Inside Oakland's Bake Sum Bakery | KTVU

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]guest switched careers and decided to open a bakery. Then when the pandemic struck, Joyce Tang pivoted and switched to a pop-up bakery. Now, six years later, Oakland's Bake Sum has gained a very loyal local following as well as national acclaim. The bakery specializes in a unique treats in a fusion of flavors from Asian cuisine and other global flavors. Readers of Nosh recently crowned it as the best bakery in the East Bay. And the New York Times named one of its signature pastries, the Crovi, as one of the best 25 dishes in the country. With that introduction, we want to welcome Joyce Tang to the show, the owner and founder of Bake Some. You have a new project.

[00:00:38]>> Yes.

[00:00:39]>> Your cookbook that's coming out. How did all this come about and how did you decide to make a cookbook?

[00:00:44]>> Oh goodness. Um it's been many many years in the making and um we had been approached many times in the past about writing a cookbook and about two years ago it felt right um that you know we had a story to tell. We had a very large menu and a moderateized following um and then I signed with a an agent and the agent introduced me to Sole who is now my co-author on the book. Um and then Sole and I >> She was the food critic for the Chronicle. Yeah. So, sole is a pretty big deal, too. And then, um, we sold the book deal to Hardy Grant, and now we're due out in September 1st, um, in all local bookstores, and we're available for pre-order right now.

[00:01:27]>> And some of the Oops. Some of >> some Here's the book cover right here.

[00:01:31]Uh, some of the, uh, uh, the pastries and the items that, uh, you're known for. Um, are there some of the recipes in this book?

[00:01:39]>> Absolutely. Okay. So, so let's talk about what you guys are known for.

[00:01:42]Bakesome has a extremely uh loyal following. You guys just opened a new uh second location in Alama. How's it going?

[00:01:50]>> It's going amazingly. Um the the reception has been hot to say the least.

[00:01:55]And um the lines are roughly 1 hour long. So um just brace yourselves if you're going to make the trip out to Alamita to come early. Um, but also we have a store in Oakland that's open five, six days a week now and um, you can come visit us as both locations. But >> how would you describe your pastries and do you have a favorite one?

[00:02:15]>> I think everybody has their own particular favorite, but I think the best description I've heard of our pastries is that it's Asian Americana.

[00:02:23]Um, and we take a lot of inspiration from Pan-Asian cultures and we and we kind of u mash them up into flavors that we'd like to see across the team since we come from such diverse backgrounds.

[00:02:36]>> Do you have a favorite one? I know the corsubi is is is >> that's the around the country and the New York Times called it one of the best things to eat here in the Bay Area. My personal favorite to eat is the traditional croissant. It's a traditional butter croissant and it takes 3 days to make every single one of those. Wow.

[00:02:53]>> Um, we bring the butter in from France and we put 27 layers of butter into each one of those and then we um and then we proof and we bake it on the last day and um if we do everything right then we get this perfect croissant at the end of it and it's our it's our butter croissant and I think of it like the black coffee of the pastry world just because um you can really see the love and the skill and the attention to detail u for every baker in this one particulars. Simple is is best.

[00:03:24]>> Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I like to eat for breakfast. If I if I have a choice across the whole entire menu, I'm going to I'm going to go for the tradition.

[00:03:31]>> So that's your favorite. But tell us what's uh so why the croi is so famous.

[00:03:35]What's so unique about it?

[00:03:36]>> The kubi is a take on the spam masubi croissant. So it is um inspired by the Hawaiian street snack spam musubi. And instead of rice, we'll put on on our um our croissant dough. It has spam, seaweed, um, and then it's topped with a freico of parmesan cheese and a housemade toarashi. Um, and, uh, inside we have a little more toarashi and unagi sauce, too. And I think all those like elements together really make it um, fun and delicious.

[00:04:04]>> Yeah, these are all original recipes.

[00:04:06]Uh, so how do you come up with such creative combinations of flavors? And how do you know what's going to work and what doesn't? The thing is we never know what's going to work and we've thrown a lot of things at the wall and um sometimes some things work better than others and then some things are smash successes right out the gate but it is a truly collaborative effort across the entire team and um folks from you know all different backgrounds have contributed to this menu which is what I think makes it so strong.

[00:04:33]>> Tell us the story behind the name Bakesome.

[00:04:35]>> Oh Bakesum is um inspired by the name dim sum. Um, and also sum is like the the addition of a lot of different parts. And so, um, when we were thinking about this branding several several years ago, um, bake some just kind of felt right and it was easier to say, it was easier to spell. I had a bakery um, many years ago called Lashin Wazeri and no one could say it and no one could spell it. And so we realized that that was a little bit of a mistake at that point. and then kind of um when we pivoted over to Bayum, I think everything just kind of clicked.

[00:05:10]>> I like to ask this question of a lot of small business owners who come and talk on the show, especially in the Bay Area.

[00:05:16]Where do you see yourself and bake some in 10 years? What What's next for you?

[00:05:21]>> Oh goodness. Um in 10 years, I hope we are making um an even wider assortment of pastries. Maybe we're on to our like, you know, second and third book. Um, and you know, we have a couple more locations around the Bay Area. Um, but I I hope for continued success and um, a little bit more growth, but not too much. Growth can be a little painful sometimes. And so, we're just trying to balance it all out.

[00:05:46]>> Yeah. Kind of balance out the growing pains and everything for people who get your cookbook, which is available pre-order now. What do you hope they take away from it beyond just the written recipes?

[00:05:56]>> Oh gosh. Um, I think one of the big themes I have in the book is like taking great leaps and that anyone can take um a really big leap and um you know I've taken a couple in my own lifetime um going from tech to culinary and um my parents taking those giant leaps that enabled me to take my giant leap. Um my dad swam from um China to Macau. And then my mom swam or she took a boat from um China to Hong Kong >> so that they could then come here to start a new life.

[00:06:30]>> Yeah. To start new lives.

[00:06:31]>> Was this before you were born or >> Way before I was born. But um you know there are many many leaps in people's lives um that have to happen in order for these next set of leaps to happen.

[00:06:41]And I just want to encourage more folks to take more leaps. Well, what a beautiful and delicious tribute to that heritage and that family story. Joyce Tang, thank you so much for coming in.

[00:06:50]We wish you the best with your cookbook and your new location. Uh again, you can uh order the cookbook, pre-order now, and then we'd love to have you back when it is actually out in September. So, >> sign all your copies.

[00:07:03]>> We'd love that. All right.

[00:07:04]>> Thank you so much.

[00:07:05]>> Thank you. Okay, we'll send it over to you, Frank.

[00:07:07]>> Great interview. Save me a croissant