Chef Chen Yao-hsun on the Fundamentals of Baking
Any baker can attest that bread making is a science. To do it well requires a certain amount of patience, knowledge and experience. One also needs the ingenuity and creativity to try out different methods and ingredients. Chen Yao-hsun is someone who clearly has those attributes down to a pat, having baked his way to owning his own bakery, LePain in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and claiming several top culinary accolades along the way, including the special prize of Levain Bread, at the biennial Mondial du Pain (World of Bread).
“Each prize has special meaning to me” says Chef Chen. “Champion of World of Bread is an international recognition not only for my 20 years in the industry but also for Taiwanese ingredients and baking techniques”* .* More importantly, the awards also recognises technical heritage, which is an element that Chef Chen has diligently passed on to his team and to us as he shares his expertise in baking top-quality bread.
Around 60% of our products use dairy. It’s no secret that the flavour of butter affects the bread’s taste. Good butter should be easy to melt in the mouth and have a stable quality without creating an oily taste to the bread after storage. When you use margarine or bad quality butter, the flavour and the quality is just not as good.
Chen Yao-hsun, head chef and owner of LePain, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The Arla Products Chef Chen Enjoys Using
Chef Chen has been working with a wide variety of Arla products, such as Arla Cream Cheese, and has applied them quite successfully in his recipes. He specifically uses Lurpak Unsalted Butter in the Queen Brioche, one of his most popular creations. "As Brioche contains more than 50% butter, it is essential to remember that the key flavour comes from butter" he explains.
