Tamura, who grew up in Tokyo, can still recall the cheesecakes his mother gave him on his birthdays as a child, including one with freshly made strawberry sauce.
He spent years honing his skills and techniques in fine-dining restaurants in Japan and France, where he started working on desserts. His cheesecakes were served in those restaurants, but he wanted to expand his customer base.
“I wanted to challenge myself [with] what other people are not trying and I wanted to deliver the deliciousness I made to more people,” he says, which led him to start his own brand.
His classic cheesecake is flavoured with vanilla and tonka beans. Because it was difficult to open a physical store during the coronavirus pandemic, he posted its recipe on the Mr Cheesecake website in 2020, unafraid of sharing his secrets.
People started trying out his recipe at home, and posted the results online, causing it to surge in popularity.
After the pandemic, Tamura started opening more physical pop-up stores, and gained more fans who were excited to sample the real deal.
“I was amused by the pineapple bun’s sweetness paired with the refreshing taste of milk tea, and wanted to recreate the flavour with my cheesecakes,” he says. He was also motivated by the number of requests on social media for him to make a milk tea cheesecake.
Milk-tea-flavoured snacks and desserts have been a part of Hong Kong’s food culture for a long time.
He started experimenting with milk tea cheesecakes earlier this year, which took about three weeks from beginning to end. To create the perfect tea flavour, he combined Sri Lankan Uva tea and aromatic Yunnan black tea.
While he originally wanted to use tea leaves from Japan, he realised he could best achieve the “charm of Hong Kong” with tea leaves sourced from at least one region nearer to the city.
After trying four or five different kinds of Yunnan tea leaves, he decided to follow a recommendation from chef Tomoya Kawada, owner of the three-Michelin-star contemporary Chinese restaurant Sazenka in Tokyo.
Tamura is on his fifth visit to the city, and says he has noticed that Cantonese dishes are milder, and the desserts less sweet, than those of other Chinese regional cuisines, making them similar to Japanese cuisine.
Tamura received feedback from his pop-up that his chocolate cheesecake was too sweet for Hong Kong palates. “I heard that Hong Kong people are very conscious about their health, so I adjusted the milk tea flavour to reduce the sweetness and make it more enjoyable for Hongkongers,” he says.
Mr Cheesecake offers three serving recommendations: frozen, semi-thawed and fully thawed. Tamura notes that the cheesecake’s flavour and texture is affected by how it is served, and suggests eating his milk tea cheesecake fully thawed to get the most intense flavour.
He also suggests pairing the milk tea cheesecake with black tea, or a slightly sour and fruity coffee with a strong aroma. Champagne would also do the trick, as its slightly burnt and tart smell complements and enhances the milk tea’s smoky and spicy scent.
He has no plans to launch another exclusive Hong Kong flavour yet, although he recently enjoyed an osmanthus-flavoured sweet soup dessert in the city and hints that the floral ingredient might feature in his next cheesecake.
He is always expanding his culinary knowledge, even in his private time. As well as desserts, he is also working on perfecting savoury dishes such as sushi.
Whether he is baking or cooking, he tries to put himself in his customers’ shoes. “I’m not just thinking if it’s delicious or not, but I’m also paying attention to how people will taste it, the experience of having it, how they put their food in their mouth, how to link the taste and aroma of the food.”
Despite Mr Cheesecake’s signature product being labelled the “best cheesecake” on social media, Tamura says he does not fixate on his food’s rating or ranking, and that his intention is to spread joy.
He points to the brand’s motto: “Not the world’s best, but we make your days the best.”
