Diner’s Diary | More matcha treats coming at social enterprise iBakery thanks to chef’s help

A Hong Kong social enterprise that hires mentally disabled people to make baked goods will have some tempting new matcha-flavoured items in its stores soon with the help of a Japanese pastry chef.

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Yusada Shunji of the Hyatt Regency Kyoto was in Hong Kong this week to show iBakery staff how to make matcha roll cake, hojicha pound cake and matcha biscotti at their Kennedy Town outlet.

Yusada first helped the enterprise, which is backed by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, two years ago by showing them how to make matcha cookies, which were a big hit, followed by matcha pound cakes last year.

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He admits that at first he wasn’t sure what to expect teaching people who are not trained chefs and are mentally disabled.

“It was my first time teaching people overseas the skills and knowledge to make the cookies. But I was so surprised to find they are so friendly, happy, even though for me I found it stressful and intense to teach them,” Yasuda explained through a translator.

“It isn’t difficult to teach people at different levels. There are some challenges because of the language and sometimes I don’t have a translator with me,” he continues. “Attention to detail might be hard to explain, but on the whole it’s not a problem. What I’m teaching is not complicated, and simple to do and communicate, so it’s easy for us to understand each other. I don’t compromise when it comes to taste or flavour.”

With the matcha tea cookies having sold so well, Yasuda is pleased to help iBakery.