Korean modern pastry sweeps NYC

An assortment of Lysee's dessert creations that aim to capture both taste and creativity / Courtesy of Eunji Lee

Pastry chef Eunji Lee presents mix of Korean, French and American patisserie styles

By Taeyoung Lee

NEW YORK ― In a city where new Instagrammable dessert spots pop up every day, Lysee has made its mark as it still has customers lining up before doors even open at its museum-like boutique right near Flatiron, the landmark of Manhattan.

Almost a year into business, Lysee remains relevant with its experimental edible art offered by Michelin-starred pastry chef Eunji Lee who brings a sweet mix of Korean, French and American patisserie styles. Introduced in the Front Burner section of the New York Times last summer and featured on multiple social platforms from Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to Weibo, patissier Lee and her pastries continue to receive global attention.

From her signature mousse cake made with toasted Korean brown rice and caramel to the now-viral corn mousse cake that looks just like corn with the husk and all, Lee handcrafts each confection like a work of art. “I want my customers to feel like they are receiving a gift when we serve our desserts to them,” Lee said.

Many reasons make Lysee special. But foremost among those reasons is that Lee leads the team as founder and head chef to present unconventional pastry experiences to customers every single day.

Lysee is the combined word of “musee,” meaning museum in French, and her last name Lee.

In the summer of 2022, Lee opened her patisserie, which she had dreamed of for a long time. “Lysee has a theme that combines my ego identity and identity of my pastries,” Lee said. Constantly learning about various food cultures, Lee came up with the idea of conjoining the two identities.

Eunji Lee, head chef and owner of patisserie Lysee in New York City / Courtesy of Eunji Lee

Chef Lee defines herself as a Korean French New Yorker.

She was born and raised in Busan, Korea, but spent her most recent 15 years in Paris and New York, the leading gourmet cities. Given these varieties of experiences in different cities, Lee always wanted to introduce Korean things to the public in the most creative way.

Her passion for harmoniously integrating Korean heritage with French pastry can be found here and there in the store. Lee conceived and designed the space, expecting that French pastry with a Korean bent would naturally blend into New York. She also came up with an idea to use traditional Korean mother-of-pearl (“jagae”), roof tiles (“kiwa”), pillars from a Korean-style house (“hanok”), stones, and jars in interior design.

“We pursued uniqueness while maintaining simplicity and a calm vibe so as not to stand out too much. Because we knew that if the space becomes too colorful or flashy, the pastries will not get enough attention,” she said.

Lysee's spatial composition is very similar to that of an art gallery. Unlike many other pastry shops, Lysee's pastry collection is all displayed around the cylindrical stand on the center of the second floor. The checkout counter for takeout orders is also located on the second floor, while the seating area and the dining place are all located on the first floor.

“At first, there were many difficulties in putting this spatial composition into practice before we opened Lysee. Many people around me objected to this idea, telling me it was inefficient. However, I wanted our customers to appreciate our pastries in various ways by freely walking up and down through the stairs just like a museum or art gallery,” Lee said.

After watching one television show where a pastry chef makes artistic pastries and brings joy to people, she desired to move to France to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a patissier. Despite her parents' opposition to her becoming a pastry chef, Lee eventually convinced them over quite a long time by showing how devoted she was to studying the pastry arts.

After studying pastry arts at the Institut National de la Boulangerie Patisserie in Rouen and Ecole Ferrandi in Paris, Lee began her pastry career by gaining experience under renowned chefs. Lee developed her techniques through her three years at Ze Kitchen Galerie under chef William Ledeuil and four years at the three-Michelin-starred Le Meurice under chef Cedric Grolet.

Then one day, Lee made a decision that would become another turning point in her life. Around the time when she was offered a sous chef position at Le Meurice, she also received another offer of executive pastry chef at Jungsik, a highly-esteemed two-Michelin-starred Korean fine dining restaurant in New York. After hesitating for a while, Lee decided to step out of her comfort zone and flew to New York, even though she was neither familiar with the city nor had many close people there.

“I always wanted to add and combine Korean elements to my desserts. Knowing that Jungsik is a prominent fine dining restaurant that presents outstanding Korean dishes incorporating traditional Korean ingredients and modern interpretation, Jungsik was where I could actualize what I had been seeking,” Lee said.

However, New York did not treat Lee well at first. Living expenses were much higher, traffic was way too heavy, the city was hectic, and loneliness remained in her.

“When I just came to New York, I worked non-stop. The more I felt unfamiliarity and discomfort in this place, the more I immersed myself in creating pastries. Since I had developed various designs and concepts of my kind of pastries even before I moved to New York, I tried out all kinds of those by making and tasting until late at night,” Lee added.

As a result of her experiences with French pastries, techniques she learned during her past years in Paris, her creativity, and constant effort all coming together, Lee received recognition for her signature dessert from numerous customers. Her teammates at Jungsik also supported her in conceptualizing and creating her pastries.

Putting huge emphasis on preserving natural fruit flavor in the taste, Lee's signature dessert, “Baby Banana,” could come out to the world. Outwardly looking like a real banana, Lee's innovative banana dessert captured the taste buds and provided a unique dessert experience to the customers of Jungsik.

Around the time when Lee's passion for giving pleasure through dessert grew higher, she thought it was time to open up her pastry shop. Lysee was the space she had longed for a long time, so there was no great difficulty in mapping out the concept of the store, pastry menu, and space composition. “I was very clear about what I wanted to present as a head chef and show as a Lysee's founder since the first day I set out to launch Lysee,” Lee said.

Corn mousse cake, one of Lysee's signature pieces with a soft and sweet taste, is made with corn mousse, sable, and grilled corn cream. Courtesy of Eunji Lee

Lee gets inspiration from everywhere and anytime in creating the pieces that represent Lysee. “First of all, it is important to consistently use seasonal ingredients. The basic themes of Lysee's collection are roughly divided into four seasons. When I think of what atmosphere or taste would go well with the seasonal fruit, new ideas for various desserts come to mind,” Lee added.

Just as Lysee's pastry identity follows, the touch of Korean taste is also well shown in Lysee's signature menu ― flower-shaped mousse cake. Mainly based on Korean toasted brown rice mousse with caramel, Elliot Pecan Sable and Pralineare are added to the cake to maximize the savory and rich nutty flavor.

She also tends to reflect her personal favorite tastes and ingredients in her pastries. The flavors mixed with sweet, salty, and nutty tastes are her preferred ones. One of them was corn. Several years ago, when Lee participated in the French pastry competition program “Qui sera le procain grand patissier?” she introduced a piece using corn. Since then, there has been a constant demand for her to recreate the popular corn dessert again. And that became Lysee's corn mousse cake.

Corn mousse cake requires a much more elaborate design and plating. It takes substantial hard work to make because it takes more than three hours to create the dessert's realistic corn kernel details.

Lee hopes her customers feel like they receive a gift when the desserts are served to them. “Even when I am making the pastries, I try to vividly imagine their initial reaction of cutting, taking a spoonful of cake, and putting it into their mouth. And I contemplate how to make them laugh more or make them feel happier with experiencing the unforgettable taste and visual pleasure,” she added.

Lee's short-term goal is to successfully lead team Lysee. It might be impossible to satisfy everyone, but this year, she hopes Lysee will become a patisserie that can leave a long-lasting fine impression on its customers by making more innovative and fun pastries.

“Even though it is a vague wish for now, I think it would be great if Lysee could open up branches in Seoul and Paris later,” she said.

Taeyoung Lee (taeyounglee.tylee@gmail.com) is a freelance journalist based in New York City.