Talita Setyadi

Pastry chef, owner of Beau, Jakarta & Les vergers Boiron Brand Ambassador

Talita, who is 28 years old, was born in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital and moved with her family to Auckland, New Zealand when she was 9. She lived there until 2010 and completed a Bachelor of Music, playing double bass and passionate about jazz. She began to bake cupcakes and muffins, which she brought to rehearsals and received a lot of praise from her fellow band members, The Teacup. She then moved to Paris, where she baked macarons and cakes to sell at weekend markets. She was admitted to the prestigious Cordon Bleu School in Paris, went to New York to study bread making and management, graduating with an MBA, and returned to her home town where she started off supplying homemade Italian “Bombos” doughnuts to a few coffee shops. She then launched Beau (which means beautiful in French) in late 2014, which has since grown into a landmark 100-seat café & bakery, filled with greenery and bathing in natural light, in the recently gentrified Jalan Cikajang district of South Jakarta.

Since then, she has developed over 100 different natural breads, pastries, cakes, cookies and éclairs and supplies more than 80 cafés, restaurants and hotels in the city, as well as through her our own outlets, and has been dubbed Jakarta’s Pastry Queen. Talita never uses preservatives, dough conditioners, artificial flavors or coloring, opting for natural colors and aromas from fruits and vegetables. These commitments have led to paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in the field, igniting widespread interest, in particular in the city’s Millennial generation, and growing demand for artisan bakeries. Her pastries are also particularly creative, inspired by her musical background, based on jazz improvisation.

Beau’s uniqueness also comes from the use of Indonesian flavors and ingredients, include “Jajanan” which is a combination of the flavors “Cendol” and “Jackfruit Nagasari”. Another is called “Real Legit” which is a twist on traditional Lapis Legit, and “Black Out Eclair” which features “Kecap Manis” caramel.  

In January 2017, Talita served as the President of the first-ever Team Indonesia qualified at the “Pastry World Cup” in Lyon. Always avidly passionate and outspoken, Talita is an active speaker and educator in women entrepreneurship. Her successes have led her to be listed in the 2018 Forbes Magazine “30 Under 30” and is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Woman, catapulting her brand to worldwide acclaim.

Beau also proposes vegetarian and gluten-free pastries and has launched an online store. To relax, Talita does yoga and shiatsu massages. You can learn more about Talita on her blog www.talitaskitchen.com or @beaujkt, @talitasetyadi and #tastetextureform.