Expanding my baking to new cultures is always exciting, its even more exciting when I am able to gain insight from those within the culture. This title was a delightful introduction to Asian flavor and classical techniques that can be achieved in your home kitchen. Classical French techniques elevate your baking to the next level, your friends wont believe that you made these in your home kitchen! Great pictures, and easy to follow recipes with detailed explanations. Perfect for the ambitious home baker whose not afraid to head over to the Asian market with a list of new ingredients. Thank you netgalley and Chronicle Books for access to this digital ARC.

This is the first recipe book I have read on bao. I found the recipes accessible and the choices interesting.
The photos will look much better in the print version. That aspect was not my favourite.

I love that the cookbook is inspired by so many different cultures flavors. She’ll take a flavor profile from one food and put it in a form that is entirely unexpected, Thai tea gelati, ube cake roll yes please! It’s a visually beautiful book with lots of photos of the final product as well as process photos for more complex recipes. The introduction also has a very thoughtful section explaining the various flavors and products that aren’t as common in the Us and where to find them. This was extremely helpful. Some of the recipes were a little more complicated then I feel like I could make but even those recipes I found myself thinking of other ways to use a flavor combination or frosting. Can’t wait to give a few recipes from this book a try!

Thank you to Clarice Lam, Chronicle Books, and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was an immediate request for me since I love baking, especially with Chinese/Asian flavors in mind. So this seemed like the perfect cooking read for me--after all, 88 recipes will keep me occupied for quite a while.I can't wait to tackle more of these recipes with my mother who has most of the necessary ingredients.

Overall this is a lovely cookbook for those more experienced in the baking world, as these recipes are not quite for beginners. That being said, I will be sure to purchase a physical copy when Breaking Bao formally releases, and will recommend this to my fellow bakers!

We begin with bao, move into cakes and desserts, and conclude with snacks. In the introduction, Clarice Lam briefly shares a story from her 7th-grade history class, where students were asked to bring a treat from their culture to share with the class. This experience highlighted how food best represents our cultures and allows us to show ourselves to each other. Her takeaway in life is, “No matter how far we travel or how ‘Americanized’ we become, food can always bring us back to our roots.”

Clarice Lam embraced her culture as she became a pastry chef. Her book, Breaking Bao, is organized with step-by-step instructions to guide you through the recipes, allowing you to enjoy and appreciate her culture. She admits that these recipes are inspired by her travels and blend Asian culture with other influences.

Some featured recipes include Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread), Pork Floss and Scallion Focaccia, Thai Tea Gelati, Ovaltine Ganache, and Fig and Marzipan Mooncakes. The book is filled with beautiful photos showcasing the delectable finished products. It’s a great addition for anyone interested in fusion delights, with easy-to-understand instructions and a thorough breakdown of Asian ingredients and products. As a pastry chef, Clarice Lam focuses on baked goods and desserts, so you won’t find main entrees in this book.

This book will be available starting October 22, 2024, and will make a wonderful gift to either yourself or a friend.

The recipes in this book are outstanding and beautiful. They're also DELICIOUS! Big fan and can't wait to cook my way through this cookbook!

I haven’t made any of the recipes from this book yet, so I can’t quite give it 5 stars. But everything looks delicious, and like something I’d actually be able to do. I am definitely planning to buy a hard copy when it is published! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All of the menu recipes are yummy and I want to try all of them, 88 Bakes and Snacks from Asia and beyond. Thank you, Clarice Lam, for introducing us to all variety of bakes and snacks.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. There were several recipes I am excited to try. I like that the recipes included photos as well.

If you enjoy baking whether it's savory or sweet, then this book will delight you. Well, yes, it's not a typical baking book with fudgy brownies and yellow cake with frosting recipes, but if you love bao and are familiar with Asian ingredients, this book is definitely yours. This book has a chapter dedicated for cakes and

Breaking Bao has many recipes from sweet to savory, bao to babka, ube to Ovaltine. I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner cook/baker since most of recipes require multiple steps (no worries, there are pictures to help you out!) and don't seem easy or simple. But there are some fun ideas and fun combinations of ingredients that sound really intriguing. Not to mention beautiful photos to have you want to start baking right away!

