A few months after I was born, my parents moved from Austria to the United States. One of the things my mom always talks about missing during those first few months in the USA is the cafe culture that she grew up with in Vienna. These kinds of cafes were almost impossible to find in Chicago in the early 2000s, much less the delicious coffee and pastries they served. One of her favorite desserts is a cheese or quark-based pastry called Topfentorte. The closest thing she found to it was American cheesecake, but of course, it wasn’t even remotely the same.
As I was thinking about what I wanted to investigate for this project, I came across one of those aesthetically pleasing ASMR cooking videos on TikTok, featuring the Japanese souffle cheesecake, “sufurechiizukeeki,” which has become increasingly popular on the internet for its jiggly, light and airy texture. At first glance, this cheesecake didn’t look that different from those that I was familiar with, but every video labeled it as Japanese, distinguishing it from American cheesecake or Austrian Topfentorte, making it quite clear that they were, in fact, different.
Oftentimes, there’s a dish or concept of which various cultures have some iteration. For example, pierogies, gyoza, ravioli, samosas and xiaolongbao are all versions of the same concept—some kind of dough formed into a vessel for various fillings. After watching that Japanese cheesecake video, I became curious: if cultures have their own versions of foods and desserts, what makes each one unique to that cuisine? I decided to investigate this question through the example of Japanese cheesecakes and its counterparts in American and Austrian cultures. What makes the Japanese cheesecake Japanese, the Austrian Topfentorte Austrian and the American cheesecake American? Furthermore, who gets to claim ownership of the recipes, if at all? Are there specific techniques, flavors, textures, or ingredients that distinguish them from one another? I will explore these questions through digging into Japanese dessert culture, baking and consuming cheesecakes myself for comparison, and examining two dessert establishments in NYC through fieldwork. Through this process, I found that Japanese confections (and their related spaces such as stores) can be characterized as having: more clean lines and simplicity in their presentations and aesthetics, a softer uniformity in texture, and less sweetness. They are also accompanied by a great deal of attention to detail in both crafting the treats and the customer service.
Japanese and Western Confectionaries
Before contact with the West during the Meiji period in the late 19th century, Japanese meals did not really have desserts, which implies a discrete course following an entire meal, but instead had sweets called wagashi. The more European-style desserts that started to develop as a result of Western influence during the Meiji period are called yōgashi and these two are analogous to the washoku and yōshoku (“Western cuisine” which evolved to Japanese-style Western dishes such as curry and omuraisu) of Japanese cuisine, as yōshoku was also developing concurrently.
Although wagashi began to emerge with the rise of tea and chanoyu (tea ceremony) culture during the Muromachi period (16th century), it wasn’t until the Edo period that wagashi really took off. According to Michael Ashkenazi and Jeanne Jacob, the most central ingredients to traditional wagashi are beans that are sweetened and cooked in paste or whole form, as well as rice pounded into mochi form or in flour form, jōshinkō. These ingredients can be used in numerous different ways to produce wagashi in forms that are steamed, pureed, fried or grilled, and they are served mostly at room temperature, but also sometimes served hot.[1] This comes in stark contrast to the European-style yōgashi, which relies more on ingredients like wheat flour, eggs, butter and milk.
To understand a bit more about Japanese yōgashi culture, I watched an episode of Begin Japanology titled “Confectionary in Japan,” which discusses some of the history behind the sweets found in Japan today.[2]In the 16th century, Christian missionaries from Portugal and Spain brought various sweet treats and pastries with them that the Japanese soon adapted to their own preferences, and these adaptations are precisely how yōgashi began to develop. For example, a hard Portuguese cookie called bolo was brought to Japan during this time. The Japanese changed the original, adding more egg and starch syrup to create a softer end product. Another similar example is strawberry shortcake. Now a staple in Western style confectioneries in Japan, they started as plain but very hard biscuits in the UK, then the Americans added strawberries and cream, and finally, the Japanese replaced the harder biscuits with soft sponge cake. Other types of modifications to Western desserts, as in how the they are eaten, have also been made. For example, the folded waffles found in Japan came from the European waffles but, taking inspiration from the traditional Japanese rice balls, the waffles are consumed folded rather than flat as the Europeans eat them. Looking at these examples, perhaps part of what makes a confection unique to Japanese culture are the modifications made to the original Western counterparts to appeal to Japanese tastes more or to resemble other foods in Japanese cuisine. From these three examples of bolo, strawberry shortcake, and folded waffles, it would seem that to make a sweet treat more fitting into a culture, you need modifications that are textural (in this case, softer, lighter and airier) or modifications that take inspiration from a traditional dish.
