Executive pastry chef Kenta Takahashi prepares a dessert medley plate at Vancouver’s Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster, located at the Sutton Place Hotel. (Photo courtesy of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar)
He sculpts with sugar. He transforms sugar into flowers. He serves up works of art with food. This artistry and technique have earned him recognition as one of Canada’s true culinary artists. Meet Kenta Takahashi, executive pastry chef at Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar, at Vancouver’s luxurious Sutton Place Hotel. It’s here where, based on the season, he creates masterpiece dishes that range from a visually stunning bonbon to an elegant dessert platter. A classically trained chef with the discerning eye of a true artist, Takahashi brings traditional French panache and a modern, sophisticated Japanese influence to downtown Vancouver.
Vacay.ca: Tell us about your early life.
Kenta Takahashi: I grew up in Shizuoka, a small town near Mount Fuji, about two hours from Tokyo. We were surrounded by mountains and close to the ocean. After high school, I went to pastry school in Tokyo for two years.
Vacay.ca: Then what?
KT: I was 20 when I graduated and I got a job in a French pastry shop in Tokyo. I worked there for three years. French pastry shops were considered exotic and luxurious and were very popular. I like classic, traditional French cooking. I loved making French pastries.
Rhubarb Crumble is among the exquisite dessert options that have made a culinary star out of Boulevard’s executive pastry chef Kenta Takahashi. (Photo courtesy of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar)
Vacay.ca: Was your career choice based on a love of sweet things?
KT: From when I was a kid, I loved food, especially sweet things. There was a pastry shop in Shizuoka that I loved. I couldn’t imagine myself going to an office every day. I wanted to do something experimental, something artistic. Food was a natural.
Vacay.ca: You were an award-winning pastry chef in your home country before you came to Vancouver. Why Canada? Why Vancouver?
KT: I went to the U.S. when I was 16 and dreamed about returning one day. Canada was next door and there was the French aspect here. Vancouver was because of chef Thierry Busset, the renowned French pâtissier and chocolatier.
Vacay.ca: Is this where you honed your craft?
KT: Yes. I worked with chef Thierry for four years. It was a good decision. I learned a lot.
Vacay.ca: Did anyone else inspire you?
KT: Yes. Alex Chen, the executive chef at Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar. He is talented. He is passionate. His cooking is elegant and understated. I have been working with him for seven years. I was lucky that many good people gave me encouragement with lots of opportunity to grow.
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Vacay.ca: What was the biggest challenge in moving to Vancouver?
KT: The language. I didn’t speak a word of English when I arrived in 2011.
Vacay.ca: And now you are the executive pastry chef at Boulevard. Although it is one of the city’s most exclusive hotels, hotel restaurants seldom achieve the notoriety that this one has. What makes Boulevard so exceptional?
KT: Executive chef Alex Chen is amazing. He won Iron Chef Canada in 2018 and was the Canadian Culinary Championship Award winner in 2020. He is talented and passionate and is a constant source of culinary inspiration. Each dish he creates has a big impact. But it is also delicate when it comes to presentation and impact.
Vacay.ca: You won Best Pastry Chef in Canada in 2020, in 2022, and again in 2023. How did you feel when you won the third time?
KT: I felt a lot more comfortable. I now see more potential. The award has helped me look to the future.
Vacay.ca: Was there a difference in your competition presentation the last time?
KT: In three years, I changed how I operate from a singular focus on my creations to training my team of three full-time and two part-time members. It has been a different way to achieve the same results. I have worked alongside them to help them develop and to understand the importance of quality rather than just creating a unique dessert.
Made with in-season fruit, the Strawberry Cheesecake at Boulevard is a sublime example of the artistry of executive pastry chef Kenta Takahashi. (Photo courtesy of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar)
Vacay.ca: What will you be serving for dessert this evening?
KT: Strawberry pavlova, because strawberries are in season, a salted sesame praline bar with roasted sesame, gianduja crunch, chocolate mousse, and black and white sesame mousse, a bonbon tray, and a selection of three cheeses with fruit compote spiced almond and cranberry crisp. Every evening, we offer seven varieties of house-made sorbet and ice cream.
Vacay.ca: Your desserts are not only delicious. They are works of art. Where does your inspiration come from?
KT: My inspiration comes from all the basic and classic desserts that we were taught in pastry school. Everything on the plate has meaning. I calculate the ratios, colour combinations, composition, height, width, and balance. Nothing is there merely as a decoration or to look pretty. Then I ask myself what I really want to showcase with the dessert and I take away anything that does not work nor adds to the final dish.
Vacay.ca: As pastry chef in a dining room that serves three meals a day, you oversee the dessert menu as well as baked goods. In addition to this full-time job, last December, in the restaurant’s private dining room, you treated 16 guests to an exclusive event –”Dégustation Des Desserts.” You described it as “a symphony in five courses.” Tell our readers about it.
KT: This type of tasting menu already exists in Japan. I think this was the first in Vancouver. I felt I had to do something new for the city. I was nervous beforehand. You never know how something will be received until you try it.
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Vacay.ca: Were you pleased?
KT: Yah, yah. People liked it a lot. My staff liked it, too. My sugar art creations were dotted around the room which helped me explain the inspiration for the dishes.
Vacay.ca: I understand that it was such a success that you planned to recreate it on a quarterly basis. When was the next one and what did you serve?
KT: August 8. The theme was, “All That Summer Promises.” But the concept was biodiversity, about what we do with nature. During the event, I discussed with the guests the colours, the inspirations, and the emotions of the season. Everything on the plate had meaning.
Vacay.ca: What do you enjoy most about living in Vancouver?
KT: My wife and our two children who are 10 and 6 are here. I like the food and all the different cultures that I never saw in Tokyo. Everything is high quality.
Tropical Fruit Panna Cotta blends classic flavours with culinary ingenuity, a hallmark of Boulevard’s executive pastry chef Kenta Takahashi. (Photo courtesy of Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar)
Vacay.ca: Have you travelled to other parts of Canada?
KT: Only to Winnipeg and Toronto. I want to go to Montreal because of the French culture.
Vacay.ca: What do you like to do in your spare time?
KT: I do a lot of photography. And I started painting a year ago.
Vacay.ca: Where would you like to be in five years?
KT: I’d like to keep contributing to the social and food industries as a pastry chef. I don’t fully know how to go about it yet, but I have started slowly on a few things. I just know I won’t only be making desserts.
MORE ABOUT BOULEVARD KITCHEN & OYSTER BAR
Location: 845 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia (see map below)
Website: boulevardvancouver.ca
Menu Price Range: Main courses range from $38 to $92 and individual dessert options range from $17 to $24. Boulevard also has one of the best happy hours in Vancouver, with $10 cocktails and food items costing less than $20.