Although this won't be my everyday cookbook, but if you want to surprise your loved ones and neighbors, I'd try Baking Bao out. This is such a fun cookbook!

Lovely, innovative recipes. You're better off with a different cookbook if you're looking for traditional recipes, but these ones are definitely fun fusion ideas.

Very interesting cookbook. I'd like to try some of the recipes, but they do seem complicated to me (not a baker). I'm hoping that I can follow the directions since they seem well written.

I love this cookbook (Breaking Bao, by Clarice Lam) so much! I will be baking from it and providing a more detailed review once published but for now, these are my thoughts.

In this highly personal baking book, Clarice Lam - a highly accomplished pastry chef who has worked in critically acclaimed establishments such as Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery; Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market; as the executive chef at Brooklyn's The Chocolate Room; her own Brooklyn shop The Baking Bean; and the opening pastry chef at Kimika in NYC - has created recipes based on her extensive world travels and memorable life events. In Breaking Bao, she takes us on a sweet and savory journey; she not only hopes that we will recreate, enjoy, and share these treats with others, but hopes that doing so will help to bridge the (still very large) cultural gap that exists, and that made Clarice feel like an outsider most of her life. The clever title, Breaking Bao, is for Clarice a sentiment akin to breaking bread, as by sharing this food with each other we hopefully can all come to realize that we are in fact more alike than different. And as for the actual recipes? Well, let's just say that I cannot wait to make the vast majority of this deliciousness!

The author provides three categories of recipes: Bao; Cakes & Desserts; and Snacks. In the Bao section, we begin with a great recipe for Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread). Milk Bread is delicious and relatively easy to make. I've been wanting a good recipe for awhile, so I was very excited to see this. What's even better is that this recipe for milk bread is then used as the basis for many of the other recipes in this section, such as: Gochujang Pizza Rolls; Shokupan Donuts (filled with homemade milk jam and strawberry-rose confit); Kaya French Toast; Mama Lam's Coconut Croissants; Vietnamese Cinnamon=Raisin Babka; and Strawberry-Mascarpone Maritozzi. There are also recipes here for dim sum-like filled buns and dumplings, with savory fillings such as Char Sui Carnitas, Dan Dan Filling, and Hong Kong Bolognese, which look both easy and delicious, and that have a "mix and match" quality with other recipes in this section, or that can just be enjoyed on their own. There is also a recipe for Scallion Roti Canai - an ultra flaky scallion laminated flatbread - that looks absolutely delicious and that has full-color, step-by-step photographed instructions (as do many of the more pastry-like recipes), for foolproof results. And how about Pork Floss and Scallion Focaccia? And Chocolate-Banana Bolo Bao - a chocolate bolo bao (aka bun) filled with banana custard? Honestly, there is so much deliciousness here to explore.

In Cakes & Desserts the creative fusion continues, with delights such as Pandan-Lime Meringue Pie; Mango-Yakult Tres Leches Cake; Macau Egg Tart Patissier (similar to portugese egg tarts - yum!); Vietnamese Coffee Viennetta; Mango Sticky Rice Cake; and Ovaltine Mochi Marjolaine - a seven layer masterpiece (much easier when broken down in to small steps, as it is here) - that includes a chocolate mochi cake layer, almond dacquoise, and an Ovaltine ganache and buttercream! And in the Snacks section we find such treats as: Ramen Cheese Itz; Matcha Shortbread with Raspberry Ganache; Fig and Marzipan Mooncakes; Yin Yeung Crullers (Hong Kong Milk Tea & Coffee-Glazed Crullers); Ferrero Mochi Bomboloncini (Ferrero Rocher-filled Fried Sesame Balls); and Gochujang-Furikake Caramel Popcorn. And the above is just a sampling!