Another distinction of these Japanese pastries is how intricate and fragile they can be. Sugar roses and floss are perfect examples of this. They are both very time consuming, delicate pastries made from sugar that were inspired from Western sugar treats brought to Japan. It is almost like a more crafted, skillful version of the American cotton candy. This artistry is another characteristic that distinguishes many of the confections as more Japanese rather than American, despite their Western origins.
The customer service of these Japanese confectioneries is also noteworthy. When the host of the show goes to purchase some treats, the salesperson asks him how long he will be carrying the pastries around, so that she can package them accordingly. She wraps each individual treat to avoid them bumping into one another and adds ice packs to keep them cold. This interaction highlights this elevated customer service as one of the modifications that Japanese confectioneries have added to the Western pastry tradition, and how it has even been re-exported as a service that is now practiced by other confectionaries elsewhere in the world.
There is also the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie competition, which is a French competition that only two countries have ever won more than once: France and Japan. Notably, Japan has won this competition despite the fact that contestants are all being judged by Western standards. Everyone is wearing Western pastry chef attire and contests are all using Western techniques. This is also true for all the other Japanese pastry chefs introduced throughout the episode who are dealing with yōgashi. The accolades, prestige and worldwide recognition that Japanese pastry chefs have received to date largely remain within these Western expectations, just like the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie. Therefore, even though there might be modifications and some techniques that classify the pastries as Japanese, we shouldn’t forget that these Japanese pastry chefs are, to a large extent, working under the Western frameworks of pastry making. This frame thus begs the question: are they really making these confections their own if they are working through Western standards? Perhaps it does not matter, because the modifications are reason enough to separate them from the original version. They are taking creative freedom and agency of these recipes and creating a new sphere of yōgashi that is both Western and Japanese at the same time. Today in Japan, as a result of increasing globalization, alongside wagashi and yōgashi, there are of course, more authentic European dessert shops, as more Japanese pastry chefs study and train in Europe. It’s much simpler to categorize these types of sweets as European and not Japanese than it is for yogashi. But as in older yōgashi, these confections may eventually also become part of the distinctly Japanese culinary landscape. In any case, thinking about this background of Japanese confectionaries prepares us for the next discussion of what makes a cheesecake Japanese, American or Austrian.
Comparing the Three
In order to further investigate the differences between sufurechiizukeeki, Topfentorte and American cheesecake, I decided to try them myself, looking for differences in ingredients, ratios, texture, taste and techniques. I compared recipes and tastes of the three cheesecakes, and also made the Japanese cheesecake myself, as it was the one I was least familiar with, since I had never eaten or made it myself in the past. I found recipes for three and used them as the basis for my comparison.[3] Looking at just the ingredients, there are a multitude of differences between the recipes. The Japanese and American ones use regular cream cheese, while the Austrian one uses quark, which has a slightly more tart, more subtle flavor than cream cheese. The sweetness of the desserts is another big difference. The Japanese cake uses significantly less sugar than the other two: Japanese uses 27g total, while the Austrian and American ones use 100g and 256g, respectively. Compared to the American cheesecake, the Japanese one uses lemon instead of vanilla, setting their flavor profiles apart, and the Austrian one is actually a combination, because it uses both lemon and vanilla. In terms of dairy usage, the American and Austrian ones are far more dairy heavy, leaving a thicker, heavier end product for the fillings. Instead of dairy, the Japanese version uses more eggs and separates them to whip the whites, giving that distinguished, lighter, airy texture. This egg whipping technique is unique to the Japanese version, because the other two cakes simply mix the entire egg into the batter instead. These two Western versions also feature layering and/or crusts to get a variety of textures (crunchy, spongey, creamy), rather than a homogeneous, airy end product that is not cakey, like the Japanese version. These differences I noticed further emphasized the idea that flavors, ingredients and textures were a big component in differentiating these types of cheesecakes across Japanese, American and Austrian cuisines.
