Chateraise is a Japanese franchise bakery that is based in Yamanashi Prefecture. Chateraise first opened in 1955 specializing in Japanese confection. Ever since then, Chateraise has been utilizing its own baking techniques of more than half a century traditions.
As huge fans of sweets and desserts, we were always impressed how extremely fresh everything tasted whenever we tried goods of Chateraise. Even more surprising was their prices; with such high quality food, most of them cost about the same as, if not cheaper than, those of convenience stores. To find out their secrets, we decided to make a trip to Chateraise factory in Toyotomi Yamanashi; this factory, in fact, is one of the largest confectionary factories in Asia.
The very first and perhaps the most important step of this factory tour was to make sure we were spotless head to toe. We were asked to put on sanitized uniforms and shoes, tie our hair and put on two layers of head masks to make sure there is no chance for our hair to fall off. We also put on masks and gloves to keep from any possible germs or bacteria to contaminate any food products within the factory. Thinking we were completely safe now, we got excited to start our tour! We soon realized, though, that there were a few more processes left.
Our tour of the factory started with Japanese traditional confectionary area. Most places that make Japanese snacks have white or sweet rice delivered to them ready to be cooked. Chateraise, on the other hand, processes and peels the rice on the spot right before cooking them. This way, Chateraise is able to cook rice at its freshest state. Texture, taste and its freshness change drastically by this extra step.
One of their dango products, made with the freshest rice.
Next, we moved on to the baumkuchen station. There were a few workers handling the batter. Apparently, only skilled workers can bake this baumkuchen with even layers and the right consistency. Also, they change temperatures of the storage area of the eggs based on seasons to perfect the batter.
The edges of the baumkuchen are used as part of other cake batter, letting nothing to go to the waste!
Moreover, baumkuchen from Chateraise are the only ones in Japan with no additional additives. For this reason, baumkuchen from Chateraise have very short expiration dates, which allows the customers to eat them at their freshest states.
We moved on to the eggs station. There were rows and rows of eggs being moved and cracked at an incredible speed. Chateraise uses the same technique and machine for this as Kewpie Mayonnaise. These fresh eggs, I believe, are another factor that contributes to Chateraise’s fresh goods.
Even before I arrived at the next station, the smell of butter and cream filled my nose and watered my mouth. Right before my eyes, there was a countless number of the most popular product and my personal favorite of Chateraise: cream puffs, or choux-crème!
Next was the cake station. We were lucky to be able to try the famous chocolate cake of Chateraise. They were freshly baked, and the taste was incredible! All of us kept yelling out “oishii~ it’s so delicious!”
Right by the rows of one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I have tried, there was a long row of my favorite cakes being made. A combination of fresh whipped cream with light sponge cake with sweet strawberries can never go wrong as a cake! Since the delicate work of arranging strawberries, whipped cream, and sprinkle of sugar powder cannot be done with a machine, there were workers doing this work manually, one by one.
At the end of our tour, we had luxury to try one of the freshest choux-crème, just out of the oven. The outside was crisp and the inside filled with a layer of fresh whipped cream and another layer of custard cream. These incredible choux-crèmes are priced at 100 yen each. We just saw all the fresh and good quality ingredients, so all of us could not believe how these can be sold for such low prices. The answer was how these are brought to the customers; instead of making them available at other stores, products of Chateraise are only available to purchase directly in Chateraise stores. This eliminates the cost of other possible processes, and instead of profiting other stores, Chateraise makes their products available for lower prices. This is the answer to their ridiculous prices; good quality ingredients and products sold only in Chateraise stores.
Their efforts on clean facilities, high quality products with no or minimal additives for such low prices were all very impressive. However, what made me fall in love with Chateraise even more was their beliefs and focus on local production. For better products, Chateraise does import higher quality butter and dairy products from Europe and Hokkaido. However, their main focus is to use and support local production of Yamanashi Prefecture. Yamanashi is known for the best quality water in Japan; this factor also contributes to fresh and delicious products of Chateraise.
Overall, this tour of the factory made me become a huge fan of Chateraise. Not only did we fall in love with their delicious products, but we left the factory extremely impressed with their business motto of local production and high quality ingredients with minimal additives. In fact, we couldn’t resist dropping by the Chateraise store on our way back. I strongly recommend their choux-crème, Japanese confectionary with red beans (with the freshest and high quality water of Yamanashi, their red beans is the best I have had), baumkuchen (with no additives!) and various fresh cakes.
Bom dia , meu nome é Yamane Tadahiro , sou nissei, casado com Da Silva Yamane A. Eliana .
ReplyDeleteEu tenho 53 anos e Eliana tem 37 anos .
Nihongo eu sei 30% assim no medio.
Procuramos trabalho para inicio de imediato, e temos o interesse de ir para Yamanashi ken, trabalhar na fabrica de confeitaria, pois temos conhecidos e amigos .
Onde podemos fazer uma ficha para uma entrevista ?
Agradeço pela atenção, nos familia Yamane.
Bom dia , meu nome é Yamane Tadahiro , sou nissei, casado com Da Silva Yamane A. Eliana .
ReplyDeleteEu tenho 53 anos e Eliana tem 37 anos .
Nihongo eu sei 30% assim no medio.
Procuramos trabalho para inicio de imediato, e temos o interesse de ir para Yamanashi ken, trabalhar na fabrica de confeitaria, pois temos conhecidos e amigos .
Onde podemos fazer uma ficha para uma entrevista ?
Agradeço pela atenção, nos familia Yamane.