Fig pistachio cake at a Seocho bakery: Chef Cho

I'm back at Chef Cho in Shinsegae Gangnam Sweet Park. Last time I bought the mango cake, and this time I tried a fig cake 🎂 Seasonal fruit is always delicious, you know ♡

Chef Cho Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam

📍Chef Cho is located at the entrance to Sweet Park on B1 of Shinsegae Department Store. There are four cake shops clustered together, and when I visited on Friday, there was a line to buy cakes.

✔️ This bakery brand began in Mullae-dong and is run by Chef Jo Jeong-im, one of the four cake masters featured on Master of Living.

Chef Cho cake selection and the wait

The cake line was quite long. On my first visit, Sweet Park had only recently opened and there wasn't a single customer buying cake besides me. Somehow it had become famous, and it was the only Sweet Park cake shop with a waiting line. I was anxious that the fig cake I wanted would sell out...

Chef Cho cake selection

So dazzling, so dazzling.. Maybe because it's summer, but the display case had become extra glamorous. With so many fruit cakes, everything looked even more delicious.

They had also released a fig crepe cake. I love that the cakes change with the seasons according to the fruit.

The matcha chocolate strawberry cake slice was ₩11,000, so you can enjoy a quality cake at a good value.

Peach Berry Mini, ₩39,000. I wanted to try this too, but only the mini size was left. I had come to buy a No. 1 sizeㅠ

Pistachio Forest No. 1, ₩56,000. This was one of the cakes I wanted to try last time too, but I passed. The reason is ▼

Fig Pistachio No. 1, ₩58,000. The fig cake I wanted had, unbelievably, teamed up with pistachio. I'd usually seen fig and Earl Grey together, but pistachio? I couldn't not buy it. There was even just one No. 1 size left.

The Fig Pistachio Mini size is ₩45,000. For two people, the mini size is plenty.

Cacao 52% Whole Strawberry Chocolate No. 1, ₩56,000. I'd heard Chef Cho is also great for chocolate cake, but I personally don't really like chocolate cake, so I just admired the visuals. There is no bad-looking cake at Chef Cho.

Dark Chocolate Forest Mini, ₩39,000.

Champagne Peach & Berry, ₩13,800. They also sell cup desserts. It felt like it would pair nicely with dessert wine.

Fig pistachio cake packaging

Cake packing complete ♡ They included an ice pack that keeps it chilled for about an hour. If you need an additional insulated bag, you can buy one for ₩3,000 ❄️

Chef Cho cakes always make me happy, whenever I see their look.

Thanks to the collar that held up well on the subway home from work, it arrived securely without even a bit of shaking.

Chef Cho's fig cake even had gold flakes on top. You can tell at a glance that premium seasonal figs are piled on it, and it is flavorful with naturally fermented white sourdough and 100% animal-based whipped cream. You know how hard it is to find 100% animal-based whipped cream..

Fig pistachio cake taste review

I cut into it. One slightly startling thing was that the middle was filled only with pistachio cream, with no cake layer, so it started collapsing as soon as I removed the collar. If you want to keep its pretty cake shape, I recommend cutting into it or scooping it out without removing the collar..!

Cake taste review

My honest review of Chef Cho's Fig Pistachio cake. The pistachio cream I had looked forward to had a sharp sourness rather than its characteristic nutty flavor 🤔 Maybe it was because Chef Cho's cake layers use white sourdough, but while it went well with the mango cake for me, with pistachio, not so much..

There was plenty of pistachio cream, which some people may like, but paired with the soft figs, the cake toppled easily and it felt more like eating cream than cake, so I was a little disappointed. The figs, being seasonal fruit, were really, really delicious haha. If I go back to Chef Cho for cake later, I'll have to set my sights on peach strawberry!!

Chef Cho is a celebrated cake maker with 20 years of tradition. Its cakes use good ingredients and have artistic visuals, so if you're looking for a hotel-cake look, visit Chef Cho at Shinsegae Gangnam Sweet Park ♡