with also helps me get ideas for plating.
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