While searching for these recipes, something I noticed was the variations of the recipes within each cheesecake type. Other than the “American-style cheesecake recipes,” the only true variations I found for the Japanese version were for a matcha cheesecake. Similarly, the Austrian version also has very little variation, the only ones being the potential addition of simple mix-ins like raisins or other dried fruit. Unlike the Austrian and Japanese versions, which basically stick to the original recipes and do not add too many crazy variations, the American versions have numerous types of cheesecakes. Looking at popular American cooking websites, like Tasty by Buzzfeed, there are recipes that either add lots of different flavors to the cheesecakes or change the presentation to make them more colorful and decorated compared to the simple pale yellow of original cheesecakes.[4] Another example indicative of the variety of American cheesecakes is the Cheesecake Factory. Having over 200 locations globally and being one of the first things that comes to mind when I think about cheesecake, it clearly has a big hold on the landscape of American cheesecake, both at home and abroad.[5] The Cheesecake Factory is known for the plethora of crazy cheesecake flavors they have, all of which are covered in toppings like whipped cream. These differences in variety not only change the flavors of the cheesecake, but also completely change the presentation of the desserts.
While the Japanese and Austrian ones remain largely simple and streamlined in their presentation, maybe adding some fresh fruit or powdered sugar as garnish, the possibilities for decoration and color on the American versions are endless, leading to end products that may only resemble the original American cheesecake. Therefore, these variations in presentation and flavor within the American cheesecake, and the lack thereof in Austrian and Japanese cheesecakes, may also contribute to how they are more Japanese, American or Austrian and, by extension, may be representative of what is valued or deemed appealing in these cuisines. While Americans may find bright colors and decorations, heterogeneous textures and very sweet flavors favorable, the Japanese and Austrians may actually find these to be unappealing when it comes at least to cheesecake pastries.
In reflecting upon the creative aspect of my project, where I made sufurechiizukeeki, I think it allowed me to gain more insight into the specific ways in which these cheesecakes are different and how that is reflective of the varying cultures and their tastes. The hands-on research of making and eating the cheesecakes gave me more information for comparison than I would have had through just online research. Through my initial recipe search, I found information on techniques and ingredient variations. Through making and tasting the cakes, I found flavor and textural differences that would not have been possible looking at photographs, which would have made my research and conclusions less informed.
Japanese matcha Cheesecake Plain Japanese Cheesecake
Plain Topfentorte Raisin Topfentorte
Tasty Buzzfeed Cheesecake Flavors The Cheesecake Factory’s numerous cheesecake versions
Fieldwork: ROYCE’ Vs. Lady M
Thus far, I’ve pinpointed some specific characteristics that set apart these versions of cheesecake across Japanese, American and Austrian cultures. I decided to delve further into the idea of exchange and sharing of dessert concepts and recipes through the exploration of two luxury sweet shops in NYC. Both are located on 40th street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Manhattan, across from Bryant Park. The two storefronts are actually both pretty inconspicuous at street level, but serve high quality, luxury treats.
The first is ROYCE’, which is a Japanese company specializing in chocolate making, drawing inspiration from Western chocolatiers. The company was founded in 1983 in Hokkaido, Japan. Although chocolate is not a traditionally Japanese product, the company has borrowed this type of sweet and the techniques used in making them and added many Japanese flavors to them. Their products vary by market, but they have an entire line of matcha chocolate treats, including wafers, pralines, almond chocolates and tea chocolates that come in matcha and Hojicha flavors.
The inside of the store was very minimalist, with clean lines and basically all white other than the ROYCE’ sign and the packages of chocolate, contrasting with the classic, big bright American sweets shops like Dylan’s Candy Bar. The only colorful element in the store was the boxes of chocolates themselves. Some of the chocolate boxes had Japanese writing on them, which is a very clear nod to the Japanese-ness of their products and their brand, and indicates that their marketing definitely includes the cultural background of the company and its products.
