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Eunji Lee Transcript

Eunji Lee Transcript


























Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. You're listening to She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and author of three baking books, including my latest, “Snackable Bakes.” Each Saturday, I'm hanging out with the sweetest bakers around and taking a deep dive into their signature bakes.

Today's guest is Eunji Lee, the award-winning pastry chef and co-founder of Lysée, the pastry gallery/boutique in New York City. If you haven't visited, Lysée is a special dine-in or takeout experience where Eunji's unique baked goods can be experienced. Perhaps you've seen some of her creations on Instagram or you've been lucky enough to try them in person, like her corn cob shaped dessert made of corn mousse, corn cream, and sablé. Or the faux baby banana consisting of a white chocolate shell, filled with dulce and banana cream and banana cake. Or other treats as beautiful to look at as they are to eat.

What's new at Cherry Bombe? Well, the latest issue of Cherry Bombe's print magazine is now available. You can purchase a subscription to Cherry Bombe and have it delivered directly to your door four times a year. Or you can pick up a copy from your favorite magazine shop, bookstore, or gourmet shop. Places like Kitchen Arts & Letters in Manhattan, Book Larder in Seattle, and Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco. Cherry Bombe magazine is thick and gorgeous, and printed on lush paper. It's filled with recipes, features, and profiles you don't want to miss. Visit cherrybombe.com to subscribe. Thank you to Plugrà Premium European-Style Butter and California Prunes for supporting today's show.

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Let's check in with today's guest. Eunji, so excited to have you on She's My Cherry Pie, and to talk about your exquisite layered corn cake with you and so much more.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Hi, Jessie.

Jessie Sheehan:
Hi.

Eunji Lee:
So great to see you and thank you for having me.

Jessie Sheehan:
Of course. So you were born in South Korea to parents who were both artists and who brought you up around museums and galleries. And I know that art and creating art was always figured prominently in your life. Was there an age when you kind of shifted your attention from one kind of art to pastry art? Or was pastry always the way you liked to show your creativity?

Eunji Lee:
I think my parents, they met in the university, in the art group. They want to be artists but since their parents said, "No, it's not good," so they couldn't be. But anyway, they're always having me to gallery or competition from... They are drawing by themselves but they just brought me. So I grew up on the like a lot of arts, their art friends and art experience. When I was young, when I was a baby, if I see the photos, baby Eunji's photos, I'm always painting and then creating with the dough.

Jessie Sheehan:
Clay.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, clay-dough thing. So I think those experience, it brought me something to art culture. But when I wanted to be a pastry chef, that was from the TV show and I watch it just like that. And before that, I like to bake and make the cookies and some loft cake and tarts for my friends and family. I love to see their face when I made it. But when I saw the TV show, it was a picture chef's life and then they are making all the beautiful cakes. And when they gave to the customers at first, visually they like it and then when they eat it, they look so happy. So when I saw it, "Oh, that's my thing. That's my job and that's my dream." So because they're making edible art, from the art to food that looks really cool and amazing for me.

Jessie Sheehan:
You've been a pastry chef for around 17 years, but something happened when you were 17. You wrote something on the wall quite literally to your parents. Could you tell that story about what happened when you were 17?

Eunji Lee:
Oh, my God. Yeah. So when I was 14, 15 years old, I wanted to be a pastry chef and then my parents thought that, "Oh, maybe she's going to change pretty soon." So they didn't realize that I really want to be, so obviously they wanted me to study more and then go to university and go to company to... Because at that period, it's not very common job in Korea too but I knew what I want to do. And then I convinced them and but they said, "Oh, no. You have to study." So I wrote onto the paper, it's like a 10 years goal from my life and that was when I was 17 years old, so I was young. So I could say whatever I want. So I will study hard and then I go to the university and then I'm going to take a major French or Japanese. If I take the French, I'm go to France in Paris to learn more pastry and baking and then go to this school. And then after that I want to work this place in Japan.

Case of Japan, same thing. So that was after my plan. I show my plan, I will go to France or Japan, and then I'm going to study, and then I want to work under this person, the chef. 10 years later, I want to be a work best pastry chef, something like that. I could say that because I was young.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love it.

