First Look: Korean Tissue Bread Steals the Show at Buttered, Chippendale’s Newest Bakery

One of the beautiful things about the digital age is how speedily food trends can travel across the globe. First we had the cronut and croffle proliferate our cafes and bakeries, then the crombolini and the crookie. And Asian Australian bakeries are booming right now. The latest wave to crash onto Sydney’s shores is Korean carbs, and you can find them at Buttered.

“From the beginning we decided we’re not doing croissants, we're not doing sourdough,” Anece So tells Broadsheet. “Because everyone else is doing it already. We want to do something different that stands up.” Enter salt bread and tissue bread.

“We always wanted to bring something from Korea that is hip. You know, indulge Sydney with a modern Korean bakery,” So says. She’s the chief business officer of the family-owned and -operated Vuza Hospitality Group (Allta and the temporarily closed Funda). So when the team behind heritage-listed Chippendale precinct The Brewery tapped Vuza for a cafe concept, So was ready to go.

Salt bread was created in 2014, at Japan’s Pain Maison bakery in Ehime Prefecture. But it’s taken on a life of its own in South Korea. The Japanese original is denser in the middle, with a light crispness on the outside, while the Korean version comes in a wide assortment of styles, with all different kinds of textures.

Buttered’s signature salt bread is, as hoped for, a buttery sensation. It’s a hybrid of a croissant and a dinner roll, with a soft, rich mouthfeel. “We found a way that keeps butter wet inside. It has a nice buttery hole inside and a really crispy bottom,” says head pastry chef Phillip Choi. The dough is cold-fermented overnight, then as it bakes, the outer layer browns into a dark crust and the log of butter within melts, soaking into the bread and crisping up the bottom.

Then there are the filled options, both savoury and sweet, featuring flavours like spring onion and bacon, almond, cream, cheese, and garlic cream cheese – using all-Australian ingredients.

Then there’s the tissue bread. It’s a play on a cube croissant, and in Asia it’s also known as thousand layer bread. Laminated, buttery croissant dough is jammed into a cube-shaped baking pan – the resulting shape is deeply satisfying, and Buttered’s version comes out masterfully layered.

The size of the plain original serve makes it easily shareable, as do the layers – tear the pastry off sheet by sheet to get to the fluffy centre. You’ll also find smaller sweet varieties – like caramel, vanilla strawberry, matcha, chocolate, pistachio and lemon meringue – with cream-stuffed insides and icing.

The Broadsheet tip? Ask for your bread to be reheated to max out the experience.

Choi spent five years working as a pizzaiolo, falling in love with dough, but found he was spending most of his free time baking desserts. The inventive line-up of airy sponge cakes layered with fresh fruit is the result of those early experiments. The standout is the waterfall cake, where a whole filled sponge has a slice removed to make room for an overflowing stream of fresh berries. There are focaccia sandwiches too, on bread that’s cold-fermented for three days.

Coffee uses beans by Bondi-based roaster Will & Co, and you’ll find a variety of Korean soft drinks featuring fruity house-made syrups topped with soda water. A mix of funky milk-based drinks can be revved up with a coffee shot, and include flavours like sweet corn, butterscotch and royal chestnut.

Buttered is in a cavernous warehouse space, with a glowing display and big marble counter in the middle. There’s plenty of seating – perhaps in anticipation of the Korean bread’s big Sydney moment.

“We've tasted and tried lots and lots of salt bread, and we came up with the best,” So says. “I guarantee that you will have the best experience.”

Buttered
5 Central Park Avenue, Chippendale

Hours:
Mon to Fri 10am–7pm
Sat & Sun 9am-7pm

@buttered_sydney

Additional reporting by Grace MacKenzie.