Chinatown just got a new bakery named FLOURING and it’s so sweet that it’s already become the talk of the town.
Owned by Chef Heather Wong, a well-known executive pastry chef formally of Bottega Louie, and most recently Josephine as executive pastry chef, who some may recognize her as a former contestant of Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship.” However, more than a few will recognize her signature style: cookies, cakes, and an assortment of delights adorned with lilacs and tasty “abstract buttercream” icings, hence the name “FLOURING.”
Putting the “pedal to the metal” cake pans has become Wong’s signature style over the past four years as an entrepreneur. Starting out of her home in 2020, only to find her cakes in such high demand, she would eventually open her own brick and mortar just a few years later.
What started out as a means to fulfill her baking urges while socially distancing soon “floured” into a garden of cake boxes and dessert box sets with unwaning support from companies like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon, just to name a few.
As her business continued to blossom, Wong had no choice but to expand her pastry garden into her first brick-and-mortar bakery now celebrating its Grand Opening at the SooHoo Leung Building on Hill Street in Chinatown.
It’s all about lilacs.
Bakery shelves at FLOURING come adorned with sweet innovations fused with pastel pedals of lilacs, swirled icings, and meticulously curated cake displays. The countertop pastry case features an assortment of freshly baked desserts that are highly nostalgic with a modern twist that Wong is known for, like strawberry coffee crumb donuts, meringue-topped brownies, s’more bars, and lavender-lemon shortbread.
Just outside the entrance are six French bistro-placed tables leading to her retail space of a mere 190 sq ft, but what the tiny shop lacks in size it makes up for with the sweet satisfaction of perfect lighting all day long with its large floor-to-ceiling paned windows. The monochromatic interior is punctuated with matching lilac concrete counters, and its windows are accented with gold signage.
The lilac theme extends beyond the retail space and into the kitchen, with walls lined in lilac subway tiling to remind Wong of just how dedicated she had become in order to break free from the cake-molded kitchens of her past. “I wanted to enjoy the kitchen I’d planned to spend so much time working in after years of working in windowless commercial kitchens with uninspiring, grimy white walls.” Said Wong.
Guests can choose from an array of up to nine signature cake bar flavors or fresh fruit mini pavlovas in the cold pastry case. The standing retail refrigerator showcases fully decorated fresh floral and meringue-layered cakes for grab-and-go purchase. Layered cakes and desserts can also be pre-ordered for celebratory events like birthdays, weddings, and corporate events.
FLOURING offers the opportunity to fully customize their cake experience with full-service cake consulting.
For Heather Wong, FLOURING’s menu is the culmination of 13 years of baking in kitchens throughout Los Angeles, from Mexican restaurants to French bakeries made wholesome by a rich blend of Chinese and Mexican heritage.
“I was raised by a single mother and spent much of my youth under the care of my grandparents in the Chinatown hotel they owned and operated. The years spent with them instilled a deep appreciation for Chinese tradition and cuisine.”
“A lot of the cake flavors on Flouring’s menu are just my grown-up take on childhood dessert favorites—reimagined childhood desserts in the form of cake,” says Wong.
“Our Black Sesame Cake was inspired by my grandmother’s Black Sesame Tang Yuan. The use of meringue, both fresh and baked, on a lot of our menu items is directly influenced by Mexican Merengue.”
With the opening of her first brick-and-mortar bakery, Heather Wong’s unique fusion of cultures, flavors, and an unwavering passion for pastry has a permanent home right here in the sweetest spot of all, Downtown LA.
