First look at Loulouca, the new dessert cafe by award-winning former Odette pastry chef Louisa Lim
Lim’s new food venture opens on Jul 29 at Ann Siang Hill, and will offer plated desserts a la carte in the evenings, and entremets for dine-in and takeaway in the daytime.
Dessert parlour Loulouca is pastry chef Louisa Lim’s first solo venture. (Photo: Loulouca)
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Three-Michelin-starred Odette’s former pastry chef Louisa Lim, who was named Asia’s Best Pastry Chef 2023, is striking out on her own with a dessert parlour at Ann Siang Hill, opening Jul 29.
The 34-year-old, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu Paris and also worked in Japan, is known for her light, elegant and feminine desserts – which is why she’s chosen a trio of feathery egrets for Loulouca’s emblem.
While fine dining restaurants have shaped her trajectory, she now wants to put the dessert course front and centre, instead of at the end of a multi-course meal. So, she’s created an intimate space in an Ann Siang shophouse where “dessert is the main event”.
Stepping into Loulouca, you’re greeted by a display of entremets for dine-in and takeaway (whole tarts or cakes should be ordered two days in advance), as well as a coffee bar where you can also get small-batch ice cream in sobacha, Earl Grey and pistachio flavours.
You then pass through into the dining room, where you have a view into the kitchen and of the chefs at work. Plated desserts are served here in the evenings, and can be paired with wines, non-alcoholic wines, teas and coffees.
What Lim offers is what she’d personally want in a dining experience. “I don’t really see more elevated dessert concepts with not omakase but just a la carte menu options,” she mused. “Many would say it’s daring to do an all-sweets concept, but that is the only thing I know how to do!”
Lim credits her seven years at Odette, during which the restaurant went from having two Michelin stars to three, with teaching her “rigour, attention to detail and how to take care of every single aspect of hospitality”. “My style also developed – I grew with the brand, as well. I have been privileged to be able to spend a good seven years there, and I’ve brought that knowledge into this concept.”
Now, it’s about indulging the desire she’s always had: To “make desserts the experience instead of part of the experience”.
“I wanted to do it because if not now, then, when? If I wait any longer, I might not have the energy to do it, and the courage to do it, actually. If I never try, I’ll never know. And if I try and fail, at least, I think I’ll be at peace with the outcome,” she demurred.
While her time at Odette honed her expertise in French pastry techniques, one thing she’s always wanted to do is to “tap into the more Asian part of me”, including her Singaporean side, she told us.
For example, there’s a kaya, matcha and pistachio creation, which she calls a cross between a Paris-Brest and a Mont Blanc. The kaya is handmade from scratch using fresh pandan leaves. “I care about every single ingredient that goes into my pastries, to the extent where I even make my own pralines and nut butters,” she shared.
Another cake, the Cacao, is her take on the chocolate cakes of her memory. “As Singaporeans, we grew up with Lana cakes and decadent chocolate cakes” – like the Coco Exotic from Four Leaves that she had at her birthdays as a child – “and I’ve always wanted to make something that was representative of my childhood, but in a lighter and, I guess, more gourmand version.”
Her signature creations, though, make a star out of sobacha or Japanese buckwheat tea, which she’s reimagined in tiramisu form. As a plated dessert, it has sobacha ice cream, coffee-soaked biscuit cuillere, coffee praline, caramelised pecans and buckwheat tuile. As an entremet, it has crunchy hazelnut biscuit, maple cremeux and reconstructed pecan sable.
She also explores working with premium Japanese fruits, like in a plated dessert of Shizuoka melon in a matcha meringue shell with Vanuatu vanilla mousse, lime and mint jelly, watercress and mint ice cream, Granny Smith apples, olive oil and lime zest.
Yamanashi peaches are spotlighted, too, paired with blackberry yogurt sorbet, Earl Grey Chantilly cream and a thin layer of rose jelly.
Future plans include “a curated gift box representative of Singapore” that will comprise one of her favourite things to bake: Pandan chiffon cake. Her version is gluten-free and uses all-natural ingredients including extra virgin coconut oil.
While the desserts and pastries may demonstrate a high level of technical precision, the goal is also uncomplicated simplicity and honesty for this decorated pastry chef. In all things,“I am just being very truthful and true to myself,” she said.
Loulouca opens Jul 29, Wednesdays to Sundays at 6 Ann Siang Hill, Singapore 069787.
Source: CNA/my
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