Shine Bakery & Cafe is a whimsical restaurant tucked in the third floor of SM Aura, promising the hungry visitor a showcase of savory eats and delicious pastries enjoyed in a family-friendly atmosphere. Owned by Rob and Sunshine Pengson, Shine is the colorful playground for the chef couple, where they can have fun with everyday gastronomy, and share comfort food creations with their customers. Chef Rob Pengson is at the helm of the kitchen, while Chef Sunshine Puey-Pengson displays her desserts and pastries.
Chef Sunshine has both culinary and pastry degrees from her studies in San Francisco, New York, and Paris, but admits to being a total dessertarian who is inclined towards pastry. We fellow sweet-tooths are all the more delighted with this, as the chef's French eclairs (which were made popular to our tastebuds first by means of Gourmandise Patisserie) take center stage at Shine.
This Parisian dessert staple, available in many flavor combinations, are accompanied by a bevy of colorful sweets such as cookies, cupcakes, and macarons. But for the first-timer at Shine, I suggest for you to sink your teeth into an eclair (try the Salted Caramel!), as these are her specialty, something close to her heart. Also, these cream filled treats are delicious. 'We do a dessert buffet for catering events, since we specialize in desserts,' the chef shares. Now that the 'ber' months have rolled in, Shine Bakery & Cafe is showcasing some of its catering packages that offers a delicious spread of both sweet and savory. In that afternoon's dessert buffet, I made a beeline toward all the eclairs, then on my second round, discovered that their bakery makes excellent cookies as well.
Chef Sunshine shares that pastry is something where you can have a little bit more fun with. It does show (and yes, shine) from the playful interiors of Shine down to the many flavor combinations of her sweet treats. And in eating these desserts, we have our own kind of fun with them, too–it's comfort food laced with a sugar high.
Know more about Chef Sunshine, her love for desserts, her favorite kind of dessert, and her cafe's new holiday offerings in this interview.
How early on did you discover your love for cooking?
Chef Sunshine: I always enjoyed cooking even when I was little, my mom is an excellent cook so I grew up with really good food. I never really considered it as a profession, though. My background was in education in college, and cooking was more of a hobby, something that I enjoyed doing. But after college, I was in a crossroads, the kind of 'What do I want to do?' and everything… And at that time, my mom said, 'Why don't you try culinary school?' It has always been an interest of mine but I never really considered it as full time. And so I tried it out, a culinary school in San Francisco for 6 months, and I really enjoyed it, and then I started really thinking seriously about it. And I followed that up with more classes and more education, I did some training with restaurants, et cetera. That's when I was hooked.
Can you still remember the very first dish you believed you cooked perfectly? Your first specialty?
Wow. Well, even before I went to culinary school I was selling things like cookies, starting out with simple things. And then after culinary school, I got into catering, and I think one of the earliest dishes that I did was a duck confit with peppercorn onion sauce. That was something I did often, that was requested a lot.
Which do you prefer more, baking or cooking?
I like both, I studied both. I enjoy both, but pastry I guess is something where you can have a little bit more fun with, I think. Be a little more creative, a little more whimsical in terms of decoration. Right now, I'm focusing a lot more on pastry.
Filipinos by default have a sweet tooth, so we're quick to catch on trendy desserts like those hybrid pastries. What do you think is a dessert that should we give more attention to, what's the next big thing?
Well, we've been in a kind of cupcake trend for several years now. Because I think a lot of people like the fact that it's mobile, it's the perfect size. I would encourage people to give eclairs a try, because that's something close to my heart. It's very French. It's the same thing, you know–you eat it with your hands, it's mobile, the perfect serving size. And you can have as many different flavor combinations and designs. I'm hoping it will take off as much as the cupcakes. Also, at the same time, since we've been doing a lot of the hybrid stuff, I think that it's also going to be all about classic and traditional flavors.
Here in Shine, you have your popular eclairs here, carried over from Gourmandise Patisserie. Plus you have more desserts and pastries for the sweet-toothed. What else do you have new here at the cafe?
Shine opened last November as sort of an off-shoot of Gourmandise, which used to be in Serendra; we wanted to open something with a savory menu and that's why we opened Shine. It's a casual dining establishment for the whole family. But what we wanted to do is to offer people the opportunity to experience the same kind of dining in their parties, for their events, and even in their homes. That's why we are launching the catering packages at different price points. We have the savory packages of course, but since we specialize in desserts, we also have the dessert packages. We can have different themes go with different price points here to show what you can get.
Shine is one of the few restaurants that gives special attention to both savory and sweet menus. How do you go about conceptualizing what pastries and desserts to offer?
