Salon du Pain 2026 | 01 A Table with Chef Nogami, Ten Years Later

Salon du Pain 2026
Taste of Memories
A Special Two-Day Showcase
30–31 May 2026
GF Concourse, Isetan The Japan Store
Lot 10, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
10:00 AM – 10:00 PM

There are some dates that stay quietly inside you.

26 December 2014 is one of them for me.

Back then, Croisserie did not yet exist in the way people know it today. It was still an idea taking shape inside my head — uncertain, fragile, exciting. I remember preparing a table presentation for Chef Nogami, carefully arranging the breads and ideas I hoped would one day become the direction of the bakery.

I was nervous even then.

Not because the table was grand, but because I understood who was standing in front of it.

For many years, Chef Nogami was someone I looked up to from afar before eventually meeting in person. His work, discipline, and quiet seriousness toward bread left a deep impression on me long before Croisserie had a name.

I still remember that day in 2014 very clearly.

The breads.
The table.
The feeling of wanting everything to be right.

And perhaps most of all, the feeling of wanting the person you admire to believe in you.

At that time, I was still very much a young apprentice trying to find my own direction. Truthfully, even now, after all these years, I think a part of me still remains that way.

Because no matter how much time passes, some feelings never really disappear.

You still look toward your mentor with the same respect.
You still hope they can look at your work and feel proud.
You still quietly wonder whether you have honoured the things they tried to teach you.

Maybe that feeling is important.

It reminds you to stay humble in front of the craft.

As this upcoming event approaches, I feel both excitement and pressure at the same time. The closer the dates come, the more I find myself thinking about details — the breads, the flavours, the atmosphere, the table itself.

When someone has shaped your journey for so many years, naturally you do not want to disappoint them.

More than awards or recognition, I think what matters to me most is simply the hope that Chef Nogami can look at the table and feel that his little apprentice did not disappoint him.

That the years of repetition, mistakes, persistence, and quiet work eventually became something real.

And now, somehow, more than ten years later, that memory returns in a new form.

This year’s theme, Taste of Memories, feels especially close to me.

On 30 and 31 May, Chef Tomohiro Nogami and I will be presenting a special two-day collaborative showcase as part of Salon du Pain 2026 — a limited table created together, available only during these two days.

For me, this is more than an event announcement.

It feels like returning to the same table again, ten years later.

Only this time, we stand behind it together.

Stay tuned for a sneak preview of what we will be presenting.