Japanese-French pastries
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1618 N 45th St Wallingford
(inside Issian restaurant)
206 / 816-0348 website
-English and Japanese spoken
-seasonal specials
-order ahead online or by phone
Interview with owner, Setsuko Agata
"My name is Setsuko Agata, I am owner of Setsuko Pastry.
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| green tea roll cake with whipped cream and red bean paste |
"I started 3 years ago my business; I got a pastry license in Japan, Osaka. In Japan we need to go to school two years at least, and then we study french pastry, and bread, and wagashi: three kinds of different sweets. And after graduate school we need to take, it's a national license examination to a pastry chef."
Back when she was working in Japan, Setsuko's pastries were much more French:
"Then after moving here, so people asking me to make more Japanese style, like using green tea, or like mochi, or red beans. So like wagashi--Japanese traditional sweets--but also French style too. So I like this combination. Seattle these days, people getting to know about green tea and also sweet red beans too, so I'm so lucky to explain to people easily about my pastries."
"There is a lot ideas already, so I don't need to be scared of doing something different anymore."
Today most of Setsuko's products are a combination of French and Japanese techniques and ingredients. For example, her version of the French pastry Mont Blanc combines the usual chestnut paste with red beans and whipped cream.
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| daifuku-style macaron with mochi rice dough and red bean paste |
"Macaron is just started right now, but this is very special. Normally macaron has buttercream between but my style is daifuku: mochi and homemade red beans without any cream.
"My recipe is everything less sugar and not too sweet, and from everything scratch. I'm always using seasonal ingredients. So I can recommend to people to eat, just enjoy my sweets, not worry about to take too much sugar.
"My signature is green tea roll cake. This is of course popular, it's most popular stuff. People always asking me about this so I'm trying to have everyday but sometimes it's sold out so it's hard to catch up sometimes. So if you want to, exact day, for this roll cake, I need to know two days in advance."
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| seasonal special: raspberry mochi with a preserved cherry blossom |
"My style is taking orders in advance, two days or three days, but some people don't know about it yet. Just people come in to talk about what they want, and if it's available I can give it to them. But if I don't have it, then they're going to leave their order and they're going to pick it up later."
Setsuko also teaches her style of baking at locations including Nikkei Horizons, a Japanese cultural center.
"Sometimes I'm doing the family baking class. People bring their kids or sometimes grandchildren. We can do baking like anpan [a sweet bread containing anko, sweetened red bean paste] or melonpan [another sweet bread] together. So it's very fun.
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| green tea cheesecake |
"One more location is Wallingford at Issian restaurant. This is my kitchen location. I'm doing the baking class and teaching Japanese bread or sometimes healthy vegan cupcake. If you have more than 4 people, with your friends or family or whoever I can teach you as a private lesson too.
"Most of time I’m always in Issian restaurant, during the daytime. So just come into the restaurant to have a conversation with me, just to enjoy. We can talk about sweets!"
