A Day of Dessert Delight

A Visit to the Celebrated Bakery and Restaurant, Kasama. Also, A Gorgeous New Book: Ballymaloe Desserts.

Ube and Huckleberry Basque Cake. Buttery Pound Cake with Purple Yam Pastry Cream and Huckleberries. Photo: Jolene

There are a lot of pictures in this week’s newsletter and I’m hoping they convey even a tiny bit of how spectacular these pastries are. Hold on, I’m about to start gushing, but with good reason.

Kasama

First, Kasama. By day, it’s a bakery and casual breakfast and lunch spot. But in the evening, Kasama serves an elegant Filipino tasting menu and a reservation at one of its tables is one of the hottest tickets in Chicago.

Opened in 2020 for breakfast and lunch, the husband and wife team of Genie Kwon and Tim Flores decided to open for dinner in late 2021.

One year later, a MICHELIN Star. In fact, Kasama is the first MICHELIN-starred Filipino restaurant in the world. It is also on the cover of this month’s Food & Wine magazine —‘The Restaurant Issue’ — featuring the best new chefs around the country. They were nominated for a James Beard Award and are on any number of restaurant ‘Best Of’ lists.

More from MICHELIN - Read: Together with Kasama

My Visit to Kasama

Apple Hand Pies filled with apple butter and brown sugar pastry cream. Photo: Jolene

I had been reading about Kasama for a while, and was particularly interested in their desserts, so on Thursday I took a ride over at around 11am. There was already a line outside for tables. It was also the day Pastry Chef JR Ryall from famed Ballymaloe House in Ireland was being hosted by Kasama as part of the tour for his beautiful book, Ballymaloe Desserts. More on that in a bit.

The minute I stepped inside, there was the pastry case. I asked if I could photograph and was told “Sure!” When I tell you it was gorgeous, it was gorgeous and my pictures don’t do these pastries justice. Everyone I met at Kasama was completely warm and welcoming.

I decided I’d take a sample of pastries home and have a little tasting party that afternoon and invite my brother and sister-in-law who own a restaurant over. We were blown away.

Genie Kwon, a pastry chef herself, oversees the pastry program and I tried the apple hand pie first. Think about the flakiest pie crust you’ve ever had — this hand pie is entirely crust-crisp, like an envelope containing the best apple butter and brown sugar pastry cream.

The October, 2022 cover of Food & Wine, The Restaurant Issue, featuring Genie Kwon of Kasama on the cover.

Next we tried the Ube & Huckleberry Basque Cake. The cake was crunchy around the edge and buttery and so flavorful on the inside, the huckleberry and Ube pastry cream sweet, smooth and a beautiful color. Flawless.

Tasting party at home. Ube & Huckleberry Basque Cake. The top is dusted with confectioners sugar to resemble the sun on the flag of the Philippines. Photo: Jolene

More photos from Kasama

Black Truffle Croissant. Perigord Black Truffles, Délice de Bourgogne Cheese and Honey. Photo: Jolene

Oatmeal Cream Pie. Dulce de Leche and Rhubarb Jam. Photo: Jolene

I’m going back on Saturday morning for breakfast. I want to try the Bistek and Eggs. And everything else. Congratulations, Genie Kwon, Tim Flores and Kasama! ❤️

Ballymaloe Desserts

Ballymaloe Desserts via JR Ryall link: Instagram

I’d been wanting to go to Kasama and when I read on their Instagram page that JR Ryall of iconic Ballymaloe House in County Cork, Ireland was going to be there with samples of some of the pastry from his debut cookbook Ballymaloe Desserts, I thought it would be the perfect day to go.

Apple Vol-au-vent; Almost Molten Chocolate Cake; Almond Tart with seedling farm raspberries. On display at Kasama. All by JR Ryall from his book Ballymaloe Desserts. Photo: Jolene

So, so good! Apple Vol-au-vent by JR Ryall from Ballymaloe Desserts. Photo: Jolene

First of all, the book is absolutely gorgeous and JR Ryall was so gracious signing book plates. And that Apple Vol-au-vent pictured above? Like a crisp cloud of pastry filled with the juiciest, sweetest apples that you’d swear were just picked off a tree.

The Almond Tart with seedling farm raspberries was by turns crisp and sweet and the raspberries were absolutely perfect.

I didn’t get to have the Almost Molten Chocolate Cake, which just means I’ll have to make it.

If you’d like to learn more about Ballymaloe Desserts, here is the link:

Ballymaloe Desserts Congratulations, JR Ryall! 🍰

jrryall

A post shared by JR Ryall (@jrryall)

Tim Flores, JR Ryall and Genie Kwon, pictured at Kasama, September 29, 2022.

Final Thoughts: On Naming Kasama

We named the restaurant Kasama because apart from my wife Genie (Kwon) and myself combining forces into running the restaurant, we also combined the concepts we wanted to do. We wanted to do Filipino food and she (Genie) wanted to do French pastries. And so Kasama meaning ‘Together’ in Tagalog made sense for us. It was just fitting and it made so much sense to use the word. — Tim Flores, May 2022, interview with MICHELIN guide

And together they’ve created one of the best restaurants in the country.

See you next week.

Jolene