Something else I noticed both online and in-store was the attention to temperature and transportation. On their website, they have ideal temperatures listed next to each product and indicate that they ship their items with dry ice so it reaches its destination frozen for maximum freshness. When you buy their products in store, they ask how long until the chocolates are consumed to package them accordingly, just like in the Begin Japanology video discussed above. This is certainly not something I’ve noticed in American / European chocolate stores. For example, French company La Maison du Chocolat, one of the most prestigious and premier luxury chocolate brands, has never offered this service in the numerous times that I’ve purchased chocolates from them. This goes to show that while ROYCE’ has borrowed the chocolate concepts from outside traditions, they have incorporated more Japanese elements of flavors, store design, and customer service into their business.
The second store, Lady M, is an American company that specializes in cakes and pastries. During my visit, I tried only one pastry, but since this is one of my family’s favorite bakeries in the city, I have tried almost all their products at least once over the years. As such, my analysis will combine all these experiences together. On their website, they describe themselves as combining “French pastry techniques with Japanese sensibilities”. This gave me a little more insight into their brand, but I was still confused by the phrase “Japanese sensibilities.”[6] Does that mean Japanese techniques? Perhaps Japanese values? After some more research, it became clear that there is actually a great deal of Japanese influence in the founding of the company. It was originally founded by Emy “Lady M” Wada, a Japanese pastry chef, who sold it to Ken Romaniszyn at the start of the 2000s.[7] Romaniszyn then brought Lady M to the states and eventually began opening stores worldwide. He also had a great deal of Japanese cultural influence in his life. Although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in the United States, all of his summers growing up were spent visiting his grandmother in Japan. This Japanese influence is apparent in his company, as he remarks that Lady M’s products are “Japanese style cakes.”[8] Finally, Lady M’s head pastry chef, Chef Manani Narita, is a Japanese woman who is responsible for a lot of their signature treats. She grew up in Japan and graduated from the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Tokyo, before launching her career in the USA.[9] Even though I could not find any information as to why she ended up in the USA, perhaps her identity as a woman in the Japanese pastry world, which is intensely male dominated, led to some difficulties that ultimately resulted in her working for an American company like Lady M. This may be speculation, but nonetheless makes me think about the dynamics of men and women in the Japanese baking world. In any case, the backgrounds of the founder, current CEO and head pastry chef explain a lot of the Japanese elements in Lady M’s products and aesthetics that we see today.
Just as with ROYCE’, I looked at the flavor profiles of Lady M’s desserts to get a better sense of what cultures were influencing their products. Although their pastries have an overall more Western feel, with French elements like traditional pastry cream and a more American line of products like candies, they do have Japanese characteristics in some of their pastries, which may again be attributed to the CEO and Chef Manani Narita’s influence in the company. Their 20-layer crepe cake is their most famous cake and it comes in numerous different flavors. They have plain cream, chocolate, and chocolate truffle, which are more traditionally European flavors, but they also took inspiration from Japanese flavors, such as matcha green tea and purple yam (Okinawa sweet potato), and chestnut crepe cakes. The mille crepe cake is particularly interesting, because although it can now be found in other stores worldwide, its invention is actually attributed to Lady M’s founder, Emy Wada. While studying pastry in Europe, she enjoyed crepes so much that she wanted to devise a version of them that would be more suitable for taking home than the hand-held versions that street vendors commonly sold. The mille crepe is thus probably a Japanese invention drawing inspiration from the Western specialty of crepes, and is in and of itself a marriage between the two cultures. In fact, mille crepe cakes are actually now common in Japan as well. Thus, Lady M’s introduction of a Western-inspired, Japanese-invented pastry, sold by an American company run by Japanese individuals, makes for a particularly interesting example of cross-cultural exchange and of the challenge of defining what is American vs. Japanese. In light of this background, answering whether Lady M’s company and their products are truly Western or Japanese is obviously complicated.
