Sweet Tooth Alert: Howard Plaza Hotel Harbor Restaurant Invites Renowned Japanese Chef for 12 Delicious Desserts

▲ Howard Plaza Hotel Harbor Restaurant has invited popular Tokyo-based pastry chef Ryohei Sugamata to be the guest chef from June 8 to June 30, presenting 12 classic Western-style pastries.

Reported and photographed by Huang Shiyuan, Taipei

While Howard Plaza Hotel Harbor Restaurant is known for its abundant seafood cuisine, it's not just the seafood that’s worth trying. The restaurant invites a master Japanese pastry chef every year, and this time, popular Tokyo-based pastry chef Ryohei Sugamata will be the guest chef from June 8 to June 30, presenting 12 classic Western-style pastries (洋果子), each priced between 240 and 1,850 Japanese yen in his Japanese stores. So, enjoying 7 or 8 different items means you're having desserts worth more than 5,000 yen (about NT$1,400).


▲ Financier.


▲ Macaron.

Among these 12 classic Western-style pastries, the vanilla macaron, financier, and velvet cake are bestsellers at Sugamata’s shop in Japan. However, Sugamata says that after coming to Taiwan, he believes the Redcurrant Princess is the most delicious of the 12 desserts because fresh lychee chunks can be used here—something that was only available canned in Japan.


▲ Velvet Cake.

Sugamata comes from a family of pastry chefs and has studied in various regions of France. He once served as sous-chef at a branch under the “Pastry God” Pierre Hermé. He excels at combining seasonal fruits and nuts to create multi-layered flavors, with deep knowledge of ingredient characteristics. This time in Taiwan, he focuses on summer fruits such as juicy Golden Diamond pineapples, Ataulfo mangoes, Puli passion fruit, and grapefruits, pairing their refreshing aromas with the fragrant Sicilian pistachios to create tempting treats like mousse cups, financiers, and pound cakes.