Eunji Lee:
So when my parents saw that paper, because I put it on the wall to study in front of my table and to self-motivated. And my parents saw it and they realized that, "Eunji. She really wants to this and if we don't help her, if we don't support her, she's going to be not happy." And then my parents thought that they going to regret for my life. So at that moment, it was the big change to their thinking.

Jessie Sheehan:
So you did end up going when you were 19. Your dream of studying in France came true. You learned exacting French technique. You worked under Alain Ducasse and Cédric Grolet at the three Michelin star Le Meurice amongst other places where you met your husband. After going to France then working in New York, another dream of yours was fulfilled while you were in New York because you co-founded Lysée with your husband Matthieu Lobry in 2022. And I know he kind of handles more of the bread at the bakery. And I have to tell you that I literally teared up online when I read that him being interviewed and he said he had moved to New York for the next chapter in his professional life but really for his love and that was you.

And I'm, "Oh, my God. I loved that." I always liked those little human touches but I loved that. So Lysée which I have had the great pleasure of going to and I can't wait to return, is 15-seat pastry boutique, and cafe and a beautiful kind of interior inspired by Korea. Can you tell us a little bit about the shop?

Eunji Lee:
So Lysée, we opened last year, June 28th, 2022. And it's been more than a year right now and it's a Korean, French, New Yorker concept because I define by myself my identity. And then also, I think that's influenced onto my dessert as well. I call just Korean, French, New Yorker because I born in Korea and I have Korean heritage. I grew up in France professionally, so French ingredients and techniques, skills, and then accommodated New Yorker's flavor. I love this city and also, there are a lot of great ingredients as well to use. That's the concept of Lysée and I wanted to make as a gallery since that's the reason why I started to dream to be a pastry chef. Pastry, it's edible art to me. So that sentence I wanted to highlight in my space.

So Lysée means Lee's plus Musée, which means museum in French. So it's Lee's sweet museum. So people can take out but also in dining. Our space, it's two floors. So second floor, it's our gallery, pastry gallery. We call pastry gallery or pastry showroom, so people come upstairs and then they look around our dessert. From dessert to viennoserie and cookies and housemade drink. And then they come to the counter to put the order, so that's the concept of upstairs. And then downstairs it's for dining area, there is a chef counter, it's like an open kitchen. So I'm always there for plating the dessert or my team. And we have seven tables, so like 15, 16 sitting maximum at once. Yeah, that's our shop.

Jessie Sheehan:
And you feel like you're in a gallery too. Sometimes it's a little quiet or everyone's looking around taking pictures.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I was guilty of that. So I want to talk about corn and you just call it corn. You don't say corn cake or you don't say corn dessert. It's just corn.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, just corn.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. So corn is almost like a layered corn mousse cake. It's your most labor-intensive dessert. Does it take longer than most?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.

Eunji Lee:
We... Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
And it's a bestseller. Is it still true that guests are limited to one per person?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. It likely.

Jessie Sheehan:
Which I love 'cause of course that makes everybody want it even more. Like, "What? I can only get one? I have to get it." Or maybe that's just me. Does it still sell out within an hour of when you open or a few hours of when you open?

Eunji Lee:
Compared to the beginning, now we have more mode and we have more teams. So we got better and better to, it's more manageable right no. But still around 3:00 p.m., its selling out.

Jessie Sheehan:
Amazing.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
These numbers might be wrong, but you're selling like 350 or 400 a week? Maybe, 70 per day on the weekends?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. That's incredible. It's like a corn party. Now I know you love corn.

Eunji Lee:
Mm-hmm.

Jessie Sheehan:
But can you tell us more about what is it about corn that made you want to create a dessert?

Eunji Lee:
I just personally really love the corn, its own ingredients. And then I think it's great to make a not too sweet but desserts, a little bit savory because I love savory and sweet combination. Oh, when I opened Lysée I wanted to make a corn dessert. But how can I make it from there? I try to make, looks like a corn dessert and then there is, inside of the corn, there is a corn mousse, corn cremeux, caramel, corn cake, corn cookie at the bottom. And then that's in one mold and when I unmolded, I piped the corn caramel one by one by hand. That's with the grilled corn cream. And then after that, we spray the yellow chocolate. It looks like a corn but I needed more, so I just said, "Okay. We are going to make the corn husk." So with the green chocolate, but I wanted to make something not too sweet, not to overpower from the white chocolate. On the corn husk, we put the roasted corn powder with the salt, a little bit of salt to cut the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. We'll be right back.