While I was visiting, I had a slice of their plain crepe cake, which I have had a bunch of times before and is probably one of my all time favorites. In terms of texture, it is more reminiscent of the Japanese cheesecake than the American one, with a very light, airy texture throughout and homogeneity throughout the pastry due to the lack of a crust. As far as flavor, the plain crepe cake is quite subtly sweet, again making it more similar to Japanese desserts than American ones. In fact, none of their pastries are very sugary, and their flavors are all pretty light.
Aside from the crepe cake, their strawberry shortcake is also quite an interesting product in terms of Japanese and European/American influence. First, in terms of presentation and style, it is almost exactly the same as the Japanese strawberry shortcake, with light sponge cake layered with cream and strawberries. Its flavor is also light and not too sweet, again aligning with the Japanese flavor profiles. Finally, the website’s page for this cake states that the flour used in this cake is a superfine flour from Japan, which is why their sponge is so unique.
Finally, I examined the presentation of both products and storefront for Lady M, just like with ROYCE’. The store itself was only a little less minimalist than ROYCE’ because of the large intricate logo design, but the interior design was overall rather simple with very little color, again contrasting American sweet shops and sticking more to the Japanese ROYCE’ aesthetic. The packaging of the products and customer service was also just like in the Begin Japanology video and at ROYCE’. Great care is taken when the pastries are put into the box, with a plastic lining all around each piece, whether it be a slice of cake, individual pastry or whole cake. This was another way in which this American company was borrowing elements of Japanese confectionaries. In the past, I have ordered cakes from Lady M and they have always come with a package of dry ice, something that other American cake shops, like Magnolia Bakery, do not do. The last point about the store and product presentation is that unlike ROYCE’, where you could find Japanese writing on the packages that signaled the products were Japanese, the Lady M packaging did not have any indication that the products were Japanese in any way. Just like the presence of Japanese writing on ROYCE’s packaging revealed a bit about their marketing and branding, the absence of this on Lady M’s packaging did as well.
After visiting the stores I also did a bit of work looking into reviews to try and understand the type of customer that visits both ROYCE’ and Lady M. Looking through the official Yelp pages of these stores, both had high star ratings (4 stars for Lady M and 4.5 stars for ROYCE’).[10] Based on the profiles and locations on the posts, many of the reviewers seemed to be Asian-American, which could point to their consumer bases, at least for the NYC locations. However, there were also a large number of reviews by white Americans, so it seems like both their customers come from Asian-American as well as white American backgrounds. Thinking about these consumer demographics in the context of NYC, it might point both to the ever increasing “trendiness” of Asian and Asian-inpsired foods in the USA, particularly in NYC, and to the fact that these pastries certainly appeal to Asian-Americans. Then again, perhaps these reviews would be different in somewhere like rural Tennessee, where tastes might not be the same as the average New Yorker, living in one of the most culinarily diverse places in the country.
Something else I noticed in the reviews was the difference in recognition of Japanese influence or style between the products of the two stores. For ROYCE’, the reviewers acknowledged the Japanese style of the chocolates, making remarks such as “Brings me back to Japan!”, how they learned about this shop through a Japanese friend, or simply “Japanese chocolates.” The consumers are clearly aware of the cultural influences and origins of the treats. This is not the case for Lady M, as almost all of the reviews did not include a mention of the words “Japan” or “Japanese.” There is only a single one-star review saying “…just take your money and go to Japan and try it!”, which was the only review connecting the store and desserts back to Japan. This is particularly notable when considering the background of the cake compared to their consumer perception. Although the cakes are Japanese in style and origin, and the people who run it have Japanese backgrounds, the company’s connection to Japan is not clearly grasped by its customers. This may have a direct connection to my observation of the packaging of both stores, where ROYCE’s packaging made it far more obvious the company was Japanese because of the Japanese writing, while Lady M did not. Whatever the case may be, this contrast in cultural recognition among customers became pretty clear through my Yelp research.
For both stores, the price ratings were high, according to the multiple dollar signs on their review pages ($$$ for Lady M and $$ for ROYCE’). Most of the actual reviews also note their high price point, not necessarily as a negative thing but just emphasizing that they are a nice treat for special occasions. This definitely narrows their consumer base, because they are expensive, luxury sweets and dessert shops that only a certain category of people can afford. This should definitely be kept in mind as we consider the content of the reviews and how people view and consume the products from these stores.