I think a big thing is that Rob and I are super takaw, we eat a lot! [laughs] We love to eat in other people's restaurants, and we love to travel and of course our traveling revolves around where we're gonna eat, right? [laughs] We research a lot, we read a lot of books, we follow a lot of chefs online. And we're constantly bouncing ideas off of each other, of course it helps that we're on the same profession. There's something I actually learned from my mom… My mom's the type of eater that when she has things on the plate, she mixes it all together. And so that's something I got from her. So I'll have like, three different desserts on my plate. Then I say, okay, what if I try this with the frosting of that one, then add the sauce of this? And then I'll say, hey, that's really good! That would make a nice new dessert! Things like that. You get ideas and inspiration everywhere, I think. It's a lot of fun.
What are the other new things to look forward to at Shine?
We're just finishing off our chili dog madness, where we actually did a buy one, take one on our chili dog. And then we're coming up with a high tea, and Rob is also thinking of a brunch menu, so there's always something new every month, at least, to look forward to.
Can you share your earliest food memory?
Maybe making pulvoron with my yaya when I was a kid.
How about favorite food in your hometown?
Rob and I are both from Bacolod. Of course, sweets again. We love napoleones, that's always something we get when we visit. Just all the Bacolod sweets, like the caramel boats are really yummy. The piyaya, of course. My dad gets me all these mango cookies. Really, really good!
So you really do have a sweet tooth!
Yes, obvious! [laughs]
What kind of dessert person are you? Do you like your chocolatey stuff, or fruity desserts, or creamy…?
I do like all, but most of the time, yes, it's chocolate. I like something rich, something dense. I do like chocolate a lot!
Do you have a favorite ingredient when you are making desserts?
Aside from chocolate, that is a given, I do like adding salt to my sweets because I feel that it adds another dimension to it. Not necessarily of course to make it salty, but to bring out the flavors.
I do love your Salted Caramel Eclair here! It's so good.
Thank you!
How about when you are eating out, do you have a favorite cuisine?
I really like Japanese food. Rob and I went on a trip recently to Japan, and we were saying, wow! We were eating Japanese food every day, but we were not getting sick of it. Because before when we went to Spain, after a few days, we were feeling full and tired of the Spanish food! But Japan? I really love Japanese food a lot.
Would you say you're an adventurous eater?
Well, I would say that I would try everything at least once, but I've never tried balut and dinuguan. I'm not a particular fan of offal, except for foie gras. [laughs]
Is there something that you can eat every single day? You know, if you didn't have to think about diet or health…
Dessert. Definitely! [laughs]
And if you could pick your final meal on earth, what would you be eating?
Well… Wow, that's tough! Hmm… Probably, something with foie gras, definitely steak. Fried chicken? [laughs] What else? I eat a lot. For dessert, definitely something with chocolate.
If you could give advice to those who are aspiring to be chefs or restaurateurs, what would it be?
I think a lot of people now think that once you go to culinary school and you graduate, you're a chef. And that's the furthest thing from the truth. I think that it's a long process, you have to earn your stripes. Gain experience. Don't open a restaurant right away. I mean, Rob and I waited for ten years before opening up our first restaurant, you know, because we were gaining experience, we were studying, we were doing so many other things. Stay humble. Don't think that you're too important to scrub the floor, to clean the bathroom, to wash dishes. Because we've all done that. And adapt to high standards. Because unfortunately, a lot of Filipinos have this 'bahala na' mentality, or 'okay na 'yan.' But for me, it's to adapt high standards earlier in your career, and stick to it all throughout. Don't say pwede na yan. Each and every time, it has to be better than the last. That would be my advice, but of course, I am still learning.
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In line with the holiday season, Shine Bakery & Cafe now offers Savory Buffets (3 Packages, all good for 80 pax each) and Dessert Buffets (3 Packages, all good for 100 pax each) for special and corporate occassions. All dessert packages come with a choice of vanilla or chocolate cake covered in fondant, with a customized design.
Dessert Buffet Packages (Click to enlarge)
Make Shine your venue for parties with their Consumable Venue Rates for lunch, merienda, and dinner hours. Party Trays good for 15 to 20 people are available, with six savory entrees to choose from (P1,500-P2,500 per tray). Customized packages available upon request. E-mail shinebakerycafe@gmail.com for reservations and inquiries.
Visit Shine Bakery & Cafe at the third floor of SM Aura Premier, Taguig. Call 553-6566, like them on Facebook (/ShineBakeryCafe), and follow them in Twitter and Instagram (@shinebakerycafe).
