Ambre Noix

A simple sliced entremet with a biscuit au noix as the base building up two layers of mousse au chocolat au lait followed by mousse au caramel with a layer of biscuit joconde au chocolat sandwiched in between, The cake is then robed with later of caramel glaze and a piece of toasted and lightly candied walnut.

A very simple piece but so full of earthy richness in the taste but in a non-obtrusive manner. Richness can sometimes be overwhelming and jarring but we had none of that in Ambre Noix. The bits of caramelised walnut nougatine embedded within the lower milk chocolate mousse layer, together with the toasted walnut decor on top added a lovely crunchy textural dimension against the smooth and coaxing textures of the mousse. And the aroma… boy o boy the aroma from the toasted nuts just linger on and on in the mouth and up the nasal cavity.

Tartelette au Caramel タルトレット • オ • キャラメル

Again, a piece with a very simple composition but incredibly delicious. Using pate sucree as a base, the perfectly baked sweet pastry crust is filled with an assortment of toasted nuts like almond, hazelnuts and walnuts, as well as dried fruit like apricot, raisins and cherries, mixed with Crème Caramel. This is minimally but elegantly decorated with a perfect quenelle of of Crème Chantilly.

The flavours are really beautiful as they have been pushed to the extremes. The caramel sauce exudes a rather prominent profile of bitterness and that actually helped to accentuate the nutty aroma of the assortment and innate sweetness of the dried fruit used. Also used to balance the sweetness is the snow powder which had been dusted around the perimeter as well as the quenelle of pastry cream on top.


One would notice that there are two Silician green pistachios being used partly as decor for the colour contrast provided by their their alluring emerald green and partly to add variety to the melange of nuts used. They stand out quite prominently against an almost dark amberish background, like what the very light dusting of cocoa powder does to the cream quenelle. Subtley in details that goes a long way…

Ambroisie アンブロワジー

The one piece which everyone is dying to try at Hidemi Sugino’s. It is the most expensive cake in the display but being the most popular, it is always the fastest to sell outm usually within one hour from the shop’s opening. It is a multi-component petite gateau, starting off with a biscuit joconde au chocolat as the base to provide support for mousse au chocolat noir which has layers of framboise pepins, biscuit au pistaches and a mousse a la pistache in between. The whole piece is then robed with a glacage au chocolat and decorated with some chocolate pieces and gold leaf.

Not wanting to risk sounding too cliche, the whole piece for me was an explosion yet perfect balance of flavours with components seemingly very diverse, i.e. sourish hues from the raspberry conserve against the gentle sweetness from the mousse layers as well as the dark intensity of the chocolate mirror glaze but maintained a wonderful harmony with one another. Many people have claimed this as the best chocolate cake they had ever eaten and I cannot disagree. The overall experience was a sense of being luxurious, elegant and pleasingly smooth. Very fine pastry making indeed and well worth the ¥740 we spent on it. But of course we didn’t just stop as just one.