As mochi doughnuts have spread around the region, the lines at Donutchew inside K Market in Annandale have dwindled. This is good news for MJ Kim. And what’s good news for the chef-owner of Gâteau MJ augurs even better for sweet lovers.
While waiting in line, one’s eye darts from Earl Gray scones to cans full of strawberry cake and blueberry cheesecake, but it might settle on the diploma on the corner wall the kiosk near the entrance of the food court. The oversized, framed paper bestows on Min-Jung (MJ) Kim, a degree in culinary arts and pastry from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
Kim might tell you in her warm but halting English that she returned to Korea and eventually opened her own shop back home after studying abroad. She came to the United States in 2015, nine years after she gained her degree. She opened Gâteau MJ last year. Does she plan to expand beyond the grocery store food court? “I want,” she says with purpose.
So do we. We could always use more of her sweets like the Basque cheesecake in the case. But her standout desserts are all her own, like something labeled Tom & Jerry Cheese Mousse. The tag makes perfect sense, as it looks exactly like the kind of buttery yellow slice of Swiss that a cartoon mouse would crave. In practice, it’s actually a foamy-light treat somewhere between cheesecake and mousse that’s not too sweet but tastes intensely of tangy fromage.
To say that the heart-shaped J’Adore cake is light as air isn’t so much hackneyed or cliché as it is truth. The cake is so delicate that it disappears with a puff as a fork cuts in. Whipped white chocolate surrounds an inner layer of mousse that crunches with strawberry seeds. Below, a chocolate biscuit melds with the flavor of the chocolate-piped writing on top. It is gone in moments, a wisp of a sweet memory. With a product like that, there’s no chance that Kim and her wares will ever play second fiddle to mochi doughnuts again.
4239 John Marr Dr., Annandale
Feature image by Mike Ramm