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So the dessert, if we count the corn powder, I think the dessert has nine components. 'Cause we have cremeux, the corn cake or you call it a biscuit, which I think is the French way to say it.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Is that why you say that?

Eunji Lee:
The cake.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then the corn powder and then the corn caramel. And then the corn sablé and then the corn mousse, the grilled corn cream, the yellow chocolate sauce and the green chocolate?

Eunji Lee:
Oh, yes.

Jessie Sheehan:
I was very proud of myself. So we're going to focus on assembling all of those components together into the masterpiece that is corn rather than diving deep into each ingredient. So corn takes three days to make and every component is infused with the corn flavor. Is the sprayed white chocolate have a corn flavor? No, okay.

Eunji Lee:
No. Spray, white chocolate. It's only the white chocolate.

Jessie Sheehan:
And the husk though does have a little bit of corn flavor 'cause you put the powder on it.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
Love. Love, love, love. So it's the first day and I watched a video of you doing this, so some of my questions will be what you did in the video. But first day you're going to make the caramel.

Eunji Lee:
Mm-hmm.

Jessie Sheehan:
And on the video, I think it was just a straight sugar, caramel, right? Melting sugar in a pot.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Melting sugar, caramel, cream.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then you strain the caramel, add a little butter, some cream. How do you get corn flavor into the caramel?

Eunji Lee:
Oh, caramel, it's just a plain.

Jessie Sheehan:
Caramel is plain too. Okay.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, plain. Caramel is plain.

Jessie Sheehan:
I was wondering about that. So you have this beautiful caramel, next you make a cremeux. And I was wondering if you could tell everyone the difference between a cremeux and a mousse.

Eunji Lee:
So cremeux, we're cooking with corn. And then there's a cremeux, there's egg yolk. We infuse the corn into the cream and milk, and then we cook with egg yolk and sugar. So it makes a little bit of pastry cream flavor, custard cream flavor of the corn cremeux, so which is more I think, which is richer.

Jessie Sheehan:
Than the mousse?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, than the mousse. And the mousse by itself, it's very light because based on the corn infusion cream, we add the meringue and we add the whipped creams to make more airy and then light texture. So it's counterbalance of cremeux and then mousse.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. That's lovely, I love that. You make the cremeux and then you're going to pipe it into, and you're calling them insert molds. Are they like little... Maybe the word insert was just in the recipe to say you're inserting it. What do you call the mold that you're going to place the cremeux into before you freeze it?

Eunji Lee:
We're using two mold for making the corn. So first mold, it's insert mold which I put the corn cremeux. It looks like a small tiny canoe shape and I put the corn cremeux into it.

Jessie Sheehan:
Do you have those made for you or is that something you buy at a restaurant supply?

Eunji Lee:
So, it's just for commercial. Yeah, that's commercial.

Jessie Sheehan:
And it's made of silicone?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. Okay.

Eunji Lee:
That's a silicone, yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, that makes sense. So you pipe the cremeux into the insert mold and then you freeze.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Freeze.

Jessie Sheehan:
And I noticed in this recipe and I wonder if this is true of many French desserts with components or maybe many desserts that there is a lot of freezing. Each step you need to freeze and then build. When you're building a dessert, is that typical that you are stopping to freeze or is that more of a corn phenomenon?

Eunji Lee:
I think it's very depending on the chef's style but what I want to make, it's just a perfect layer and a perfect portion of it. So when you freeze it, you can make exact shape, when you cut in half. So that's what I thought. That's why we are freezing. We do the corn cremeux and then we put onto the caramel and then biscuit, the corn cake. And that's the one insert. And then there is another second mold looks like a more large size of the canoe. And then there is how we put the corn mousse. And then the inserts for the inserts inside, finished with the corn cookie at the bottom.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. We made a cremeux, we put it into the insert mold and we freeze. And our caramel is done as well. Now we're going to make the corn cake, which is just like a simple sponge cake. But I noticed you fold meringue into it. And I know that you use corn flour in the cake to give it a corny flavor.

