![]() He told me that he’s rearranged his life around the cakes: In the mornings, he sets out the ingredients to temper while he runs around the Bay Area to do consulting work, and when he gets home, he bakes for five to six hours to produce about a dozen cakes. When I called Chen on a Thursday afternoon, he was baking in his West Oakland apartment. Chen makes Japanese inspired Basque cheesecakes in his home and selling in limited quantities around the Bay Area. Charles Chen in the kitchen where he created Basuku Cheesecakes in his home in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, July 27, 2020. Between my husband and me, the cake lasted for a week and a half as we sneaked thin slivers of it from the box - just enough to coat the tongue and let the caramel flavor linger. The cake has an intense caramel aroma, from both its browned surface and the character of the milk itself. While its edges are somewhat firm, the center is almost soupy at room temperature, sunken from its own weight. The texture is phenomenal, reminiscent of when you leave a triple-creme soft cheese out on the kitchen counter and its fat wilts and softens, leaving you with something you can effortlessly scoop up and smear on a cracker with a spoon. And when I finally sliced into that thing, I understood. But I let that go: Those were the salad days, when we still had a little spending money from those federal stimulus checks and the whole world seemed like it was on discount. I had the opportunity to try the cheesecake in June, and I had a half-thought that $30 ($35 now) for such a wee, albeit beautifully golden pastry seemed steep. But at the operation’s core, he’s still making about a dozen cheesecakes a day himself and is wondering how to even begin scaling something so delicate. His attention to detail has produced beautiful, rich confections that have quickly gained his fledgling company, Basuku Cheesecakes, a cult following. ![]() Now, five months later, his cheesecakes are distributed by places ranging from Oakland grocer Magnolia Mini Mart to fine dining restaurants like Maum in Palo Alto and Nightbird in San Francisco. Making a few batches to gift to friends snowballed into baking every day to meet orders coming in through Instagram. Unlike many of us, he kept at that hobby, and the task of making what he calls “Japanese-style Basque cheesecakes” has become an all-consuming passion. ![]() Like many of us, Charles Chen, an Oakland food industry consultant, picked up a hobby while his daily life was curtailed by shelter-in-place: baking. Comments Charles Chen's Basuku Cheesecake in his home in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, July 27, 2020.
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