Deep Dive Into the Dishes That Make Berlu Bakery Portland’s Hottest New Establishment | Eater Portland
"Founded by chef Vince Nguyen — who worked at Castagna, Royal Mail in Australia and Noma in Copenhagen and opened his tasting-menu restaurant in 2019 — the bakery’s origins trace to the pandemic, when Nguyen wrote in an email, “I had never previously cooked much traditional Vietnamese food, but like many during this time, found pride in my heritage and was able to connect to my Vietnamese roots through food.” In lockdown he recreated a childhood pandan birthday cake memory and landed on bánh bò nướng as the signature item: the name translates to “baked cow cake” because of its resemblance to a cow’s udder, and it’s a sweet, slightly chewy sponge cake with a honeycomb texture made primarily with tapioca flour (hence gluten-free). Nguyen’s first attempt at the recipe “turned out so perfectly,” and he only adjusted salt and sweetness; the biggest technical change was switching to a homemade single-acting baking powder made from cream of tartar and baking soda after inconsistent results with store-bought packets. The pandan version became the runaway hit — early pop-ups used pandan extract that gave a bright, fluorescent green interior, but now he steeps fresh pandan leaves grown in Hawaii in coconut milk, blends and strains the mixture through nut-milk bags for color and flavor, bakes the cake for an hour, then cools it upside down. While another version, bánh bò hấp, is steamed, Nguyen feels the baked style is “far superior,” though he is adding a few steamed flavors to be served with salted coconut cream. The bánh bò nướng also anchors a savory avocado toast: Nguyen, a self-proclaimed fan of classic American dishes “partly because I didn’t grow up eating them,” wanted a version of avocado toast with banana bread but found the banana loaf too dense — “You need the contrast that traditional toasted sourdough gives to the avocado because the avocado is so soft,” he says, and bánh bò nướng supplies that lightness and crunchy edges. The cake is toasted on a grill “pretty aggressively” to add char and a savory balance, then topped with organic avocado slices, seasoned, and finished with alfalfa sprouts and fried shallots; it arrives with a side of salted coconut cream with added fig leaf oil and a house chile oil, and Nguyen suggests guests pick up the toast and “spoon the coconut cream and chile oil on each bite.” Diners who’ve dropped into the bakery during the soft opening love it, he says. Another signature is bánh khoai mì nướng — a cassava cake with a mochi-like texture that’s vegan and made without eggs using both cassava and mung bean; Nguyen treats it like a pineapple-upside-down cake (recently adding kiwi slices), then adds a pastry shell after baking to give a tart-like feel and textural contrast, with seasonal fruit variations planned (a nectarine version is on the way). Nguyen is expanding savory offerings with bánh xèo (the “sizzling crepe”) made from turmeric, coconut milk powder, rice flour and water, poured into a hot pan to get its sizzle; while traditionally filled with seafood or ground pork and eaten with lettuce or mustard leaf and nước chấm, the shop’s nod to a bacon–egg–and–cheese sandwich folds those ingredients plus a little basil into the crepe — this version debuts the weekend of July 17. The business shifted toward Vietnamese cuisine after a late-2021 reopening (leading to Nguyen winning Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific at the 2023 James Beard Awards), wound down the tasting menu in January 2024 when he and his wife had a new baby and he “no longer wanted to be working on the line every night,” became a permanent bakery and his primary focus, then closed in October 2024 to incubate the next stage; as of June 29 the bigger, expanded version is open, the menu remains gluten-free while selectively reintroducing dairy and adding dairy as part of coffee service, and Nguyen writes, “I truly feel the experience I’ve had baking has made me a better tasting menu chef.”" - Dianne de Guzman
