Pastries Born in France, Raised in South Korea (2024)

At first glance, Tous Les Jours's outpost in Flushing, Queens looks like just another charming bakery, with its pale green walls, refrigerated pastry cases brimming with an assortment of cakes, signage that reads "boulangerie," and rows of wooden tables displaying an assortment of breads and other baked goods. A quick look around the space reveals piles of baguettes, canelés, and croissants.

But upon further inspection, small differences begin to reveal themselves — bread loaves are drizzled with condensed milk, buns are stuffed with red bean-flavored fillings, and dough is baked around hot dogs. That's because Tous Les Jours has its roots in both South Korea and France.

"There are well over 30 items, and they are all baked in-store fresh daily," says Mi Young Lee, the East Coast manager for South Korea-based bakery chain. At one of the bakery's 1,500 global locations, visitors will find everything from light sponge cakes to pain du chocolat, many of which resemble items found in a French bakery. However, most items also feature Asian flavors — namely Korean and Japanese — fused with Western baking techniques. The result is a fascinating array of pastries, both sweet and savory, that appeal to both Eastern and Western palates.

"Only a few people knew about French baked goods back then, in the 1970s and 1980s, with a few small bakeries making the products in the country."

The concept of the "French-Asian" bakery chain first came about in 1988, when Hur Young-in opened the first Paris Baguette in South Korea, says Jessie Sou, the chain's marketing director. Similar to its competitor Tous Les Jours, Paris Baguette, the largest bakery chain of its type with more than 3,000 locations in South Korea alone, also specializes in goods that mix Korean, Japanese, and French baking styles. (The idea proved lucrative for Young-In, who ranked #24 on Forbes' 2015 list of Korea's richest people; he's worth $1.4 billion.)

Unlike in Vietnam — where French colonization from the 18th century until 1954 led to the deep integration of French dishes into Vietnamese cuisine — Korea remained relatively untouched by French colonizers, and thus foods from France were completely foreign. According to Michael J. Pettid, a professor at Binghamton University and author of Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History, baked goods were pretty much nonexistent in Korean cuisine until recently. "Traditionally, Koreans didn't eat bread like in the West," he says. "They did have some types of steamed breads — often made from a mix of rice flour and wheat — but these were introduced from Central Asia in the 13th century and not really a regular meal item."

Young-In and Tous Les Jours's founders thus helped usher in major shift in how Koreans ate, says Paris Baguette's Sou. "In Korea, dishes are typically made from rice, noodles, and soup," Sou says. "We brought bread and croissants to their breakfasts, changing the format of the morning meal." The trend was helped along by American fast-food chains, notes Pettid, which introduced foreign items like pizza and burgers. Eventually, younger populations in large cities started seeking out coffee shops and bakeries. "We helped Korean people to comfortably accept French baked goods," Sou says. "We introduced the croissant to Korea, and made it mainstream. Only a few people knew about French baked goods back then, in the 1970s and 1980s, with a few small bakeries making the products in the country."

These days, Paris Baguette is ubiquitous in Korea, similar to McDonald's presence in the United States. "Paris Baguette for Koreans — especially those born in the 1970s — it's a very nostalgic brand. They grew up with Paris Baguette, everyone knows Paris Baguette." That's why when the bakery made the leap to the United States in 2005, it opened its first location in Los Angeles, where there's a large community of Korean immigrants. The brand now has 45 American locations, as well as outposts in China, Singapore, Vietnam — and as of last year, Paris, of all places.

In the process of adapting French goods for the Korean palate, Paris Baguette and its competitors started introducing treats that harness flavors like red bean, green tea, and sesame. "Some of the items are quite unlike what one might expect to find in a bakery in the West," Pettid says. "Like they always have done in the past in terms of introduced cultures, Koreans modify that to match their own tastes." Other goods are an amalgam of French dishes, but with a subtle twist. For example, Tous Les Jours' croque monsieur features béchamel and ham like the French classic, but it's served on milk bread, a light and fluffy white bread widely popular in Japan.

Other notable items include various riffs on buns — which are popular in Japanese and Korean cuisines — but instead of being steamed, they'e made from a variety of pastry doughs, stuffed creams, and custards that are the building blocks of French baking guides. Also popular are pastries that fuse savory items (like hot dogs and cheese) with sweet ingredients (like condensed milk and honey). Lee says that while many of these flavor combinations are popular in Asia, they come as a surprise to many American customers. Sou explains that only a few items sold in these bakeries are replicas of what a diner would find in France. In general, Sou characterizes Asian-French baked goods as being "less sweet and less greasy, but fluffier."

