Developing
the taste of a long-established store together with our customers
BAKE’s freshly
baked cheese tarts have their origins in Kinotoya, a long-established Western
confectionery store in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Our tarts started out as delectable
chilled blueberry cheese tarts.
How did they
originate in Hokkaido?
Shintaro
Naganuma, the BAKE representative who is expanding the sale of BAKE cheese
tarts into Tokyo, is the eldest son of Kinotoya president Akio Naganuma.
From the time
he was a child, Shintaro felt committed to the idea of carrying on the family
business, Kinotoya. He joined the company at age 24. Sales needed to be built
up again, and Shintaro was made manager of the New Chitose Airport branch. He
was not able to come up with any particular solution to the problem, however. A
long-time fan of the company’s chilled blueberry cheese tarts, all he managed
to do was single these out from all the other cakes displayed each day and
recommend them to his customers. One day, while taking part in a particular
event, however, Kinotoya sold its cheese tarts unchilled. The staff simply
lined up the baking trays with the freshly baked tarts on top and sold them to
customers just as they were. Lo and behold, a queue suddenly formed.
Only freshly
baked tarts have a combined crunchy and fluffy texture and a cheese aroma that
wafts out from them. Looking at the smiles on customers’ faces as they ate the
tarts, Shintaro felt certain that he had hit on the solution to their problem.
Thinking back,
he recalled a comment by the pastry chefs who made the cheese tarts: “You seem
determined to sell them chilled in the stores, but they actually taste the best
when they are freshly baked.”
Shintaro
realized that it would be a good idea to combine the shop and pastry kitchen
into one. He immediately remodeled the New Chitose Airport branch where he was
shop manager, installing ovens and racks to line up the baking trays, and
started to sell freshly baked tarts instead of the old chilled versions.
In the quest
for the perfect taste, they tested recipe after recipe, and also asked
customers visiting the store to sample their experiments and share their
impressions, thereby gradually improving the product.
To enable
customers to tuck into their freshly baked tarts straight away, Shintaro and
his staff made the tarts a smaller size that could be eaten all at once. Not
everyone likes blueberries, so they removed the blueberries from the top to
make the tarts even more widel hanged the way that they bake the pastry—baking
it twice, slowly and carefully. This gave the pastry its delightful texture.
Through all of this trial and error, they arrived at the freshly baked cheese
tarts that we enjoy today.
Commencing with
Kinotoya’s New Chitose Airport store, the company opened freshly baked cheese
tart specialty stores in Sapporo.
Thinking that
he would love to have more people enjoying these delectable cheese tarts,
Shintaro based himself in Tokyo and launched BAKE Co., Ltd.
Akio Naganuma,
the president of Kinotoya, felt strongly that he would like to create a Western
confectionery store in Hokkaido that is loved by the locals. Even so, father
and son share the same passion: the quest for delicious cakes. So they started
on the journey of creating individual identities as individual companies.
Currently, BAKE
cheese tarts are available in Osaka, Fukuoka, and even Hong Kong.
But we feel
that we can make BAKE tarts even more delicious. We feel that we can work even
harder in the quest to create the most delicious cheese tart that you will ever
eat.
With the
feedback of everyone who loves cheese tarts, we at BAKE look forward to continuing to produce delicious cheese
tarts.
THE BEST CHEESE TART EVER IN YOUR LIFE
forward to continuing to produce delicious cheese tarts.