In conclusion, my field work of these two stores revealed a lot about how two companies, one Japanese, one American, can borrow and exchange elements of texture, flavor, presentation and interior design, customer service, and overall product concepts from each other’s traditions, all from just a few doors down. My exploration of Lady M and ROYCE’ uncovered some real life examples of what characterizes a Japanese confectionery as Japanese and an American one as American. At the same time, it has shown me how they can give and receive these elements between one another, and oftentimes blur the lines of what is considered Japanese and American in the last few decades.
Signature Crepe Cake Purple Yam Crepe Cake Matcha Crepe Cake
Strawberry Shortcake Lady M Logo
Screengrab from the ROYCE’ matcha line
Who Owns Recipes?
Up to this point, I’ve explored what characterizes different versions of cheesecake as Japanese, American or Austrian, and I’ve also compared what characterizes two dessert shops, Lady M and ROYCE’, as American or Japanese. All the examples I’ve looked into involve a great deal of sharing and exchange between cultures based on an original concept, which brings up the question of ownership. Who has the rights to a recipe? Is that even legally possible? This is what I decided to investigate for the last segment of my project.
The first thing I sought to figure out was whether or not there was a standard definition of a recipe. As far as the literature goes, there was not a concrete or definitive answer, but one research paper broke the explanation down into a few points. The first is that recipes and their identities are socially constructed, oftentimes by the cook who has most of the power in this process of identification. The second is that the authority to have a role in the process of identification and recipe construction is based on an apprenticeship framework. Finally, the major factors that impact the identity of a recipe include the skill and expertise of the cook, the authenticity or ability of the recipe to reside within the paradigms for which it was constructed, and the open-ended nature of the recipes.[11] Since, according to these definitions, the cook has a great deal of power in the identity of a recipe, it begs the question: is there a legal or socially accepted claim to recipes for the cooks who create them?
I also referred to Heldke’s piece “Let’s Cook Thai: Recipes for Colonialism,” for more insight on what a recipe truly is. In her piece, she discusses how “recipe creation tends to be social,” “often over considerable spans of time.”[12] According to her, the ability to claim ownership of a recipe only occurs when the specific recipe is published and copyrighted as intellectual property. Nevertheless, even this does not fully provide protection over the recipe, because the copyright only protected the particular recipe that is published, not the overall concept of the dish. This idea of recipe publication as a means to attempt and protect intellectual property of food also places an enormous emphasis on literacy and access to publishing. Oftentimes, the women who are responsible for contributing to the construction of recipes, especially those from more remote or colonized places, are not given credit, because they are not the ones with access to the same literacy or publishing opportunities as, perhaps, an interested food scholar or traveler who is gathering the recipes. This becomes a very clear issue of resources when it comes to claiming intellectual property over recipes; only those with the literacy or ability to publish a recipe can publish and gain ownership.
In the contemporary restaurant world discussions of ownership and intellectual property remain quite informal. This has left a situation in which there is very little standardization, and split views on an expected status quo. Some people in the industry argue that recipes belong to the chefs who created them. On the other hand, there is the argument that recipes are often “work for hire” which the US Copyright Office details as cases when “an employer is considered the author even if an employee actually created the work.”[13] This argument suggests that the recipes are property of the restaurants, because they are hiring chefs for a creative service and providing the resources for the creation of the recipes.
Relating these explorations of food as intellectual property back to our discussions of cultural exchange among confectionaries, it becomes more clear why these cheesecake recipes and dessert establishments were able to so easily borrow and change elements from one another. It is not surprising that they would take successful elements from one another or change flavors and textures before rebranding their end products as Japanese or American. It is precisely this lack of standardized ownership that has allowed pastry chefs and companies like ROYCE’ and Lady M to use one another’s concepts successfully and build off of them with our own ideas.
