Grand Opening Bakery

Melissa Chou is a relatively well known name in the pastry scene in SF.  She was the pastry chef at Mister Jiu's, Aziza, and Mourad, she's been nominated for James Beard awards, and won many local accolades as well.  

She ventured out on her own in 2019 doing monthly popups, and then even started doing popups every weekend at Mister Jiu's even after she had left. But now she has her own place in Oakland, named, sorta confusingly, Grand Opening.  She offers a few cakes, pies, and pastries, but also does special orders.

I attended an event where I got to try a slew of amazing creations: three different cakes and one pie.  I'd love to try many, many more.

Mandarine Lychee Burnt Vanilla.

"Sponge cake, with whipped vanilla and custard, lychee gelee, fresh mandarin."

The cakes we had were all large format rectangular layer cakes, decorated simply but tastefully with flower petals (different ones for each).  All used sponge cake, and incorporated different flavors into their fillings and frosting.

I started with the mandarine lychee burnt vanilla cake.  This was the most simple of all the cakes.

Mandarine Lychee Burnt Vanilla: Layers.

It was definitely a cake that lost all integrity once sliced, but, who really cares?  It had layers of custard and whipped cream, studded minimally with lychee gelee and mandarin.  I expected the mandarine or lychee to be more prevalent, in either the cream or custard, or even just with more fruit within.  I was a bit disappointed by the low amount of fruit, as it was rather plain otherwise.

The vanilla sponge was quite light and airy, more like a chiffon almost, the whipped cream was just lightly sweetened so definitely not too sweet, and the custard was thick and rich, but these were all very basic, simple, classic, "vanilla" flavors, so this didn't really have much to make it pop.  Just doubling the fruit elements in here would have taken it far (I settled for adding fresh kiwi and blackberries as I had them on hand).

I can't fault any technique in this, and the elements were all good, but, I wanted something less basic.  3/5.

Strawberry Jasmine.

"Sponge cake, strawberry mousse, fresh strawberry, vanilla custard, whipped jasmine."

I moved on to another simple but elegant cake, the strawberry jasmine.  This one incorporated jasmine into the whipped topping, rather than the simple vanilla in the previous cake.  It was extremely subtle though, I can't say I really noticed it.

Strawberry Jasmine: layers.

It had the same custard and plain sponge, and much like the previous it had minimal fruit, so I again kept wanting there to be more pieces of strawberry.  It did also had a strawberry mousse layer, which definitely amped up the fruit flavor, but still I found myself wishing for a bit more.  Another cake that was well executed, and fine, but didn't excite me as much as I wanted it to. 3/5.

Melissa also makes a strawberry jasmine *choux* cake with the same layers, but an additional streusel topped choux that looks really interesting.  I think the choux would add a fun textural crunch that the cake otherwise lacks.  

Banana Coffee Hazelnut Crunch Cake.

"Banana custard, whipped coffee, hazelnut crunch."

"Whipped coffee cream, banana custard, hazelnut nougatine, sponge."

And finally, the banana coffee hazelnut crunch cake (which I think is also on their menu also as "Banana Milk Coffee Crunch Cake"?).  This one definitely had the most going on, with a flavored cream frosting (coffee), flavored custard (banana), and nougatine for crunch.  It was hands down the most flavorful and my favorite as well, which surprised me, as the flavors seemed more mainstream and boring but just turned out to really deliver.

The whipped cream had strong coffee flavor, definitely for coffee lovers, stronger than most tiramisu for example.  I loved the crunch from the hazelnut nougatine, which was also delightfully sweet.  And the banana cream was everything you want banana cream pie filling to be, thick, rich, banana forward.  And of course, the basic sponge.  I kinda wanted this to be a pie or parfait or something instead of a cake, just, lose the cake layer and give me more banana custard + coffee whipped cream + nougatine, but it was still really quite good.  My favorite.  4/5.

Burnt Honey Pie. $120.

"Beeswax cream, pollen."

And finally, the burnt honey pie.  This is her signature items, one that in 2024 the The New York Times put on their "best dishes in the US" list.  I was excited to try this unique offering, although it didn't look particularly interesting, "just a tart" is kinda how it looked.  It was sprinkled with bee pollen.

She makes this in cake form too but the pie/tart is definitely the one that has won accolades, and the one I was more interested in, so I'm glad our hosts picked it.

Burnt Honey Pie: Close up.

Cutting into it revealed the structure: tart crust, custard filling, whipped topping (which, actually is beeswax cream). 

The crust is pasta frolla, the Italian version of sweet shortcrust pastry, that I never knew by name before.  It was crisp, moderately flaky, held its structure well, and stood up nicely against the pie.  The filling was the main attraction, a custard that at first reminded me a bit of chess pie, crack pie, or nutless pecan pie, but just had sooo much more depth and complexity than any other similar pie.  It was honey, but ... caramelized almost, and in custard form.  It was definitely sweet, which I had read in reviews, person after person saying how sweet it was, how just a sliver was needed, and with my first bite I didn't think it was nearly as sweet as I was expecting, but after a few bites it really crept up and even I, someone with a incredible sweet tooth who was raised on cloying sweet Karo syrup pecan pie, found this to be quite a lot.  It wasn't a one-note cloying sweet, but, sweet it was.  After all, this *is* a honey pie.

The topping was also sweetened and had honey notes.  It did add even more complexity, and complimented the rest well, but it was more sweet on top of sweet, and I almost wondered if something like a slightly tangy sweetened crème fraîche may have worked better?  Or maybe that would be too much contrast?

Overall, this was unique and enjoyable, but you certainly have to like honey.  I did add fresh blackberries to mine to balance it out a bit, and I did find myself not going back for seconds, not because I was stuffed necessarily, but because I just didn't want more sweetness.  My second favorite of the items I tried.  4/5.