This book is a rare gem... a unique and beautiful baking book for the baker with sophisticated, truly worldly tastes. However despite its adventurous nature, most of the recipes here are very manageable for the average baker, with a few that require some extra steps. But in all cases, Ms. Lam provides clear, easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions along with full color visual instructions for more involved steps (like rolling out and forming dough, etc.), and stunning photographs of every recipe so we can see what our finished product should look like. And while a few of these ingredients will be new to some (such as pork floss, pandan, and yakult), these can easily be obtained either at a local Asian market or online. Thankfully, we are given brand names to look for in the Ingredients section, which makes the process of finding them and achieving similar results even easier. Highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing a digital ARC in exchange for my review and honest opinion.

Wonderful selection of recipes of Asian and Asian inspired breads and desserts 💖

Beautiful images, easily to follow recipes, step by step instructions for more intermediate recipes as well as very informative section explaining ingredients and cookware ✨

Highly recommend this book if recipes like these are what you’re looking for!

Thanks NetGalley, Chronicle Books & Clarice Lam for giving me an ARC copy of this incredible cookbook!

You eat first with your eyes. Lam’s book, Breaking Bao, embodies this statement. As I read this cookbook, as I love to do, I found it difficult to choose a favorite recipe. The short descriptions at the beginning of each recipe were helpful in narrowing it down, however.
Though I am a seasoned cook, I found the clear step-by-step directions to be extremely helpful as some were very involved. In addition to delectable bao, there are also treats like Chocolate Mochi Cake, Pandan-Lime Meringue Pie, Dragon’s Beard Candy, and Ramen Cheese Itz, I encourage you to give this beautiful book a try. It opened my eyes to many recipes I am excited to try. Thank you to NetGalley, Chronicle Books, and Clarice Lam for the advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Fantastic bao bun themed cookbook!

I have been looking for a standardized cookbook providing information on cooking everything from your typical street bao bun to your jazzed up recipes, stuffing it, baking it, making pizza out of it, etc.

A few examples of the delicious recipes included:

Gochujang Pizza Rolls pg. 39
Kimchi & Corn Cheese Pan Fried Mochi pg. 55
Buckwheat & Black Sesame Bao pg. 82
Vietnamese Coffee Viennetta pg. 163
Bolo Bao Cream Puffs pg. 204

A very unique cookbook for any chef's collection. I will be adding a physical copy to mine.

***Thank you to Netgalley and to Chronicle Books for providing this cookbook in exchange for a review.

This delicious cookbook features a variety of recipes for a multitude of occasions. From snacks to sides to items for a gathering, you'll find something for just about any occasion. Recipes are well laid out, detailed, and easy to follow.

Received an Advanced Reading Copy from NetGalley.

This cookbook is filled with fun recipes. It's filled with innovative flavors that depart from the traditional. I love the unexpected combinations of different ingredients from different Asian cultures. They all sound delicious and I've chosen a few recipes to try out. I can't wait til this book is officially released. I plan to buy a hard copy for my kitchen shelf. Looking forward to trying all the different recipes.

What a beautiful cookbook. The photographer deserves a raise, crisp pictures, and didn't have that hue or filter feel giving a vibe. The vibe was just a vibe.

This book is definitely not for a novice baker. That said, love the step by step instructions with the photos to go along.

I love that many(some?) of these are classics (to some) with a twist. The raisin brioche, mouth was watering.

Overall a wonderful book with great recipes and formatted beautiful IMO.

This book is beautifully done. The photography is inspiring. The goal is to create fusion dessert and baked goods. There are matcha donuts. Baked Alaska is made with flavors that are more traditionally Asian. Cake rolls are made with ube.

All the flavor combinations sound wonderful. (This is a vegetarian but not vegan book.) The book does a great job of giving step by step photos of the more involved techniques that were confusing to people who hadn't tried them before.

The recipes are very involved. This is definitely a book for people who get excited by the thought of spending hours making the perfect dessert. There isn't anything here that I will likely be trying myself but for people who love to make show stopping desserts, this book is a winner.