Cooking is also a very collaborative process, with sous chefs and other people in the kitchen giving advice and feedback for alterations. Thus, for the majority of cases, no single person can take complete credit for a recipe, making the issue even more nuanced. On top of this, the US courts do not regard food to be intellectual property, and can therefore not be copyrighted.[14] The only mildly relevant legal measure that can be taken is to trademark the name of a food, but that only protects the name, not the food itself. All this is to say that due to the current legislative standards, it is not really possible to have a true legal claim over a recipe, making the lines blurry when it comes to claiming ownership. As a result, recipes and food concepts are intrinsically exchangeable, constantly being reused and repurposed into new forms, since there are no true legal barriers to doing so.
Conclusion
In short, I have examined factors such as tastes, textures and flavors of three cheesecakes—Japanese, Austrian and American—in an attempt to better understand what makes a version of a dessert distinctly different from that of another culture. To investigate my question, I looked at historical context, sweets culture in Japan, I baked and ate cheesecakes myself for a hands-on exploration, and looked at two dessert shops in NYC as my fieldwork, in addition to examining scholarly research. It has become clear that the specific modifications to these and other elements, like presentation, that each culture makes is what can contribute to making something Japanese, American or Austrian. My exploration of two dessert stores, ROYCE’ and Lady M have also revealed that although there may be elements of these luxury dessert stores that lend themselves to one culture, a great deal of these elements have been borrowed and exchanged. Finally, I established that these present day exchanges are possible because of the lack of intellectual property laws when it comes to food.
[1] Michael Ashkenazi and Jeanne Jacob, The Essence of Japanese Cuisine: An Essay on Food and Culture, Routledge, London, 2014, 107–108.
[2] Begin Japanology, ‘Confectionary in Japan, NHK, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzvwbtkAyQ. Accessed 15 Oct. 2021.
[3] Krista Tropper, Topfentorte, “Living on Cookies,” 9 Sept. 2019, https://livingoncookies.com/topfentorte-2/. Alison Roman, “Classic Cheesecake,” NYTimes Cooking, 2 Nov. 2017, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019037-classic-cheesecake. Namiko Chen, “Japanese Cheesecake スフレチーズケーキ.” Just One Cookbook, 27 May 2021, https://www.justonecookbook.com/souffle-japanese-cheesecake/.
[4] Kiano Moju, “4-Flavor Cheesecake Recipe by Tasty.” Tasty.co, Buzzfeed, 12 Mar. 2018, https://tasty.co/recipe/4-flavor-cheesecake.
[5] The Cheesecake Factory Website, “Menu,” The Cheesecake Factory Website “About Us”.
[6] Lady M Website “Who We Are”
[7] Madeleine D’Angelo, “Let Them Eat Cake: Lady M Brings Elegance to Newbury Street,”
The Heights, 31 August, 2016, https://www.bcheights.com/2016/08/31/let-eat-cake-lady-m-brings-elegance-newbury-street/.
[8] Gabriel Li, “The Louis Vuitton of Cakes: Exclusive Interview with Founder of Lady M,” Pandaily, 20 July 2020,
https://pandaily.com/the-louis-vuitton-of-cakes-exclusive-interview-with-founder-of-lady-m/.
[9] Kaiyu Chu, “Chef Manami of Lady M New York Shares the Story behind Her Cake Creations.” Newswire, 30 Oct. 2019, https://www.newswire.com/news/chef-manami-of-lady-m-new-york-shares-the-story-behind-her-cake-210 21038.
[10] LADY M YELP PAGE: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lady-m-cake-boutique-new-york?start=60
ROYCE’ YELP PAGE: https://www.yelp.com/biz/royce-bryant-park-new-york?osq=royce%27&start=50
[11] Andrea Borghini. “What Is a Recipe?” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, vol. 28, no. 4, 2015, pp. 719–738, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-015-9556-9.
[12] Lisa Heldke, “Let’s Cook Thai.” in Food and Culture: A Reader, Routledge, New York, 2013.
[13] Borghini, Andrea, “What Is a Recipe?” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, vol. 28, no. 4, 2015, pp. 719–738, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-015-9556-9.
[14] United States Copyright Office. “Circular 33 Works Not Protected by Copyright.” United States Government, Mar. 2021.