Eclaire Jardinage by Ryosuke Sugamata

Text: Reiko Matsuno
Photos: Noriko Carlow

Ryosuke Sugamata was a competent pastry chef at Deux Patisserie when he showed a reconstructed crème caramel in previous so good #10 and he now owns his pastry shop in Yoga, Tokyo that he made his dream come true at last in 2015. With the experience as a sous chef at Pierre Hermé Salon de Thé in Japan and the fame as a master of macaron, one of his specialties sitting in the brightly-lit showcase is macaron, naturally. He even transforms the fragile delicacy from France into individual cakes with seasonal ingredients. When looking into the showcase at Ryoura, it is as if the smell of fresh fruits decorating his cakes that break through the glass to your nose.

Pastry chefs, especially in Japan, are very serious about seasons and seasonal ingredients, but Sugamata says, “I’ve tried not to stick with seasons too much, recently.” He doesn’t mean that a sense of the season is no longer important for him. “Seasonal fruits such as strawberry in spring or citrus in summer remind you in what season you are now in visually, but I want people to associate my cakes with more than one season. Pear and caramel, for example, are more like an autumn combination, but if I add lychee and passion fruit to it, the cake will be able to remind you of summer, too.”

Many chefs think that using more than three main ingredients in a cake is likely to mask their pure tastes, but he doesn’t think so. “I like to achieve the taste I want by layering various tastes and flavors of ingredients. There should be supporting roles to highlight the leading role. Take sashimi for example. Sashimi is eaten with a small amount of wasabi to mask its fishy smell. I mean, adding something can deduct something you don’t need. That’s the way I invent combinations of ingredients.

Tayberry is one of his most favorite ingredients. He found it in France three years ago and its rose-like, flavorful tea-like smell lit his creative fire. It goes well with various ingredients, he thinks. “Coconut is one of the best partners, but I don’t like to cloud the pure taste of tayberry, so I often make it jelly or jam when combining with other ingredients.” He creates “eclairs of the season” through the year and the Eclaire Jardinage with tayberry is the taste of this spring. From winter to spring, every pastry chef fills his/her showcase with cakes with strawberries because Japanese adore it. The standard strawberry tactic is simply layering sponge, whipped cream and strawberries because strawberry here tastes best without any tricks. It seems that is why sophisticated strawberry cakes are not around.

‘Seasonal fruits such as strawberry in spring or citrus in summer remind you what season you are in now visually, but I want people to associate my cakes with more than one season.’’

When you see Eclaire Jardinage, your eyes would transmit such data to your brain that these cakes are pink in color and pink means usual strawberry flavor. But your tongue will be thrilled with unexpected joy. Eclaire Jardinage has some tangy berry flavors and a luscious texture and the rich taste of pistachio cream. With his unique combination, and a superb sense of proportion of ingredients, the taste of his cakes always betrays the appearance in a good sense even though each ingredient is familiar.

When it comes to the designs of the cakes, he is almost fussy about straight lines and curved lines. “Look at Eclaire Jardinage, and the line of Mousse Tayberry and whipped pistachio cream above it. I wanted to make a good contrast of line and whirls”.