Fruits like kiwis and mangoes are central to the success of the light, airy fruit cake. — Kotsu Kotsu
Over 10 years after starting his first restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, serial F&B entrepreneur Kota Furuya has stealthily carved out a small but burgeoning Japanese culinary empire in the city.Furuya is known for a string of Japanese restaurants like ramen eatery Minamo, yakiniku restaurant Kyomo and yakitori restaurant Itsumo, to name a few.
Just last week, his empire expanded yet again with the introduction of his first-ever Japanese patisserie, Kotsu Kotsu.
“Actually, this was meant to be our first project concept in Malaysia. But in the end, it came down to a choice between a yakitori restaurant and Japanese dessert, and we ended up doing yakitori. It is only now that we felt that it was the right time to launch this project because we wanted to create a market for Japanese cakes in Malaysia,” says Furuya.
In Japan, there is a culture of giving souvenirs – called “omiyage”. It is common there to bring something sweet when visiting people’s homes, so Furuya hopes to encourage both the consumption as well as the culture that surrounds Japanese cakes with his maiden cake house.
The eatery has a sprawling glass display that offers a bird's eye view of the sweet temptations on offer. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
To put together Kotsu Kotsu, Furuya spent a year looking for the perfect pastry chef in Japan.
“I had to find a good chef because the cake is very hard to import. If you want to do a fluffy Japanese sponge cake, you have to make it here – you can’t get the frozen sponge, because the texture is very different,” says Furuya.
Furuya eventually hired Japanese Muslim chef Sho Sasaki who has over 10 years’ experience in Michelin-starred restaurants in France and five-star hotels in Japan. Rounding out this all-star Japanese pastry team is chef Rina Fukuda, a Japanese roll cake artisan who has worked with master pastry chefs in Japan.
Before the restaurant even came together, Furuya says the chefs spent 300 days adapting their recipes to local ingredients and temperatures, going through 1,000 trials before eventually coming to a point of satisfaction.
“The milk is different here, the eggs are different – everything is different so our recipe in Japan had to be reworked here,” explains Furuya.
Sasaki (left) and Fukuda are the Japanese pastry chefs behind Kotsu Kotsu's range of house-made sponge cakes and roll cakes. — Kotsu Kotsu
Once the recipe was perfected, the eatery itself came together relatively quickly. The space is bright and harnessed by a huge glassed cake display area. At the back is a large kitchen where pastry chefs work in unison to churn out even more Japanese cakes.
Central to the success of this venture is the RM360,000 Japanese-made Backen oven imported from Japan, which is designed to help retain moisture in the series of Japanese sponge cakes available at the eatery.
Japanese sponge cakes are different from their Western brethren in that they are often lighter, airier and less rich with more layers sandwiched into a single cake. Both Japanese roll cakes and sponge cakes are often also made and sold on the same day, as they don’t keep well.
To ensure total freshness at Kotsu Kotsu, the chefs start preparing the cakes at 6am every day, with roll cakes baked twice a day, as they have a shelf life of only eight hours.
At the moment, the restaurant serves eight different kinds of Japanese sponge cakes and roll cakes, but new cakes will be introduced every three months.
Soybean is a key figure in the hugely rewarding kinako roll. — Kotsu Kotsu
From what’s on offer, definitely start with the Kinako (RM15.52 for a slice). The roll cake is filled with roasted soybean, roasted soybean sponge, cream, mochi and a surprising layer of brown sugar jelly.
Be prepared for elegant yet understated flavours as opposed to the more overt, robust flavours so prevalent in local iterations of roll cakes. Here, the roasted soybean sponge is the light yet sturdy backbone of this contraption and it holds its shape well while still yielding to an airy interior.
The flavours here are unusual – the soybean has an earthy rusticity and this is juxtaposed against the buoyancy of the mochi and the sweetness of the sugar jelly in what proves to be a gratifying start.
Move on to the charms of the Cheese Cake (RM22.52 a slice). The cake is filled with two kinds of cheese sponge and is a cheesy charmer that also stays clear of doing too much and making you feel sick in the process.
The restaurant's cheese cake has just enough cheese to tantalise without going overboard. — Kotsu Kotsu
As a consequence, this sweet treat has cheesy connotations that are just enough to keep you wanting more without giving you that dreaded cloying feel towards the end.
Up next, try the riotously coloured Fruit Cake (RM28.52 a slice). The cake is made up of whipped cream, classic sponge, orange, raspberry, kiwi and mango. The success of this cake is built on the many, many layers of cream and sponge wedged together and infused with slices of fruit. Overall, you’ll enjoy the lightness of the sponge, the cream slathered between and the bursts of fruitiness that come through with each mouthful.
If you’re riding the pistachio popularity train at the moment, then you’ll really enjoy the Pistachio Cake (RM28.52). The cake is a densely packed layered ladder of components like sponge with almond fillings, raspberry jelly, coarsely ground pistachio paste, finely ground pistachio paste, chocolate spray and whipped cream.
Pistachio is a covert operator in this elegant offering. — Kotsu Kotsu
End your sweet sojourn at Kotsu Kotsu with a traditional Chocolate Cake (RM28.52 a slice). The cake is laced with fresh strawberries, homemade chocolate flakes, strawberry mousse and chocolate sponge.
In keeping with Japanese cake traditions, this is a light, floaty affair with chocolatey flavours that are subtle and nuanced as opposed to omnipresent. If you’re a fan of rich, gooey, hedonistic chocolate cakes, this is probably not for you. If – on the other hand – you’re looking for something simpler and less filling with just a hint of chocolate – this will do very, very nicely.
Moving forward, Furuya says he hopes to make his current space a pastry production centre. Eventually, his goal is to set up small shops throughout the city.
“If I have the chance, I will introduce Kotsu Kotsu in other places – like maybe office buildings,” he says.