Eunji Lee:
Yes. Yeah, exactly. And also, it's gluten-free. So yeah, they're using the corn flour and then put the corn powder for making more corn flavor.

Jessie Sheehan:
And you sprinkle the corn powder over the cake before you bake it?

Eunji Lee:
Exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
And just the corn powder, is that made the same day as well? Or do you always have that ready to go? It's not part of making the dessert because you always have it in the pantry? Or...

Eunji Lee:
It has to be made before because corn powder, it takes at least two days to make it. Sorry, I had one more days but it's just we're baking the corn, cut the corn kernel and then bake the corn. And then after that we dry it one night, at least one night but sometimes two days. And then we mix everything and then sift it. So we have to, yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love it.

Eunji Lee:
We have to keep it in our pantry to use it.

Jessie Sheehan:
And the corn powder and then the cream that we'll talk about in a second that you end up piping, those are the only two components that have roasted corn. The rest is...

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I love the idea of adding the roasted corn flavor, which is different than when you steam corn or cook corn.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. So you're going to sprinkle some homemade corn powder over your cake or your biscuit, and you're going to bake that. And then you're going to, I love the verb, but you're going to punch it to get the correct shape. Because again, everything has to fit together into this insert mold. And this first day of making this dessert, you're also going to infuse cream and milk with corn for the mousse. Is that correct?

Eunji Lee:
Yes, exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
Because you want that to chill overnight.

Eunji Lee:
Uh-huh. Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then I wondered, are you also making the sablé that day, on the first day?

Eunji Lee:
The sablé, yeah. In the first day because we have to make the dough and then put it into the freezer. And after that we bake it, and then we cut the cookie sablé for the texture. And then we mold it.

Jessie Sheehan:
Will you tell people what sablé is, in case they don't know?

Eunji Lee:
Sablé is a French word cookie, it means cookie. It's just a very basic dough that contains butter, sugar, and eggs and flour.

Jessie Sheehan:
Does it have kind of a sandy texture or not really? More crispy?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, more crispy. Outside is crispy but inside it could be a little sandy depending on the recipe. But ours, it's crispy.

Jessie Sheehan:
It's crispy. And then is it like one cookie that you then break up?

Eunji Lee:
Yes. So one cookie and then we cut it by hand because if we use the mixer, it's makes a powder. So I don't want to make a powder. So we just roughly cut by hand, so we can keep the texture.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Just so listeners know, there is a cool video on YouTube where you can watch Eunji make the corn. For me, it was really helpful in visualizing. Everything that we're talking about it. But I saw that the sablé was basically chopped into smaller pieces.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. We chopped it, exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then that is sort of molded as well and it's going to be one layer of corn. It was almost like, it looked like almost an oval-shaped ring.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
And you pressed down, does the sablé get frozen at this point?

Eunji Lee:
Yes. Sablé has to be frozen so it's easy to put into the mold. Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. That's what I thought. So now, we have our cake. We've punched it out. We're going to pipe some caramel over the cake. Then you're going to put the frozen cremeux insert over the caramel.

Eunji Lee:
Exactly. Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Over the caramel and onto the cake. And at this point, I know you're going to freeze that. Do you also place it on the sablé at this point? Or are they separate in the freezer?

Eunji Lee:
No, they're separate.

Jessie Sheehan:
They're separate in the freezer.

Eunji Lee:
So when you do the base of the corn, you need the insert. That corn cremeux, caramel, and cake are ready in the freezer and then separately sablé ready in the freezer.

Jessie Sheehan:
Gotcha.

Eunji Lee:
Then we make the mousse, pipe, the mousse, into the corn mold and then put the insert. And then we finish with the sablé.

Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect. So that's the second day. So now, we all go home.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
And we go back to work the next day. We make a mousse and you pipe the mousse into this mold. That's shaped almost like what corn will... That's basically the mold that is the shape of the dessert.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Yeah, so we try to look for that mold, really? Yeah. But then it's a over shape, looks like eggs or canoe shape.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, but a little larger.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. This was such an interesting part of the recipe because this isn't frozen. This is the only thing, the mousse is soft still. You pipe it into the kind of corn-shaped mold. Then you take your insert, which is cake, caramel, and cremeux. You put it upside down into the mousse.

Eunji Lee:
Right. In that, right.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then do you cover it with the sablé?

Eunji Lee:
Yes. So when you put the sablé, it's exactly...

Jessie Sheehan:
The same shape.

Eunji Lee:
The same height. Yeah, of the mold.

Jessie Sheehan:
So does it become the bottom of the dessert?

Eunji Lee:
Yes.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.

Eunji Lee:
Yes, exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I feel like I'm getting an A.

Eunji Lee:
Yeehaw. Great.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then you freeze all of that.

Eunji Lee:
Mm-hmm.

Jessie Sheehan:
You go home. Next comes the third day. You make, which I love this so much, but you make this grilled corn cream. Now, should I picture like a whipped cream? Should I picture a buttercream? What's the grilled corn cream?

Eunji Lee:
It's a whipped because it's based on the cream-infused the grilled corn. But I put a little bit of the chocolate, which is the blond chocolate to reinforce a little bit roasted flavor. But also for a little bit richer texture.

Jessie Sheehan:
When you keep saying blond chocolate, and I think it Valrhona. Yes?

Eunji Lee:
Yes. It's Valrhona Dulcey Chocolate.

Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I love that. Yes. It's like the dulce de leche flavor.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. It's so delicious. So we make the grilled corn, you grill your corn, you remove the kernels, infuse in the cream. And then this is the amazing thing. Then you need to pipe the cream and you pipe every single kernel by hand. I read that at first, it took you three minutes to pipe one corn dessert. Now it takes you one minute and 40 seconds, but your goal is 30 seconds. Is any of that true? This is what you learn on the internet folks?

Eunji Lee:
I think, right now, I got much faster. 30 second for one.

Jessie Sheehan:
Amazing. 

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. 30 second for one corn.

Jessie Sheehan:
Amazing. And do you trust your team to do it or do you do it?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, I'm doing with my chef de partie. Her name is Annie, she's trained. And then she's making with me. Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. And you've said that for you, the piping is so, so important because it defines the visual impact as it were of the dessert. And indeed, that piping makes the corn resemble a lifelike ear of corn, which is incredible. And then you freeze. Now, you spray with a yellow chocolate sauce. So is that white chocolate with a little bit of yellow food coloring?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah, white chocolate and then yellow coloring, food coloring and then some of the cocoa butter as well.

Jessie Sheehan:
Ah, nice. Nice, nice, nice. And that, I read that kind of protects the mousse and also gives it a teeny bit of crunch. This is incredible, but then you're making this white chocolate leaf or husk. And you paint each husk leaf by hand.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. So for the corn husk, we make the green chocolate based on the white chocolate with the green food coloring in it. We paint with the brush by hand and then sprinkle the corn powder and put it onto the rolling pin to make the curve shape.

Jessie Sheehan:
To curve it. Yeah.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. And then once it's set, you attach it to the corn.

Eunji Lee:
Mm-hmm. And then that's it.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then that's it. Oh, my gosh. Yum. They're just like two or three more little Lysée desserts I just wanted to talk about briefly.

Eunji Lee:
Sure.

Jessie Sheehan:
We don't have to go quite so crazy, even though I could do this all day. But anyway, there's a signature dessert, the Lysée.

Eunji Lee:
Lysée.

Jessie Sheehan:
Which is a signature mousse cake. Can you just tell us about that dessert?

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. So Lysée is our signature cake, which made with the Korean brown rice mousse, pecan, pecan parline and caramel. And there is a pecan sablé at the bottom.

Jessie Sheehan:
And I also read that it's shaped like a flower.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Looks like a flower but actually, that's from the Korean roof tile motif that I got inspiration, from the motif of the Korean roof tile. I wanted to make it something like modern style and looks like a slice of the cake. So that's our logo.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. How do you pronounce, Giwa?