Not familiar with the chains? Eater sat down with Peterjae Choi, the kitchen manager and head pastry chef at Tous Les Jours' location in Queens, New York, to learn about six of the shop's most popular baked goods:

Whipped Cream Pan Bread / Milk Bread

Fluffy and incredibly soft (think softer than Wonder Bread), the whipped cream pan bread — which is similar to a Pullman loaf — is a riff on a Japanese milk bread. The process involves making a tangzhong, which translates to "water roux." Flour and milk are cooked, similar to how a choux dough is made. It's then mixed in with the rest of ingredients, which can include eggs, butter, sugar, and whipping cream, the latter of which Choi notes makes the bread "extra soft." The dough is then baked in a square pan and cut into thick slices. The bread is much richer than the Pullman loaf it resembles thanks to the eggs and butter.

Not only is the bread sold as loaves in the bakeries, but it's also offered in many bakeries as "honey toast." Popular in Japan and Korea, honey toast is frequently topped with ice cream, fruit, and a variety of sauces. Tous Les Jours sells a version that requires no silverware: A thick slice of milk bread is scored into a four-by-four grid of squares and then brushed with a mixture of condensed milk, sugar, butter, whipping cream, and of course, honey. The bread is then toasted in an oven until the mixture caramelizes, creating a golden, crunchy, and sweet crust.

Twin Egg Bread

A riff on a Korean street food gyeran bbang, per Choi, the Twin Egg Bread is a savory item that rings true to its name. It's made from a pain de mie (a sweetened bread) dough, which is rolled out, shaped into an oval, and then layered with ham ("from a store similar to Costco") and two hardboiled eggs. The dough is then folded over itself and cut in half to form two pastries with visible egg yolks. The pastry is then baked, drizzled with garlic sauce, and sprinkled with parsley for a touch of healthy green. According to Choi, it's a popular breakfast choice.

Twisted Doughnuts

While it does feature a yeasted dough, the "Twist Twist" — which is known as kkwabaegi in Korean — is much lighter and fluffier than a typical American-style raised doughnut. The "Asian-style doughnut" is only lightly sweetened, made with melted butter, always twisted, and is fried in corn oil, notes Choi. When it is pulled from the frier, it is immediately placed in a container of cinnamon and sugar which is shaken to coat the doughnut. While Americans often eat the doughnuts at breakfast, Choi says that in Korea they are frequently an after-school snack for students, and many visitors to Tous Les Jours purchase them in the afternoon.

Soboro Pastry

Soboro is a Korean streusel that's a popular topping for many baked goods. It has the usual elements of a streusel — flour, butter, and sugar — but most importantly, it also has peanut butter. The base of the soboro pastry, which is a style of bun, is made from a laminated Danish pastry dough, Choi says. It is rolled out, shaped, and then topped with streusel before being baked off. Once baked, it is filled with a classic creme patisserie and dusted with confectioner's sugar. The result is a soft bun with a creamy center and a slight peanut flavor.

Another streusel-based riff: the crispy cream cheese bread, which shares a number of similarities with the soboro bun, including its shape and base dough. However, instead of a peanut butter-spiked streusel, it gets a double dose of cream cheese: The bun comes topped with a chunk of streusel made with cream cheese; and the dough is also folded around a slab of sweetened cream cheese before it is baked. "Koreans really love cream cheese," notes Sou.

Custard Bun

Like milk bread, the custard bun finds its origins in Japan, where it's known as a "cream pan." Fluffy white bread dough — made with a tangzhong — is rolled out and wrapped around a filling of thick, sweet, and eggy custard cream. The buns are then shaped, proofed, and brushed with an egg wash before being baked until golden brown. This bun gets no streusel topping, though it is often decorated with a few sliced almonds.

Hot Dog Pastry

This is just one of several pastries that are stuffed with an American favorite — hot dogs. The sausages were first introduced to Korea through U.S. Army bases during the Korean War. Since then, Korea has utilized hot dogs in ways that go beyond the bun, such as serving them in a stew (budae jigae), encrusting them with french fries, and wrapping them in pastry.

Essentially, the hot dog pastry is a play on a hot dog in a bun, except everything is one self-contained unit. A pain de mie dough is rolled, stretched, and layered with hot dog pieces. The savory item is then shaped and topped with a squeeze of mayonnaise and diced onions before it is baked. When it's golden brown, it's removed from the oven and drizzled with ketchup and flecks of parsley. Unlike in America, where the "hot dog is reserved for special occasions like a baseball game or barbecue," says Sou, Koreans love snacking on the meaty pastries on a daily basis. "They are like a complete meal, with protein and carbohydrates all in one."