Pastry Chef Clarice Lam Releases Debut Cookbook, 'Breaking Bao'

Editor's Note:  "Breaking Bao" is a cookbook that has 88 creative and delicious recipes focusing on Asian ingredients and techniques.  It's an ideal book for the upcoming season to make delightful items for your for family and friends.  It is also a great gift.  Some of our favorites include the Spiral Cherry Puffs, Vietnamese Coffee Viennetta and Kabocha Galette. Our readers will like that the recipes are foolproff and easy to follow.

Acclaimed Asian-American pastry chef who was previously of James Beard Award-nominated Japanese-Italian restaurant Kimika, and television personality Clarice Lam recently released her debut cookbook Breaking Bao: 88 Bakes and Snacks from Asia and Beyond on Chronicle Books for $40. A love letter to Asian-American baking and snacks, the book's 88 recipes are rooted in Clarice’s personal journey of self-discovery and the transformative power of embracing one’s heritage. The unexpected and whimsical recipes offer an inventive perspective on baking with Asian flavors and ingredients, highlighting sweet and savory bao, cakes and desserts, and snacks. 

Clarice grew up between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Throughout her travels at a young age, tasting food from cultures around the world was always her favorite part about visiting new places - everywhere from the local street markets and convenience stores with snacks galore, to more formal, elevated dining experiences. After graduating high school in California, Clarice pursued a career in modeling which led her to travel internationally for over a decade - she lived everywhere from Paris and London, to Mexico, Ibiza, and the Philippines. During this formative decade, Clarice became hyper-focused on her ethnicity and heritage, as she was constantly defined by her looks and often the only Asian model in the room. A reflective time for her, she began to use food as a way to bridge cultural gaps between new friends and explore the cities and cuisines she found herself exposed to. 

After returning to the U.S., Clarice pivoted careers and went to culinary school, on a mission to further explore her fascination with international food culture. She graduated from The French Culinary Institute with a pastry arts degree, and subsequently spent years working at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market, The Chocolate Room in Brooklyn, before founding her own company, The Baking Bean, a direct-to-consumer bakery specializing in all-natural, seasonal desserts and confections. In 2020, Clarice opened the acclaimed Japanese-Italian restaurant Kimika as pastry chef, which garnered accolades such as Food & Wine’s Best Bites of 2021, and was a James Beard Foundation Award semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant. 

Clarice has vast television experience, having appeared on multiple TV shows including Food Network’s Sweet Genius, Beat Bobby Flay, Best Baker in America where she was a semi-finalist, and she most recently as a judge on The Dr. Seuss Baking Challenge on Prime Video. 

Breaking Bao features 88 inventive recipes that highlight popular Asian ingredients. Clarice makes the unfamiliar, familiar, bringing flavors from around the world to readers in a whimsical and creative way. Breaking Bao is divided into three chapters, with the largest solely dedicated to Bao which in Chinese can mean bun and also the act of wrapping something. Clarice’s playful Bao chapter sets the scene for the remainder of the book, which dives into Cakes & Desserts, and Snacks - an ode to the munchies she tasted during her worldly travels. Recipes include:

• Bao: Everything from Steamed and baked breads, deep-fried treasures and laminated parcels, to donuts and French toast. Recipes include Gochujang Pizza Rolls; Kimchi & Corn Cheese Pan-Fried Mochi; Breakfast Crystal Bao with Chinese Bacon, Egg & Chive Filling; Sweet Corn Custard Bao; Mantou Donuts with Condensed Milk Glaze and Matcha; Mama Lam’s Coconut Croissants; and Vietnamese Cinnamon-Raisin Babka

• Cakes & Desserts: Large-format cakes and show-stopping desserts with recipes such as Pandan-Lime Meringue Pie; Mango-Yakult Tres Leches Cake; Honey-Yuzu Caked Alaska; and Passion Fruit Mille Feuille

• Snacks: An ode to munchies from around the world ranging from savory snacks to cookies and confections. Recipes include Ramen Cheese Itz; Fig and Marzipan Mooncakes; Black & White Mochi Munchkins; Ferrero Mochi Bomboloncini; and Gochujang-Furikake Caramel Popcorn

For more information, please visit https://claricelam.com and follow Clarice @chefclaricelam. 

Photo Credit: Evan Sung