Kouign Café brings wonder—and pastries—to Vancouver’s Chinatown
Pastry chef Andrew Han finally has a place to call his own and to create culinary magic.
Andrew Han grew up in the heart of Chinatown, just a few blocks from where his new Kouign Caféis located. Photos by Christine Williams.
IF VANCOUVER’S CHINATOWN was Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter held his tea party there, what would be on the table?
In pastry chef Andrew Han’s world, there would be his unconventional version Kouign Amann. The original cake is a French classic that takes its name from the Breton words kouign (meaning brioche, pronounced queen) and amann, which means butter. Han reimagines the treat made of laminated dough to feature a heart-shaped mochi in the centre, swoops of chrysanthemum honey, and a sprinkling of gold leaf and toasted white sesame seeds. He calls it the Kouign.
There would be coconut buns made of brioche topped with cream-cheese icing.
And there would be the White Rabbit Cookie, chewy and squishy with Japanese mochiko sweet rice flour, wheat flour, chunks of 55 percent dark chocolate, and Maldon salted caramel. Baked into the middle is its creamy namesake candy, which was first made in Shanghai in the 1940s and now has a global cult following. For Han and so many others, it melts into bites of nostalgic rapture.
White Rabbit Cookie.
Andrew Han spent five years performing with a K-pop band before going to culinary school.
Follow the White Rabbit to Kouign Café, Han’s new bakery and coffee shop at 18 East Pender Street, just a few blocks from where he grew up with his five older siblings, Vietnamese mother, and Korean father. He describes his childhood as magical: “All I knew of the Earth was dinosaurs, magic, fairy tales, and Chinatown,” he says. “I thought the whole world was like that.”
Alice in Wonderland was his favourite book, one he read, rapt, countless times. With Kouign Café, he wants to bring some of that wonder back to Chinatown.
Han first discovered the way food could be an artistic pursuit in high school, when a friend’s mom invited him over to bake and decorate a cake for Father’s Day. “Something about that really excited me,” Han says. “It turned out to be a pivotal moment, much more so than I could understand at the time.”
Andrew Han creates what he’s craving in the moment.
There was something about creating with butter, flour, salt, and sugar that fed his soul, though he explored other art forms before turning baking into his life’s work.
“I’ve always been a creative, artistic person,” Han says. “From a very young age, I loved art, drawing, sketching, and painting. I started to play viola, violin, clarinet, and saxophone at a young age. I was always into the arts.
“After high school, I always leaned to things like graphic design, interior design, and architecture,” he adds. “But for some reason it didn’t quite feel right. I’ve always felt like I’ve needed to express myself somehow; there was this fire in me. I needed to set the stage.”
From 2000 to 2005, Han was literally on stage, singing and dancing with a K-pop boy band in Korea. When he returned to the West Coast, a friend, who had noticed Han’s fondness for watching the Food Network, suggested he go to cooking school.
Unlike Alice’s adventures, it all made sense.
Pastry Chef Andrew Han has always been drawn to creative pursuits.
The Golden Lantern is a coconut brioche swirl with cream-cheese-and-speculoos icing, with toasted white sesame seeds.
Han trained at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. He went on to gain experience as a pastry chef at La Quercia, Beta 5 Chocolates, Cadeaux Bakery, and Chau Veggie Express (a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant where he infused desserts with ingredients like pandan leaf, Asian teas, and matcha).
Having a place to call his own is the culmination of a lifelong dream. Kouign Café allows him to hone his craft and create some magic.
“What I love most about what I do is that it allows me to tap into my fondest memories of being a child and to relive those memories by reinventing my favourite foods in a way that’s creative and unexpected,” Han says. “I don’t think I have a checklist for what makes an Andrew Han dish or a Kouign dish, I just make what I’m craving in the moment. Sometimes it’s a flavour or ingredient, sometimes It’s a dish, and sometimes it’s an emotion. Those factors motivate me to create.
“For any given item on my menu, in conceptualization there are a million puzzle pieces that need to fit together before the whole picture comes to life, and I love that: figuring out what pieces in my mind and skillset fit together best and create something that I’m craving or feeling that translates into an emotional response in the people I’m feeding,” he says. “I’ve learned that my strengths aren’t just creating an appealing visual; it’s also about the storytelling, the experience, the flavour balance when using tricky or unexpectedly paired ingredients. That’s an art. It takes me back to that happy place.”
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