Why Tofu Is the Perfect Dessert Ingredient

Chefs Make Tofu the Star of the Last Course

The basic process of making tofu — which is thought to have originated in Han dynasty China — has remained basically unchanged for millenniums. Soybeans are soaked and ground into milk, which is then boiled, curdled and pressed. But these days, pastry chefs are finding new ways to use it, reflecting trends toward lighter, plant-based sweets as well as Asian-style desserts.

“Tofu’s smooth texture and relatively neutral flavor make it an ideal base, with the benefit of being dairy-free,” says James Yeun Leong Parry, 41, the chef and owner of the Happy Crane, a contemporary-Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. He serves toasted jasmine tofu pudding (developed with the pastry chef Jessica Fu) made with fresh soy milk from the local producer Hodo and finished with makrut lime leaf oil and tanghulu, a traditional Chinese confection made by dipping fruit (in this case strawberries) in melted sugar that hardens into a clear candy coating. “I encourage guests to slide the strawberry onto the pudding and crack through its shell with a spoon, à la crème brûlée,” Parry says.

Nguyen Thai Son, 32, the chef at Muoi Bistro in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was inspired by the taste of the popular street-vendor treat tàu hũ nước gừng — silken tofu pudding topped with warm ginger syrup — to create his ginger tofu gelato with ginger syrup, water chestnuts and gingerbread crumble. “The gelato captures the silky delicacy of fresh tofu, offering a subtly nutty flavor,” he says. In Hong Kong, Mel Ng, 36, the founder of the culinary consulting agency Off Mnu, makes a silken tofu cheesecake served over youtiao (sticks of savory, deep-fried wheat dough). “For a long time, Western bakers viewed tofu strictly as a vegan alternative,” she says. “Now it’s recognized as an artisanal ingredient in its own right.”

— Mackenzie Oster

An Indonesian Resort Filled With Handmade Furniture

About 15 years ago, the New York-born cultural historian Bruce Carpenter, 74, who has been living on Bali on and off since the 1970s, began buying property on the southwestern coast of Sumba, a larger and less developed island in eastern Indonesia. Carpenter intended to use the land to build a family vacation home but, after it sat untouched for nearly a decade, he and his wife, the sculptor Carola Vooges, decided they’d develop a small resort there instead, with the help of their entrepreneur daughter, Allegra Carpenter; their son, Avalon Carpenter, a woodworker; and his wife, the Balinese-born architect and designer Conchita Blanco.