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How Pastry Chef Shimon Otsuka Learned to Love Sweets Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
S
himon Otsuka has loved to cook ever since he was a little kid growing up in Japan. In fact, he admits that he was so singularly focused on food that he knew he wanted to be a chef by the age of seven. He’d eat and cook anything, but there was one type of food he wholeheartedly disliked — sweets. “I have these pictures of me as a kid cutting vegetables and making stir-frys wearing an apron and a hat,” Otsuka says. “But I was never big on eating sweets. Actually, I didn’t like them to the point that I would stay away from them as much as possible.” As the kitchen manager at Nathaniel Reid Bakery (11243 Manchester Road, Kirkwood; 314-8581019), one of the top pastry shops in town if not the country, there is no way Otsuka can stay away from sweets. Day in and day out, he is chef-owner Nathaniel Reid’s right-hand man, producing pastries that receive national acclaim and set the standard for what’s possible in the dessert world. Thankfully for Otsuka — and those who enjoy his handiwork — his thoughts on sweets began to change after receiving a birthday present from his parents when he was in third grade. The gift was a cake-baking cookbook, and Otsuka found himself instantly intrigued by the science behind the processes described in it. He devoured its contents and made every single recipe in the book, fascinated by how little tweaks in temperature, time and ingredients could produce vastly differ-
Shimon Otsuka is the kitchen manager at Nathaniel Reid Bakery in Kirkwood. | ANDY PAULISSEN ent outcomes. Otsuka also realized that the artistic side of pastry appealed to him. As a kid, he always gravitated toward art, especially sculpture, and found himself constantly seeking inspiration from cakes he saw in display windows. He often scoured the city for the best fruits and other ingredients to make his creations more impressive. As passionate as he was about cakes, Otsuka was equally interested in baking bread. Every day after school, he’d come home and start the bread-making process, let the dough proof overnight and then get up early in the morning so that his family had fresh-baked bread to start the day. Eventually, he expanded his repertoire to include bagels and got so good at making them that he started his own small bagel business. “At first, I was giving them away to neighbors and friends, but then they told me I should sell them,” Otsuka recalls. “I’d use the money I made to buy more ingredients and
“I was never big on eating sweets. Actually, I didn’t like them to the point that I would stay away from them as much as possible.” cookbooks so I could keep teaching myself. I was a weird kid.” Otsuka was priming himself for a career in the pastry world, and he got his big break in that field when he was just seventeen. A family friend knew of a pastry chef who was opening his own bakeshop and encouraged Otsuka to reach out and see if he could
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help. Little did Otsuka know the chef was a renowned confectioner and pastry professional who would give Otsuka his first real foray into the industry. Otsuka’s time with the bakery was short-lived, however, because his father’s career moved the family to Boston. Otsuka did not let that dampen his dreams, however. After graduating from high school, Otsuka immediately set out to find a job in a high-end pastry shop. When he could not find the right fit, he decided to move back to Japan and work under his former chef. He honed his craft there, dreaming that one day he would open his own pastry shop in the U.S. Otsuka worked in Japan for five years before accepting that if he wanted to pursue his dream, he would have to take the leap and move back to America. He landed in North Carolina but was searching the entire country for
FEBRUARY 19-25, 2020
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