Robata’s Pastry Chef Rolls, Cuts and Folds More Than Three Mochi a Minute

“I really wanted customers to taste real mochi skin,” says pastry chef Sayaka Otsu, who oversees the desserts at all San Telmo Group venues, including Exhibition Street Japanese restaurant Robata.

The Robata dessert menu has typically included European-style plated desserts with Japanese flavours, including matcha tiramisu and baked yuzu cheesecake. But you’ll now find fresh mochi stuffed with a raspberry and condensed milk parfait, alongside specials with changing fillings. Past flavours have included white chocolate and raspberry, peanut butter and chocolate, yuzu and dark chocolate, whisky and chocolate, and Earl Grey and milk chocolate. The mochi specials are usually available on Tuesday to Saturday nights.

Otsu says the process for making the mochi skin is “super simple” and is the same for each filled mochi. She starts with glutinous rice flour, water and sugar, and if she’s making a flavoured skin, a small amount of an ingredient such as cocoa or matcha powder. She mixes everything together to form a batter, then microwaves it in three-minute intervals until a dough forms.

From there, she works quickly to roll, cut and wrap the dough around whichever filling she’s using. Otsu says you need to be especially speedy when wrapping the still-hot dough around the frozen parfait and says it takes her about five minutes to roll, cut and wrap 18 mochi. “I think I’m very fast.”

Otsu first learned to make mochi with a frozen filling at Nobu Melbourne, though she notes that the version there used ice-cream instead of parfait. She’d wanted to be a pastry chef since primary school, but, she says, “In Japan, it’s a pretty tough job. My parents didn’t say yes.” After moving from Tokyo to Melbourne in 2010, the former dietitian began her culinary career in the savoury section at Crown Melbourne, eventually transitioning to pastry.

Now, more than a decade after swapping careers and countries, Otsu is quietly turning out some of the most delicate mochi in the city.

Robata
2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
03 9989 3575

Hours:
Daily midday – 11pm

@robatamelbourne