“As an Asian American creative person, that’s what Rose Ave is and that’s what it embodies: the palate of an Asian American.” “I want to represent me as a person, and I feel like that’s basically what I did here,” Nguyen, a first-generation Vietnamese American, said. She also educates pastry lovers about the flavors she uses, recently highlighting Filipino American History Month in October. What makes her classic baked goods so fascinating is how she is constantly changing up her flavor inspirations, from the curries of South Asia to the Spam used ubiquitously in Hawaii and Japan. ![]() A pandan coconut doughnut at Rose Ave Bakery. From there, she started working in bakeries and as a pastry chef in restaurants part-time to practice and refine her baking skills while still working as a full-time nurse. She posted photos of her pastries on her Instagram and shared them with friends. Nguyen first took up baking as a hobby while still working at the Children’s National Hospital. “I had a whole gift shop in my bedroom, where I’d give out my creations to family and friends.” “I loved to work with my hands,” Nguyen said of her childhood. She went on to work as a nurse for a decade before she got into baking and first opened Rose Ave Bakery in The Block food hall location in downtown D.C. Nguyen went to nursing school, but says she would have been an artist if her parents had been more supportive of that career. Rosie Nguyen, a petite woman with a commanding presence, is the creative mind behind the pastry. Purple yams, native to the Philippines, make the perfect nutty, sweet filling that oozes out as you bite through the layers of the fluffy dough. ![]() Ube is one of the classic flavors always in the bakery’s doughnut lineup. WTOP spoke to three bakers who have concocted modern twists on classic recipes and, along the way, built on their unique pastry education to take Asian-inspired baking in completely different directions.Īt Rose Ave Bakery in Woodley Park, the pastries are artfully displayed behind a glass counter: from the Spam musubi croissants beautifully drizzled with unagi sauce, stuffed with caramelized spam and sprinkled with furikake, to the perfectly sugar-dusted doughnuts with ever-changing fillings and tiny dollops of toppings. This bakery niche became incredibly popular nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been gaining steam in the D.C. region.ĭ.C.-area bakers are expanding the palates of pastry lovers by introducing them to baked goods infused with Asian flavors - from pandan coconut doughnuts and black sesame mochi rolls to matcha almond croissants. (Courtesy Rose Ave Bakery) This is part one of “Baking Connections,” a series on three local bakers and the popular baked goods with Asian flavors they are bringing to the D.C. ![]() Strawberry lychee rose donuts at Rose Ave Bakery. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.
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