Tigré pistachio cake by Hiroyuki Emori

After heading the first entremet glacé specialty restaurant in Japan as a chef, Hiroyuki Emori established his shop in Tokyo’s suburb in 2017. His small-castle-like Mason Givrée has become the landmark of the town and indispensable for the community. People made a long line (while social distancing) to buy cakes for Mother’s Day under the pandemic’s severe conditions.

In the 150 m2-shop, there are showcases for gelato, entremet glacé, cakes and tarts and one for colorful Tigre cakes. Baked goods arranged in fancy boxes are essential for pastry shops in Japan, with a long history of gift-giving custom. Emori thought Tigre cakes should be one of the signature items for the shop. And these tigré cakes are the protagonist of a full, step by step piece in so good #25, from which we are now showcasing his pistachio tigré cake.

‘Tigre cake is a savarin-shaped financier with chocolate chips (that remind you of a tiger’s spotted skin) and ganache-filled hollows. But if you add various flavors to the batter and ganache, you can make as many variations as you can imagine.’

Text: Reiko Matsuno
Photographies: Haruko Amagata

Six different Tigre cakes are always available in the showcase, replaced by seasonal flavors throughout the year. There are more than 30 varieties and new varieties are continuously born. ‘If I count varieties in my mind, the number would be more than 50. I started this cake from the beginning but offered only the basic Tigre because I wanted customers to get acquainted with the cake first. It was not very popular here yet. I didn’t want to force my favorite onto customers. By offering varieties little by little, I could wait and see their response.’

The popularity of his Tigre cakes grew as expected, and now his staff make it almost every day, at least 1,000. Everyone in the kitchen was busy baking and piping ganache onto the cakes on the day we visited. Tigre cake’s recipe is very simple, so attention must be paid to selecting ingredients and carrying out the processes. Carpigiani’s Turbomix helps to emulsify the mass of ganache very much. He prefers metal molds when it comes to baking golden brown Tigre cakes.

He is good at cross-functioning ingredients among gelato, cake and baked goods. In the gelato showcase on that day there was Tigre gelato. ‘The gelato needs more improvement definitely, and it’s too early for customers to understand. In my mind, Opera or Forêt Noir Tigre cakes have been almost perfected, but they will be out in the shop sometime later. No need to rush. I want to proceed step by step with the people in the community.

Text by Reiko Matsuno
Photos by Haruko Magata