Taiwanese baker Eric Hsu won first place in a king cake (galette des rois) competition in the French department of Alpes-Maritimes.
Earlier this month, he won the department’s first-ever king cake competition, organized by the Federation des Maitres Boulangers et Boulangers-Patissiers des Alpes-Maritimes (Federation of Master Bakers and Bakers-Pastry Chefs of the Alpes-Maritimes), and was subsequently labeled the “king of king cake” by local media.
Hsu said in a media interview on Wednesday that he did not think it would be possible for him to triumph, as king cake is a culturally French dish and he is from overseas.
Photo courtesy of Eric Hsu
“I feel very happy and proud to have been awarded first place,” he said.
Hailing from Toufen in Miaoli County, Hsu traveled to Paris in 1998 to visit his brother who was running a bakery in Paris, and subsequently decided to stay and learn the art of breadmaking from him.
He then started working in different bakeries in 2000 before opening up his own business in Toulon, France, in 2008.
He returned to Taiwan in 2014 and stayed until last year, opening four bakeries in Taipei, writing three baking cookbooks and even doing a bit of culinary teaching. After returning to France, he opened “Emotion Bakery” in the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer in Alpes-Maritimes.
Being immersed in two cultures is an asset, Hsu said.
“In Asia, the product needs to look perfect, so bakers tend to add decorative patterns to the cake, while in France the taste and filling are the most important,” he said. “I applied some Asian techniques, which caught the jury’s attention.”
Hsu said he attached just as much importance to the ingredients used, choosing “appellation of origin” butter and bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar, instead of vanilla extract.
King cake is a traditional French pastry with a frangipane filling, associated with the Epiphany in Catholicism and celebrated each Jan. 6.
Hsu’s win prompted long queues outside Emotion Bakery on Tuesday, the day his king cakes went on sale. “I baked cakes till 4am, but I am so happy. This award means a lot to me.”
Congratulations poured in from across the town, including from the mayor, who invited him to a New Year’s banquet, Hsu said.
Hsu is set to represent Alpes-Maritimes in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur regional competition and hopes to advance to the national competition.
Hsu also adds an Asian touch to other creations in his bakery, including his tea-flavored chiffon cake roll, milk bread and sea salt butter rolls.
“I am influenced by Taiwanese and French culture, and my work reflects what I’ve learned from both,” he said.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
RSS