Fusion bakeries which marry French decadence with Japanese precision aren’t new to

Published 7:00 am Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Fusion bakeries which marry French decadence with Japanese precision aren’t new to Seattle, but Fuji Bakery in the International District (there’s one in Bellevue too) might be the only one with a Ladies Who Lunch vibe. Save for the scrawny table at the door, Fuji is all gloss and glam, with patisseries displayed like precious jewels under a bath of halogen lighting. It’s no wonder that Fuji presents their wares like treasures. Traditional Asian cuisine isn’t big on rich desserts, creating legions of the pastry-deprived. (Friends who’ve lived in Japan tell me that patisseries and patisserie academies there might outnumber teahouses.) Fuji chefs Taka Hirai and Yushi Osawa clearly take their French culinary training–and the Japanese sweet tooth–seriously.The classics are all here–flaky croissants, griottines with shiny, brandied cherries, and gleaming lemon-infused cakebreads. But when the oo-la-la factor is tempered by a Japanese aesthetic, the Fuji chefs really soar.Specialties here include the cube-shaped brioche japon with red beans and raspberry puree and the green-tea Danish. There’s even a savory nod to the Northwest–a wild salmon brioche. Everything is sized for the ladies but nothing skimps on the ingredients–many organic–or the flavor. Most elegant of all is the organic sweet red-bean bun. Burnished to a lovely copper color, it appears to have just spent a few days basking on the Cotes d’Azur. A splash of black sesame tops the bun on the outside and muddled, subtly sweet red beans fill the inside. (Just as with peanut butter, there are red-bean-paste people and chunky-red-bean people. I’m a pacifist and fall into both camps.) Like the other cross-cultural treats at Fuji, the sweet red bean bun is both rich and spare–like French haiku.Follow Voracious on Twitter and Facebook.