Eunji Lee:
It's like Giwa. Yeah, your pronunciation is good.

Jessie Sheehan:
I know, I'm getting an A plus.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. I mean, even in Korean, French, you're perfect.

Jessie Sheehan:
And I love that you say that this dessert, all of them shows your identity and it has this creamy, crunchy, smooth, sweet combination. Sounds delicious. And then I have to say, this is one of my favorites. I hope you don't hate me, but I love the milk chocolate banana cookie.

Eunji Lee:
Oh, thank you.

Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, it's so good. I know it's not as fancy and complicated as the rest, but it is delicious. Can you tell us how you get the banana flavor into the cookie without making the dough too wet or...

Eunji Lee:
I wanted to make something chocolate chip cookie but I wanted to make something a little special. And instead of just making a milk chocolate cookie, how can I make it special? So at that moment, we were testing a lot of recipe with my husband, Matthew. And I was thinking, and then with the milk chocolate cookie and I saw, in the wreck there was a banana. It's almost too overripe. So, "Oh, maybe banana with the milk chocolate sounds delicious." So I just made the caramel with the overripe banana and then I piped it onto the cookie. But it works really well together. So that's what I do.

Jessie Sheehan:
Do you literally just use the very ripe banana? You just-

Eunji Lee:
It's overripe. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jessie Sheehan:
When do you add it? When you're melting the sugar, at the end.

Eunji Lee:
At the end. Yeah, at the end of the caramel I added it.

Jessie Sheehan:
Then you must whisk with a immersion blender.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Yeah, we blender it and yeah. Blend it and then strain it. Just a very simple caramel, but it's really good with the banana.

Jessie Sheehan:
And you really taste banana.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
So I love that. I thought that was so delicious.

Eunji Lee:
Thank you.

Jessie Sheehan:
And then this one I haven't tried yet, but I might need to. Can you tell everyone about V.I.C?

Eunji Lee:
Okay. V.I.C, it's our chocolate cake. Chocolate layered cake. V.I.C. means V-I-C, Very Important Chocolate cake.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I love that. You say it's your most lighthearted dessert and you're not even a chocolate person. But tell us what happens when you go to New York City steakhouses.

Eunji Lee:
I'm a food lover. I'm foodie and I love food. I love everything which has a flavor such as, not only the food, but also wine, tea, a lot of things. And I love American Steakhouse, yeah. I love steak, I love American Steakhouse. And I think the really great part to me is you eat a lot of steaks like with the spinach or french fries, stuff like that. And then at the end, always I have the room for the chocolate layer cake and I love to try the steak, but also chocolate layer cake. So I was thinking that, "Oh, I really want to make my own version of chocolate layer cake." So it looks like a little individual sized and then cute. So that's why it came out. And the name, it is very important chocolate cake, to me at the end of the meal. So that's why I named as a V.I.C.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I love that. And you also talked about, or I read that not unlike how you feel about the piping of the corn, the way you pipe this cake is very important to you. And you practice different kinds of piping because you wanted that visual impact.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah. Something. Exactly.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that.

Eunji Lee:
Personally, I really love piping because obviously, it demands more time-consuming because you have to pipe by hand. But I love the piping because I have a lot of fun. I've never like, "Oh, sick of the piping or something," even though I'm piping every day, every morning, like 100, like 150 something. I always enjoying to piping, a little bit hard for my hands but I love it. And also without the mold or without anything, you can express anything what you want with the piping. It's just we can make whatever I want, whatever shape that I want to make it. So I think it's a really cool part.

Jessie Sheehan:
I love that.

Eunji Lee:
Yeah.

Jessie Sheehan:
Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Eunji. And I just want to say that you are my cherry pie.

Eunji Lee:
Oh, thank you.

Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Plugrà Premium European-Style Butter and California Prunes for their support. Don't forget to subscribe to She's My Cherry Pie on your favorite podcast platform and tell your baking buddies about us. Be sure to check out our other episodes and get tips and tricks for making the most popular baked goods around, from birthday cake, to biscuits, to blondies. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network and is recorded at CityVox Studio in Manhattan. Our producers are Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu and our editorial assistant is Londyn Crenshaw. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie and happy baking.