Kaneko Hiroshi

Pastry chef, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Tokyo & Les vergers Boiron Brand Ambassador

Kaneko Hiroshi, when he finished secondary school 28 years ago, saw a job offer for the Tokyo Prince Hotel, where he began to work as a pastry maker, without any previous training. He learned on the job, making pear tarts, passion fruit sorbet, nougats, praline and, his favorite, crème brulée. In 2003, he became head pastry chef at the newly opened Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo, where he worked with Chef Goto, who encouraged him to challenge himself and take risks in creativity, always focusing on taste. Today, he applies the same philosophy with his own teams, giving them the freedom to try things they love, based on their personal tastes. He participated in his first major competition, the Pastry Coupe du Monde in 2005, at the age of 31, in charge of the sugar sculpture, which broke just before being presented. The team nevertheless finished fourth, which built up his confidence in both his own potential and the abilities of other Japanese chefs. He oversees the pastry for the hotel’s six restaurants– Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, the steak house and the sushi bar. Some weekends, the hotel caters for up to 14 weddings for people from all over the world. He is also in charge of the hotel’s pastry shop, where he is free to explore his own ideas, mainly inspired by French and Italian styles. He also loves to make travel cakes, like banana brownies (he made 24,000 last year), pound cakes stuffed with fruit jellies, and macaroons. In the future, he wants to encourage young chefs to build up Japan’s strength in international competitions. He is very proud that one of his own students recently won a national competition in Japan.

His favorite words to describe Les vergers Boiron products: Quality and Variety.

Universe

Pastry